History Detective · iPhone & iPad
Become a history detective. Examine clues, question sources, reconstruct events and solve mysteries from the past, from the Rosetta Stone to the last mammoths.
Coming to the App Store for iPhone and iPad. Not available to download yet.
How it works
Each case asks one real question, like how hieroglyphs were read again or when Pompeii was buried.
Objects, documents, lab results and reconstructions, each labelled by the kind of evidence it is.
A stone carved at the time and a letter written centuries later don't always agree. Find out where.
Put events back in order and link causes to effects, but only where the evidence allows.
Decide what is supported, what goes too far and what is contradicted. Then see the sources.
The case files
Twelve real questions about the past. Cases 1–6 are free. Cases 7–12 open with Founder Lifetime, one purchase with no subscription, and can be previewed before you buy.
How did people learn to read Egyptian hieroglyphs again?
Rashid (Rosetta), Egypt · 196 BC to AD 1822
On what day did Vesuvius bury Pompeii?
Pompeii, Bay of Naples, Italy · AD 79
How can rock layers tell us what came first?
Grand Canyon, Arizona, USA · 1.8 billion to 270 million years ago
What happened to the Iceman 5,300 years ago?
Ötztal Alps, Italy–Austria border · c. 3300 BC
How do we know the continents moved?
South Atlantic Ocean · 290 million years ago to today
Did Norse sailors reach the Americas first, and when?
L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, Canada · AD 1021
What ended the age of the dinosaurs?
Chicxulub, Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico · 66 million years ago
What caused the Black Death, and what can we really know about it?
East Smithfield, London, England · 1346–1353
Who first printed with movable type?
Mainz, Germany · 1040s to 1517
Where did Stonehenge's stones come from?
Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, England · c. 3000–1600 BC
What was the Antikythera mechanism for?
Antikythera, Greece · c. 2nd–1st century BC
Why did the woolly mammoths disappear?
Wrangel Island, Arctic Ocean · 26,000 to 4,000 years ago
Five ways to investigate
Put the events back in order, oldest first. BC and AD are handled correctly, and there is no year zero.
Two sources, several statements. Decide which source supports each one, or whether neither does.
Match each clue to the event that best explains it, and only where the evidence supports the link.
Match discoveries and events to where and when they happened, without inventing precision.
Sort claims into supported, going beyond the evidence, or contradicted. Every answer explains why.
Every exhibit says what it is, so you learn to ask how we know, not only what happened. A papyrus copied a thousand years later is not the same as an inscription carved at the time.
Paintings in the app are modern illustrations and are labelled that way. They are never presented as photos of real objects.
Solving cases reveals 14 sourced links between them, by time, place, cause or method. Each thread also says what the link doesn't prove.
Save any exhibit, write your own notes and share a summary of what you found. Notes can be edited or deleted, and everything stays on your device.
Compare across time
The cases span deep geological time and recorded history. In the app's Compare view you can switch between a true-scale timeline, where all of recorded history is a sliver, and a stretched one that gives each era room.
True scale · the last 300 million years
All of recorded history fits inside the gold line, at about 0.002% of the bar.
Stretched scale · the 12 cases
Deep time
Billions to millions of years ago
Ice Age and prehistory
From the Ice Age to the Bronze Age
Ancient world
c. 200 BC to AD 79
Medieval and early modern
AD 1021 to 1455
The cases, the Notebook, the stories and the ancient-Earth globe views are stored in the app and work without internet. The satellite map, nearby places and purchases need a connection, and the app tells you when you're offline.
PastRush practises the habits of good history: ordering events, weighing sources and only concluding what the evidence supports. It can sit alongside lessons, but it is not tied to a specific curriculum. Class mode hides purchases and outside links on shared devices. It does not unlock paid content.
An investigation game for iPhone and iPad about history and Earth's deep past. Each of its 12 cases asks a real question, such as how hieroglyphs were read again or when Pompeii was buried. You examine labelled evidence, work through three investigation steps and reach a verdict that lists its sources and what is still unknown.
An investigation game. You work with exhibits: objects, documents, scientific results and reconstructions, each labelled by the kind of evidence it is. You don't recall facts from memory. Every check is followed by an explanation. The optional Daily Evidence Check is a short set of claims to judge each day, with no leaderboards and no timers unless you turn one on.
Each case opens with a briefing and a set of exhibits. You then complete three of five steps: chronology, source comparison, cause and consequence, time and place, and supported conclusions. Every answer is explained, right or wrong. The verdict screen shows the sources, the open questions and a link to the place and time on the 3D globe. You can save exhibits and notes to your Notebook.
Mostly, yes. The cases, the Notebook, the stories and the ancient-Earth globe views are stored in the app and work without internet. The satellite map, nearby places and purchases need a connection, and the app shows a notice when you are offline.
Six: cases 1 to 6, covering the Rosetta Stone, Pompeii, the Grand Canyon's rock layers, Ötzi the Iceman, continental drift and the Norse in North America. The Daily Evidence Check, the Notebook, the Time Threads unlocked by solved cases and the 3D globe's free collections are also free. There are no ads.
Cases 7 to 12, all 19 collections and 245 painted stories on the globe, and the Master tier in every challenge. Founder Lifetime is optional: one purchase, no subscription and no recurring charges. The price is shown in the app in your currency, and it works with Apple Family Sharing. You can preview every locked case before buying.
Every case lists its sources, including museum and heritage records and peer-reviewed papers with DOIs, and the date its content was last checked. Where experts disagree, the case says so and explains what is still unknown.
PastRush has not been reviewed by an independent historian. If you spot an error, please tell us through Support and we will correct it.
No account, no ads, no tracking. PastRush was designed and directed by James Gray and built with Rork, an AI-assisted app builder.
Case 1 is free. Read the briefing and see the evidence before the app is out.
Open Case 1