Rules of Play

Discover the lost treasures of Egypt • Trading value

and make your fortune! Listed in the top
corners of the card.
A talisman has a
Archaeology - The Card Game is for 2-4 players,
trading value of 3.
and is recommended for ages 10 and up.
A game takes around 20 minutes to play.
• Rarity
Game Contents Listed in the bottom
right corner of the
card’s picture. There
72 treasure cards: are 8 talismans in the
18 pot shards game.
16 parchment scraps
14 coins
• Selling values
8 talismans
Listed at the bottom of the card. A set of 4
6 broken cups talismans can be sold to the museum for $24.
6 maps
4 pharaoh’s masks
Starting The Game
15 other cards:
8 thief cards The starting player is chosen randomly.
6 sandstorm cards
1 pyramid card
Playing The Game
Rules of play sheet
On each turn the player digs for treasure, and
then may take other actions.
Overview Of The Game
1. Dig for treasure
The aim of the game is to make the most money At the start of his turn, the player must dig for
by finding treasures and selling them to the treasure by drawing the top card from the dig site.
museum. Players find treasures by digging at the
dig site. Sets of treasures are collected over the If the card is a treasure card, the
course of the game and players choose the best player has found that treasure! The
time to sell them to the museum. card is added to his hand without being
revealed to the other players. A player
If a player finds any maps at the dig site, he can may have any number of cards in his
use them to explore an ancient pyramid where hand during the game.
more treasures are hidden. Players can trade their
treasures with the local marketplace to increase If the card is a thief, the player has met
the value of their collection. If a player meets a a thief at the dig site and will use him to
thief at the dig site, he will use this thief to steal steal a treasure from another player.
treasure from another player. If a sandstorm hits,
all players are affected and may lose some of After being drawn, the thief card is
their treasure. discarded face-up on the table. This will allow all
players to track how many of the 8 thief cards are
The player with the most money at the end of the left to be drawn.
game is the winner.
The player who drew the thief must choose
an opponent to steal from. He then takes one
Setting Up The Game card from that player’s hand without looking at
what it is. This card is then added to his own
1. Place aside all the thief, sandstorm, pyramid hand without revealing it to the other players.
and map cards. If no opponents have cards in their hands, then
Shuffle all the remaining cards into 1 deck. nothing can be stolen and the thief card is simply
discarded face-up on the table.
2. Deal 4 cards from the deck face-down to each
player. If the card is a sandstorm, a sandstorm
Each player takes these into his hand, keeping has struck all players causing them to
them hidden. lose some of their treasures! These
treasures are soon recovered from the
3. Deal 5 cards from the deck face-up to the desert by local merchants, and so they
middle of the table. will end up in the marketplace.
Throughout the game, the face-up treasures in
the middle of the table are called the marketplace. After being drawn, the sandstorm card is
discarded face-up on the table. This will allow
4. Deal cards into the pyramid. all players to track how many of the sandstorm
Put the pyramid card on the table beside the cards are left to be drawn.
marketplace. Place 3 cards from the deck to the
right of the pyramid card, 5 cards above it and Each player must discard half of his cards
7 cards to its left, all face-down. These are the (rounded down) starting with the player who
treasures in the pyramid’s chambers. drew the sandstorm card and moving clockwise
around the table. Players may choose which
5. Remove sandstorm cards if playing with 3 or cards they lose. The lost cards now belong to
4 players. the marketplace, and so are placed face up in the
If you are playing with 3 players, return 1 middle of the table.
sandstorm card to the box. If you are playing with
4 players, return 2 sandstorm cards. These cards Example: Player A draws a sandstorm. He
will not be used in the game. discards it face-up on the table. He has 6 cards
in his hand and so must discard 3.
6. Shuffle all remaining cards into 1 deck.
Shuffle the remaining sandstorm, thief and map He chooses 2 parchment scraps and 1 coin
cards into what remains of the deck. Place it face- and places them face-up in the marketplace.
Player B has 5 cards, so he chooses 2 and
down on the table. This deck is called the dig site.
discards them to the marketplace. Player C
has 3 cards and so must choose 1 to discard.
Overview Of A Treasure Card Player D has only 1 card and therefore he does
not need to discard anything.
On every treasure card is listed its trading value
(for trading at the marketplace), its selling values When all players have discarded, the player who
(for selling sets of the treasure to the museum) drew the sandstorm restarts his turn by again
and its rarity (the number of treasure cards of its digging for treasure.
type that are in the game).
 Rules of Play

