🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Tell Hassuna
Neolithic Hassuna-Samarra (c.6000–5600 BCE) · Hassuna
Type site 1939–44 excavation by Seton Lloyd that defined the Hassuna painted pottery tradition of northern Iraq.
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CategoriesAncient cities
Capitals, ports and metropolises that rose, fell and were found again.
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Early Bronze Age Ej II–IVa (Jezirah Early Dynastic to Akkadian) · North Mesopotamian Kish tradition, Semitic (Nabada Akkadian)
Circular walled 3rd-millennium city Nabada (c.2900–2200 BCE, Early Jezirah III), 28 ha upper town + lower town 20 ha, centre of western Jezirah after Tell Brak.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Neolithic Hassuna-Samarra (c.6000–5600 BCE) · Hassuna
Type site 1939–44 excavation by Seton Lloyd that defined the Hassuna painted pottery tradition of northern Iraq.
🇬🇹 Guatemala · Pyramid
Maya Classic (Late Classic apogee) · Maya (Sa'al kingdom)
Classic Maya capital Sa'al (Naranjo) hilltop city: 32 m triadic Acropolis pyramid, hieroglyphic stairways of Lady Six Sky's wars with Tikal/Calakmul 500 BCE–950 CE.
🇹🇳 Tunisia · Submerged site
Punic to Byzantine (8th c. BCE – 7th c. CE) · Phoenician / Carthaginian / Roman
Caesar battle harbour — kilometer-long curving mole now 1–4 m offshore on Bekalta promontory.
🇧🇬 Bulgaria · Submerged site
Thracian to Ottoman (6th c. BCE – 1453+) · Thracian / Megarian Greek / Roman / Byzantine / Bulgarian / Ottoman
610 BCE Megarian peninsula city whose western fortifications now lie 4 m underwater.
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Early Bronze to Mitanni to Assyrian to Parthian · Hurrian Mitanni → Middle Assyrian
Stratified Jezirah tell Kahat (c.3000 BCE–1400 CE, peak Mitanni capital c.1500–1360 BCE and Assyrian Kahat) on Jaghjagh mid-Khabur.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Seleucid to Mamluk · Greek → Roman → Byzantine → Crusader
One of the four great cities of antiquity (300 BCE–1400 CE), founded by Seleucus I honoring father Antiochos, capital of Seleucid kingdom and Roman Syria with 500,000 inhabitants at peak (Aug 5),…
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Medieval (regional) · Medieval
Western Eridu Mound I — Eridu (53-37) at Eridu, Iraq is a Medieval (regional) ancient city of the Medieval tradition, built c. 1800 BCE for mound and associated settlement.
🇮🇱 Israel · Ancient city
Early Bronze to Hellenistic · Canaanite → Israelite → Assyrian
Largest Canaanite and Israelite tell in Israel (100 ha total: 12 ha upper acropolis + 70 ha lower city) — 'head of all those kingdoms' (Joshua 11:10) — with Middle Bronze earthen ramparts, Late…
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
Neolithic to Iron Age (c.6100–612 BCE; peak Halaf 6100–5400 BCE, Guzana 1000–612 BCE) · Halaf → Ubaid → Mitanni → Assyrian → Aramaean (Bit Bahiani) → Neo-Assyrian
Tell Halaf (ancient Guzana) is the type-site of Halaf culture (c.6100–5400 BCE) defining Chalcolithic painted pottery, tholoi and stamp seals, and later Aramaea...
🇷🇺 Russia · Ancient city
Early Andronovo / Sintashta · Sintashta (Indo-Iranian)
Sintashta fortified proto-city (c.2150–1650 BCE) — swastika-shaped double-ring settlement 170 m diameter, 60 houses sharing wall, metallurgical furnaces in each house (copper and bronze), two…
🇪🇬 Egypt · Ancient city
Old Kingdom to Late Antique (2600 BCE–700 CE; temple Ptolemaic, tombs Middle Kingdom) · Ancient Egyptian / Greco-Roman
Qau el-Kebir (Antaeopolis, Antaioupolis) is Middle Egypt's great nomarch and late antique metropolis on east bank, capital 10th nome of Antaeus.
