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CategoriesBuried cities
Settlements sealed under ash, sand or silt and excavated centuries later.
🇻🇳 Vietnam · Buried city
Neolithic to Bronze Age (6000–1200 BCE) · Bronze Age
Oc Eo — Buried Canal North (Mekong, Vietnam) in An Giang, Oc Eo, Vietnam is a Neolithic to Bronze Age (6000–1200 BCE) buried city attributed to Bronze Age.…
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
EBA-MBA-LBA (c.3500-1200 BCE) · Euphrates EBA to Old Babylonian/Mitannian
Tell Fray — buried eba-mba-lba tell/village at Raqqa Governorate.
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
EBA-MBA-LBA (c.3500-1200 BCE) · Euphrates EBA to Old Babylonian/Mitannian
Tell al-'Abr — buried eba-mba-lba tell/village at Aleppo Governorate.
🇰🇿 Kazakhstan · Ancient city
Western Turkic Khaganate to Karakhanid–Qara Khitai · Sogdian / Turkic / Karakhanid
Core Silk Road city at Talas River on northern branch, flourishing 6th–12th c. as capital of Turkic Kaganate and later Karakhanid.
🇨🇳 China · Archaeological wonder
Western Han Early 202–141 BCE · Han dynasty (Changsha Kingdom)
Family cemetery of Marquess of Dai (Li Cang, Prime Minister of Changsha Kingdom, Western Han, 202 BCE–9 CE) with three rectangular shaft tombs (168–145 BCE).
🇺🇸 United States · Ancient village
Hohokam Classic (1150–1450 CE) · Hohokam (Tucson / Marana community)
Classic Hohokam platform 1150 CE — ballcourt & 150 m terrace rock-pile fields (Fish).
🇺🇸 United States · Ancient village
Hohokam Colonial to Classic (750–1450 CE; peak 1350 CE) · Hohokam (Gila–Casa Grande community, Ancestral O'odham)
Classic Hohokam Gila village 1350 CE — 60 ha compounds around Great House.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Neolithic to Abbasid (6000 BCE–present; Assyrian capital 705–612 BCE) · Assyrian / Babylonian / Persian / Hellenistic / Parthian
Great Assyrian capital under Sennacherib (705–681 BCE) extended by Ashurbanipal (668–630 BCE), Nineveh at fall (612 BCE) was world's largest city (~15 km walls, 100,000 inhabitants).
🇺🇸 United States · Tell
Ancestral Puebloan (c.600-1300 CE) · Anasazi/Puebloan (Basketmaker to Pueblo III)
Kin Biniola Chaco Outlier — buried ancestral tell/village at New Mexico.
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
Late Chalcolithic to EJ III (4500–2100 BCE; peak LC sprawl 3800 BCE) · LC northern Mesopotamian → Uruk → Ninevite 5
LC sprawl 4000 BCE battle town 3500 BCE — sling-bullet warfare horizon (Gibson).
🇯🇵 Japan · Buried city
Late Bronze Age (1550–1050 BCE) · Late Bronze Age
Howe Buried Settlement in Iwate Prefecture, Japan is a Late Bronze Age (1550–1050 BCE) buried city attributed to Late Bronze Age culture.
🇺🇸 United States · Ancient village
Early Agricultural Period–Early Ceramic (1200 BCE–500 CE; peak 1000–500 BCE) · Early Agricultural / Cienega phase (pre-Hohokam)
Early Agricultural metropolis 1000 BCE — 400 pithouses & 1 km canal before Hohokam.
🇲🇱 Mali · Ancient city
Bio. Iron Age to Medieval (c.250 BCE–1400 CE; peak 400–1200 CE) · Djenné-Djeno culture / Inland Niger Delta Iron Age / Soninke-Bozo
Oldest sub-Saharan city (250 BCE–1400 CE) on Inland Niger Delta: 33 ha tell 8 m high with 69 mounds cluster spanning 4 km, without stone architecture but rich bio-archaeological sequence: slag, rice,…
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
EB IV to Persian (3000 BCE–330 BCE; peak LBA 1500–1200 BCE) · EB Amorite → Middle Bronze Amorite → Hittite Egyptian contested → Neo-Assyrian → Persian
Qadesh outer town 1274 BCE — Hittite–Egyptian battle plain south tell.
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Seleucid to Byzantine Crusader · Seleucid → Roman → Byzantine
Seleucid garrison city and military elephant depot (Seleucus' 500 Indian elephants), later Roman Apamea with the grandest colonnaded cardo in the East — 1,850 m long, 37 m wide, 1,200 columns with…
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Early Bronze I to Middle Bronze (2900–2000 BCE) · Troy I maritime / EBA Northwest Anatolian
Troy I harbour hamlet 2900 BCE — coastal EBA tumulus with Troy Ib wares.
🇧🇬 Bulgaria · Tell
Late Chalcolithic Gumelniţa–Karanovo VI–Kodžadermen (4600–4300 BCE) · Gumelniţa–Kodžadermen–Karanovo VI
Chalcolithic burned village 4600 BCE — 407 gold items neighbouring mound (Chohadzhiev).
🇲🇽 Mexico · Ancient city
Postclassic (Medio/Chihuahua culture) · Mogollon-Paquimé (Oasisamerica)
Largest pre-Hispanic pueblo city of northern Mexico (c.1130–1340 CE, 70 ha, population ~2,500) with multi-storey adobe apartments, T-shaped doors, I-shaped ballcourts (Mesoamerican), macaw breeding…
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient village
Late Neolithic to Early Chalcolithic (6000–5000 BCE; Levels I–III) · Cappadocian Neolithic–Chalcolithic with Halaf links
Neolithic skull-cult village 6000 BCE — plastered skulls and relief houses.
🇱🇧 Lebanon · Buried city
Jōmon (14000–300 BCE) · Jōmon
Buried City of Hunstanton Plateau in Bekaa Valley, Lebanon is a Jōmon (14000–300 BCE) buried city attributed to Jōmon culture.
🇵🇹 Portugal · Buried city
Harappan (2600–1900 BCE) · Harappan
Buried City of Khirbet in Alentejo, Portugal is a Harappan (2600–1900 BCE) buried city attributed to Harappan culture.
🇺🇦 Ukraine · Ancient city
Trypillia B2–C1 · Cucuteni-Trypillia
Cucuteni-Trypillia mega-site (approx 4100–3600 BCE, 260–300 ha, 1,000+ mapped houses) renowned for the burnt temple mega-structure (60×20 m, 1,200 m²) with seven altars, painted vessels, and a clay…
🇮🇷 Iran · Ancient city
Neolithic to Medieval (c.4200 BCE–1218 CE; Elamite capital c.2700–646 BCE; Achaemenid palace 522–331 BCE) · Elamite / Persian Achaemenid / Seleucid / Parthian / Sassanian
Elamite capital then Achaemenid administrative capital (Darius I, 522 BCE), Susa preserves mound sequence from 4200 BCE: Apadana of Darius (36 limestone columns, glazed brick friezes of Immortals and…
🇺🇦 Ukraine · Ancient city
Trypillia C1 (Cucuteni B2) · Cucuteni-Trypillia (Trypillia mega-site phenomenon)
Cucuteni-Trypillia mega-settlement (c.3850–3700 BCE, 450 ha, perhaps 15,000 inhabitants) — largest city in Europe at that time, larger than Uruk contemporary — with concentric burnt houses (2,700…
