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CategoriesBuried cities
Settlements sealed under ash, sand or silt and excavated centuries later.
🇬🇷 Greece · Buried city
Early Bronze to Classical (c.2600 – 373 BCE) · Achaean Greek
373 BCE tsunami-lost Helike — Classical city and EBA settlement both buried 3 m under Bouras lagoonal marine silt 60 m inland, originally submerged.
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
Early Bronze through Iron Age (EBA, Mitanni, Aramaean Arpad, Neo-Assyrian) · EB → Hurrian → Aramaean Bit-Agusi → Assyrian
Tell Rifa'at (Arpad / Arpad of Bit-Agusi) is a multi-period tell/ancient village in Aleppo Governorate, az-Zahra plain, north of Aleppo, Syria — Aramaean Bit-Agusi kingdom capital — rival to Samʾal…
🇪🇬 Egypt · Buried city
Ptolemaic to Byzantine (c.300 BCE – 350 CE) · Ptolemaic Greek / Roman Egyptian
Crocodile-god island town on Lake Moeris — eastern mole harbour 400 m east of town 1–2 m under salt wash, with 320 m sphinx dromos.
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
Halaf → Ubaid → Uruk → EJ II–III → Akkadian → Mitanni · Halaf → Ubaid → Uruk → EJ II–III → Akkadian → Mitanni
Tell Arbid in Al-Hasakah Governorate, Khabur triangle near Amuda, Syria is a Halaf → Ubaid → Uruk → EJ II–III → Akkadian → Mitanni settlement attributed to Halaf → Ubaid → Uruk → EJ II–III → Akkadian…
🇷🇸 Serbia · Tell
Early Chalcolithic Vinča culture (c.5400–4500 BCE); Vinča A–D mining camps 5400–4650 BCE · Vinča (early Chalcolithic Danubian–Balkan copper pioneers)
Europe’s earliest copper mine (c.5400–4500 BCE) — 45 shafts with Vinča picks and firesetting on Danube gorge.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Tell
Predynastic → Dynasty 0–1 (3600–2700 BCE) · Predynastic → Dynasty 0–1 (3600–2700 BCE)
Tell el-Farkha in Dakahlia Governorate, Eastern Delta, Ghazala, Egypt is a Predynastic → Dynasty 0–1 (3600–2700 BCE) settlement attributed to Predynastic → Dynasty 0–1 (3600–2700 BCE) culture.
🇲🇽 Mexico · Tell
Classic to Epiclassic (c.300–900 CE); Classic 300–600 CE, Epiclassic fortified 600–900 CE · Central Veracruz–Puebla highland (Cantona sphere) → Epiclassic Tepeyahualco–Totonac fringe
Cantona-linked lava-field fortress town (c.300–900 CE) with obsidian workshops on Malinche flank (García Cook).
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
Ubaid → Late Chalcolithic Uruk → Nineveh 5 (5000–3000 BCE) · Ubaid → Late Chalcolithic Uruk → Nineveh 5 (5000–3000 BCE)
Tell Mashnaqa in Al-Hasakah Governorate, Khabur, near Kawkab, Syria is a Ubaid → Late Chalcolithic Uruk → Nineveh 5 (5000–3000 BCE) settlement attributed to Ubaid → Late Chalcolithic Uruk → Nineveh 5…
🇺🇦 Ukraine · Submerged site
Archaic to Late Roman (c.560 BCE – 4th c. CE) · Ionian Greek / Bosporan
Crimean Atlantis — intact classical street grid and double walls at 3–7 m deep off Cape Takyl, the only wholly underwater Bosporan town.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Late Chalcolithic → EB I–III → MBA (4300–2000 BCE) · Pontic EBA (Kızılırmak Black Sea, Balkan-Caucasus interface)
Black Sea delta cemetery-tell (4300–2000 BCE) — 2400 EBA gifted graves with arsenical copper, Pontic metallurgy nexus.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Late Chalcolithic through Byzantine; EBA II-III, Hittite, Phrygian, Byzantine · Central Anatolian; Late Chalcolithic, EBA, Hittite Empire, Phrygia
Pleiades Bronze-Iron Age plateau tell (240×140 m) with Chalcolithic to Hittite-Phrygian stratigraphy on Kanak Su, Yozgat — type-site for plateau continuity.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Samarra through Ubaid 3 (c.5500–4100 BCE); Samarra, Hajji Muhammad, Ubaid 3 · Samarra (Choga Mami) → Hajji Muhammad → Ubaid 3 Hamrin facies
Samarra–Ubaid transition village (c.5500–4100 BCE) with tripartite houses and Iran–south assimilation — Hamrin Samarra outpost.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Tell
MK through Roman; Saite-Persian peak · Middle Kingdom → Hyksos → Saite Necho II → Persian Achaemenid → Ptolemaic
Wadi Tumilat gateway tell — Middle Kingdom fort, Hyksos, Saite grain silos (600 m³) and Darius I canal station, biblical Pithom/Heroöpolis.