2. Other actions treasures is sold it must be placed in a new pile.

After digging for treasure, the player may also Cards cannot be added to a set of treasures that
trade at the marketplace, explore the pyramid and has already been sold.
sell treasures to the museum. The player may
take these actions any number of times per turn A player cannot sell a set containing more
and in any order. He may also choose to take treasures than the maximum number listed in its
none of these actions on his turn. selling prices. For example, even if a player has 6
talismans in his hand, he may only sell 5 of them
Trade at the marketplace. The player may trade as a set. The player may however sell multiple
any number of cards in his hand for any number sets of the same type of treasure.
of cards in the marketplace of equal or lesser
trading value. A treasure’s trading value is listed The player may sell to the museum multiple times
in the top corners of its card. in one turn.

Sold treasures cannot be stolen by thieves or lost

in sandstorms.

3. End the turn

When the player has finished taking actions for
his turn, play passes to the next player, moving
clockwise around the table.

Example: A player decides to trade 2

parchment scraps (which have a trading
Ending The Game
value of 1 each) and 1 coin (which has a
When there are no cards left in the dig site deck,
trading value of 2) for 1 talisman and 1
play continues however players do not dig for
pot shard (which have a total trading value
treasure at the start of their turn. From this point
of 4). The player places his coin and
on, a player may choose to pass and take no
parchment scrap cards face-up in the
action on his turn. However, if all players pass in
marketplace, and then takes the talisman
sequence, then the first player who passed must
and pot shard cards from the marketplace
sell at least 1 of his cards to the museum when
into his hand.
play returns to him.
If the cards chosen from the marketplace are
When every player is left without cards in his
of lesser trading value than those traded in, the
hand (that is, all remaining treasures have been
difference is simply lost.
sold to the museum) then the game is over.
The player may trade with the marketplace
Each player calculates the total value of what he
multiple times in one turn.
sold to the museum during the game. The selling
value of each set of sold treasures is calculated
Any number of cards may be in the marketplace
separately. These values are then added together
at one time. It is helpful to arrange the cards in
and the player with the highest total wins.
the marketplace by type.
Example: At the end of the game, a player
Explore the pyramid. If the player has any maps,
has sold 3 sets of treasure to the museum -
he may use them to explore the pyramid in order
a set of 4 talismans (which is worth $24),
to gain further treasure.
a set of 2 talismans (which is worth $7) and
a set of 5 coins (which is worth $30).
His total score is $61.

In the case of a tie, the tied players count the total

number of cards that they sold to the museum.
Whoever has the lowest total is the winner.

The player may discard 1 map card from his hand Credits
to take the 3 treasure cards from the small chamber,
discard 2 map cards to take the 5 treasures from
the medium chamber or discard 3 map cards to
take the 7 treasures from the large chamber.

All cards taken from the pyramid are added to the

player’s hand without being revealed to the other
players. Discarded maps are removed from the game. sales@zmangames.com

Each chamber may only be explored once in the game. Game design and artwork by Phil Harding

Sell to the museum. A player may choose to sell Graphic Design by ARCHON Creative Design
a set of 1 or more treasure cards of the same type (www.archoncreative.com)
from his hand to the museum. These sets are
worth money at the end of the game. English edition 2009 © Z-Man Games, Inc.
(www.zmangames.com)

Licensed from Adventureland Games and

Phil Harding © 2007

The value of a set of treasure is determined by

the selling prices listed at the bottom of its card.
For most treasures, you will notice that these
values increase greatly with each card in the
set. However, pot shards, parchment scraps and
broken cups must be fully assembled to make a
good profit. That is, a complete set is needed for
their value to substantially increase.

When a player decides to sell a set of treasures,

he announces to the other players what he is Questions? Comments?
selling. He then places the set of cards face-up on Missing Pieces?
the table in front of him in an overlapping row, so Don’t hesitate to get in touch:
that all the cards remain visible. Each time a set of sales@zmangames.com