October 19, 2015
At the stroke of midnight on International Archaeology Day (October 17), Giza emerged as the 2015 ArchaeoMadness winner by defeating the Colosseum in the championship round.
ArchaeoMadness was introduced last year as an interactive and entertaining way to learn about archaeological sites and count down the days until International Archaeology Day (held annually on the third Saturday in October). Designed as a bracket-style competition, ArchaeoMadness included 32 archaeological sites in a single elimination tournament. Each day participants voted for their favorite archaeological site in a head-to-head competition between two sites. The winning sites from each match-up moved on to the next round and this was repeated in each round until the championship.
Giza defeated the sites of Jetavanaramaya, Lascaux, Palenque, and Copán before its final matchup with the Colosseum. Other sites in this year’s competition were: St. Augustine, the Taj Mahal, Cueva de las Manos, Byblos, Palenque, Lumbini, Newgrange, Laas Geel, Ingapirca, the Mungo Lake Footprints, Masada, the HMS Erebus, Longmen Grottoes, Serpent Mound, Çatalhöyük, Caral, Meroë, Monte Albán, Knossos, the Tomb of Emperor Nintoku, Samarkand, Sipán, Bam, Pu’uhonua o Hōnaunau, Mesa Verde, Olduvai Gorge, and San Bartolo.
This year, the AIA introduced the ability for those that submitted brackets to form leagues so that participants could organize head-to-head competition with friends and colleagues and six leagues were formed. The number of brackets submitted in 2015 more than doubled from the previous year, with over 450 people submitting brackets. Over the course of the 31 individual site matchups, more than 4,000 votes were cast.
The winning bracket belonged to John W. whose predictions led him to receive a total of 72 out of 80 possible points. John will receive this year’s grand prize, a GoPro HERO starter set. In addition, 23 daily winners, selected from drawings held in association with daily voting campaigns, will receive an array of prizes ranging from IAD stickers and fun archaeology buttons, to ARCHAEOLOGY magazine subscriptions and AIA memberships.
International Archaeology Day Blog