🇮🇱 Israel · Tell
Neolithic through Persian–Hellenistic (c.5000 BCE–332 BCE); EBA, MB–LB Canaanite, Iron I–II, Persian · Chalcolithic–EBA Canaanite → LB Canaanite → Iron I Philistine/Judahite → Persian province
1890 stratigraphic excavation origin — 12-m Petrie tell with EBA–Persian sequence (Neolithic–Iron) founding ceramic seriation.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Early Dynastic to Neo-Assyrian (c. 2700 BCE – 612 BCE) · Assyrian / Mitanni / Neo-Assyrian
Assyrian capital's Tigris quay – 60 m limestone quay with winged lamassu harbour gate under fields.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Ancient city
Predynastic (Buto-Maadi) to Dynastic to Greco-Roman · Lower Egyptian (Buto-Maadi) → Unified Egyptian
Dual city Pe and Dep — cult centre of cobra goddess Wadjet (tutelar of Lower Egypt) and predynastic–archaic capital that gives 'Buto-Maadi' culture (c.4000–3400 BCE, Palestine-like beveled rims,…
🇺🇸 United States · Tell
Pre-Classic to Classic Hohokam (800–1450 CE) · Hohokam Pre-Classic (Colonial–Sedentary) → Classic (Soho–Civano)
Pueblo Grande Phoenix Canal Mound South is the canal headgate mound south of Pueblo Grande platform — headquarters of the Phoenix Hohokam canal system (Canal Grande) that irrigated 1000 ha on the…
🇪🇬 Egypt · Ancient city
Middle Kingdom to New Kingdom (c. 2000–1150 BCE; Hyksos peak 1670–1550) · Egyptian / Hyksos Canaanite / Minoan palace artisans
Hyksos capital with Minoan frescoes and donkey burials — 3 m under Delta fields, excavated since 1966.
🇷🇸 Serbia · Tell
Neolithic through Medieval (c.6000 BCE–15th c. CE); Starčevo, Vinča, Vučedol, Vatin–Belegiš, La Tène, Roman–Medieval · Starčevo–Koros → Vinča → Kostolac–Vučedol → Vatin–Belegiš (Bronze) → Hallstatt–La Tène Scordisci
6th-mill.–15th-c. Srem tell (45 ha survey) with Vinča–Vučedol–Scordisci sequence — 10 m stratigraphy on Sava (Garašanin).
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
PPNA through Ubaid (c.9600–5500 BCE); PPNA, PPNB, Halaf, Ubaid · Upper Euphrates Neolithic (Mezraa phase) → Halaf → Ubaid
Neolithic–Halaf Euphrates tell (c.9600–5500 BCE) with PPNA round huts to Halaf painted pottery — Euphrates Neolithic type-site.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Neolithic through Byzantine; Cilician corridor · Cilician Neolithic → Hittite Kizzuwatna → Neo-Hittite Que → Greco-Roman
Mersin coastal tell with 25 m deposit from Aceramic Neolithic (7000 BCE) to Roman — Garstang’s Cilician Neolithic–Hittite maritime gateway sequence.
🇬🇷 Greece · Tell
Late Chalcolithic to Early Bronze (3200–1700 BCE) · Troy I–II contemporary → Aegean EBA (Poliochni culture)
Poliochni Lemnos Bronze Age Village is the fortified EBA town on Lemnos — the Aegean's earliest urban nucleus (Poliochni Azzurro–Rosso–Giallo–Verde–Rosa sequence, 3200–1700 BCE) contemporary with…
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Ubaid 0 through Ubaid I (c.6500–5500 BCE); late Samarra–Hajji Muhammad horizon · Samarra–Ubaid 0 (Oueili phase) → Ubaid 1 (Hajji Muhammad) southern Mesopotamian
Ubaid 0 (c.6500–5500 BCE) earliest village in southern Mesopotamia predating Eridu — 11 m sounding with buttressed temple (Huot).
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
Chalcolithic through Iron III; EB-MBA peak · Syrian EBA → Amorite → Mitanni/Hittite → Aramaean Luash
Idlib tell (26 ha) with Neolithic–Iron III sequence, MBA walls and Iron Temple of the Luash dynasty — findspot of Zakkur Stele, Hittite-period storage horizon.
