Did ancient civilisations actually build traps like we see in Indiana Jones.

by Visatron

Or what is the closest thing to the best traps

xiaorobear

Not to deter any new responses, but to get started there have been similar questions a few years ago— the basic gist of those threads is that Egyptian tombs could be mazelike and have deep pits and false walls, but the only account of having anything like Indiana Jones' pressure-sensitive plates that would trigger a booby trap is the Mausoleum of the first Qin Emperor, the one with all the terracotta warriors outside. According to a ~2100 year-old account (written about a century after the mausoleum's construction), it was rigged with automated crossbows to shoot at intruders. This is obviously the most similar to the automatic blowdarts from the walls in Raiders. But those other posts note that there was nothing like that in Mesoamerica, and also that whatever mechanisms needed to operate such traps probably wouldn't hold up and remain functional after millennia and multiple uses.

teuchuno

As a kind of aside but related question, are there any records of Tomb Raider style puzzle locks?

Preferably giant rooms filled with spinning cogs made of stone but I can imagine they have very little basis in reality.