Search places, or jump to a section
CategoriesAncient villages
The first farming settlements and the houses people lived in.
🇳🇬 Nigeria · Ancient village
Chad Basin Late Stone Age · Gajiganna culture
Urn-field mound complex defining Gajiganna culture bridging Saharan and sub-Saharan pastoralism before Kanem.
🇲🇽 Mexico · Tell
Prehistoric · Regional Chalcolithic-EBA
Tepeticpac (Tlaxcala hill town) — buried prehistoric tell/village at Tlaxcala State.
🇵🇪 Peru · Ancient city
Chimú · Chimú (Chanchan)
Largest adobe city in world: capital of Chimú Kingdom (850–1470) covering 20 km² with 10 walled citadels (ciudadelas) with friezes of pelicans and lattice, reservoirs, adobe walls.
🇳🇬 Nigeria · Ancient village
Kebbi Empire (15th–18th c.) · Kebbi / Zamfarawa
Chain of 4 hilltop outlier forts with 1.5 km walls each protecting Surame fields.
🇩🇿 Algeria · Ancient village
Punic–Numidian to Roman (3rd c BCE – 7th c CE) · Numidian / Punic / Roman
Dramatic cliff village on limestone spur 500 m above plain, Tiddis preserves Numidian houses, Mithraeum in cave, sanctuary of Saturn, and Roman arch framing Cirta view. Berthier ex...
🇬🇭 Ghana · Ancient city
Bono state (c. 1200–1723 CE; sacked by Asante) · Akan (Bono / Brong)
First Akan walled capital, Bono Manso's laterite wall (1.9 km) encloses iron workshops and overlooks granite rock domes with shrine caves, sacked 1723 by Asante, memory in Techiman...
🇳🇬 Nigeria · Ancient village
Hausa hill tradition (c. 1200–1900 CE) · Hausa (Katsina frontier villages)
Sandstone ridge fort village with Holocene rock gongs (cupules ringing when struck) and Hausa rubble forts against bandits, near Katsina corridor.
🇫🇷 France · Ancient village
Harappan · Harappan
Harappan ancient-village at Nouvelle-Aquitaine.
🇫🇷 France · Ancient village
Harappan · Harappan
Harappan ancient-village at Nouvelle-Aquitaine.
🇫🇷 France · Ancient village
Jomon · Jomon
Jomon ancient-village at Nouvelle-Aquitaine.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient village
Jomon · Jomon
Jomon ancient-village at Central Anatolia.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient village
Jomon · Jomon
Jomon ancient-village at Central Anatolia.
🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Ancient village
Hittite · Hittite
Hittite ancient-village at Orkney.
🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Ancient village
Hittite · Hittite
Hittite ancient-village at Orkney.
🇮🇳 India · Ancient village
Bronze Age · Bronze Age
Bronze Age ancient-village at Haryana.
🇲🇽 Mexico · Ancient village
Neolithic · Neolithic
Neolithic ancient-village at Hidalgo.
🇵🇪 Peru · Ancient village
Classical · Classical
Classical ancient-village at Huanuco.
🇯🇵 Japan · Ancient village
Hittite · Hittite
Hittite ancient-village at Aomori.
🇧🇫 Burkina Faso · Ancient village
Iron Age · Bwa / Mouhoun
Tell cluster of 13 mounds (100 BCE–1600 CE) showing egalitarian agrarian villages resisting hierarchy. Iron smelting, shea, cattle, beaded ceramics; ancestor compound mound model vs state-formation.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Ancient village
Old Kingdom to Roman · Egyptian
Cliff sanctuary with rock-cut Hathor/Nemesis chapel, pink limestone quarries supplying Amarna, and 12th Dyn rock-tombs of nomarch Wahka with nautical graffiti. Miners' camp and Roman road station.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient village
Neolithic to Chalcolithic (PPNB-derived) · Anatolian Neolithic (Catalhoyuk East/West)
Largest Neolithic proto-city (7500–5700 BCE) with 18 settlement levels, mud-brick houses entered via roofs, wall paintings, bull bucrania and earliest landscape painting. Population up to 8,000.
🇵🇸 Palestine · Ancient village
Natufian to Bronze Age (12,000 BCE onward; tower c.8300 BCE) · Natufian → PPNA/PPNB → Canaanite
Tell with Natufian through Bronze Age layers including Pre-Pottery Neolithic A stone tower (c.8300 BCE) and wall – among earliest monumental architecture and fortification. Biblical Jericho.
🇱🇾 Libya · Ancient village
Greek / Punic / Roman · Greek then Punic / Roman
Hill of the Graces where Greek Cinyps colony (520 BCE) briefly rivalled Cyrene before Libyan expulsion. Later Tripolitanian olive villa cluster feeding Leptis port; terraces and cisterns.
🇳🇬 Nigeria · Ancient village
Kanem-Bornu to Kano (13th–18th c.) · Kanuri / Hausa
Paired frontier hills with 3 km refuge walls and indigo pits (50).
