Winston Churchill once said, "The empires of the future are the empires of the mind," followed by a warning against the unchecked imperialism of the Fourth Republic of Floating Brains. Discover empires of the past with today's Groupon: for $14, you get admission for two to the Ancient Ukraine—Golden Treasures and Lost Civilizations exhibit as well as access to the permanent exhibits at the Houston Museum of Natural Science (up to a $36 value). This Groupon must be redeemed by September 5.

The Houston Museum of Natural Science transports amateur archaeologists into the distant past to explore ancient civilizations. The Ancient Ukraine exhibition—which features a large number of pieces never displayed in any museum—spans 6,000 years of history, beginning with the red-and-black pottery and animal sculptures of the Trypilian culture. Moving forward in time, visitors can see the fingerprints of second-century B.C. Greek settlers, whose Hellenistic influences color artifacts such as gold jewelry, amphorae, and fossilized gyros. In the second half of the exhibition, the gradual adoption of Orthodox Christianity in eastern Slavic lands becomes evident through 77 icons and religious regalia gathered from the collections of the Kyiv-Pechersk National Historical and Cultural Preserve and the Lviv National Museum.

Physical indigenous American artifacts await within the permanent The Americas exhibit in the museum's exhibit hall. Among the hall's three floors, museum-goers can brag about their nonextinction to jealous dinosaurs in the Paleontology wing or explore another continent in the African Wildlife exhibit, and hermit crabs can hunt for new apartments in an entire hall devoted to mollusks.