🇧🇴 Bolivia · Ancient city
Bronze Age to Classical (3000 BCE–500 CE) · Bronze Age urban
Puma Punku — Ancillary H-Block Terrace (Tiwanaku) in La Paz, Tiwanaku, Puma Punku, Bolivia is a Bronze Age to Classical (3000 BCE–500 CE) ancient city attr…
🇧🇴 Bolivia · Ancient city
Bronze Age to Classical (3000 BCE–500 CE) · Bronze Age urban; Inca
Incallajta — North Kallanka Hall (Cochabamba, Bolivia) in Cochabamba, Incallajta, Bolivia is a Bronze Age to Classical (3000 BCE–500 CE) ancient city attri…
🇵🇰 Pakistan · Ancient city
Bronze Age to Classical (3000 BCE–500 CE) · Bronze Age urban
Taxila — Sirkap North Block Dwelling (Gandhara) in Punjab, Taxila, Sirkap, Pakistan is a Bronze Age to Classical (3000 BCE–500 CE) ancient city attributed …
🇲🇽 Mexico · Pyramid
Late Classic Maya, c.600-800 CE (Chenés–Río Bec transitional) · Maya (Chenés–Río Bec)
Hormiguero Structure II: 45 m long palatial pyramid (8 m high) with central monster-mouth portal identical to Chicanná Structure II but more elaborate Chenés masks (up to 2.5 m nose) plus Río Bec…
🇵🇪 Peru · Pyramid
Late Preceramic–Initial Period 3000–2500 BCE · Marañón Amazon-Andes (Jaén pre-Carral)
5300-year spiral temple in Amazonian Jaén with world's oldest cacao 5300 BP and Maltese cross hearth.
🇮🇷 Iran · Ancient city
Bronze Age to Classical (3000 BCE–500 CE) · Bronze Age urban
Persepolis — Treasury Ancillary Archive in Fars, Marvdasht, Persepolis, Iran is a Bronze Age to Classical (3000 BCE–500 CE) ancient city attributed to Bron…
🇲🇽 Mexico · Ancient city
Chactún (Maya: Red stone) is the name of an archaeological site of the Mesoamerican Maya civilization in the state of Campeche, Mexico, in the northern part of the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Jemdet Nasr to Early Dynastic IIIa (c.3000–2500 BCE) · Early Dynastic Sumerian
Canoe-shaped Sumerian city Tell Fara 35 miles S of Nippur, legendary home of Ziusudra (Utnapishtim).
🇩🇿 Algeria · Ancient city
Numidian to Byzantine (5th c BCE-7th c CE; peak 2nd-3rd c CE) · Numidian / Roman / Byzantine
Twin theatre city Khamissa.
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Neolithic to Late Bronze collapse 1190 BCE · Ugaritic Semitic (Amorite-Canaanite) under Hittite-Egyptian influence
Late Bronze cosmopolitan port (c.6000 BCE Neolithic to 1190 BCE destruction) on the Mediterranean, capital of the Kingdom of Ugarit (c.1450–1190 BCE) with cuneiform alphabetic tablets (world's first…
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Bronze Age to Byzantine (peak Lycian League 168 BCE–43 CE and Hadrianic) · Lycian → Hellenistic → Roman → Byzantine
Lycian federal port with 1st-century parliament hall, buried Nero lighthouse and harbour silted 1 km inland.
🇮🇱 Israel · Ancient city
Bronze Age to Classical (3000 BCE–500 CE) · Bronze Age urban
Hazor — Canaanite Palace North Wing (Tell Hazor) in Northern, Hazor, Israel is a Bronze Age to Classical (3000 BCE–500 CE) ancient city attributed to Bronz…
