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CategoriesEarthworks
Mounds, henges, enclosures and effigies built from earth.
🇵🇪 Peru · Pyramid
Middle Horizon (600–800 CE), Recuay–Wari · Recuay (Pashash)–Wari (Huari)
Three-storey subterranean-tower pyramid-mausoleum (12 m high, 18x18 m square) of Recuay (Pashash) then Wari-Tiwanaku horizon (600–800 CE) in Callejón de Huaylas at 3400 m, built of dressed white…
🇨🇱 Chile · Geoglyph
Late Formative to Late Intermediate (700–1500 CE) · Atacameño, Tarapacá and Altiplano caravan cultures
400 Atacama caravan geoglyphs (700–1500 CE) etched in desert varnish above the Tamarugal pampa.
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Middle Woodland Hopewell (100 BCE–500 CE) · Hopewell (Marietta phase)
Hopewell ceremonial complex (100 BCE–500 CE) at confluence of Muskingum and Ohio Rivers, originally three enclosures: Capitolium Square (150×110 m terraced platform and graded way), Quadranaou double…
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Mississippian Middle Cumberland (1100–1350 CE) · Mississippian (Castalian Springs phase)
Premier Middle Cumberland Mississippian town (1100–1350 CE) centered on mineral spring: two major platform mounds (Mound 1 6 m high 55×45 m, Mound 2 burial 3 m) plus smaller mound, large plaza and…
🇯🇴 Jordan · Geoglyph
PPNB–Late Neolithic (7000–5500 BCE) · Black Desert hunters
Interfluve plateau between north and south arms of Wadi al-Qattafi 5 km north of Qa' al-Qattafi playa (680 m).
🇨🇱 Chile · Geoglyph
Late Intermediate to Late Horizon (Inca) · Atacameño–Inca caravan
Salar del Sur east corridor: 20 paired Avenues forming 1.4 km converging system toward playa.
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Late Woodland to Mississippian (Coles Creek – Lake George phase 700–1500 CE) · Plaquemine / Mississippian (Lake George)
Yazoo Basin Mississippian–Plaquemine center (700–1500 CE, peak 1300–1500): 25 mounds over 40 ha including 8-m-high concial-temple Mound C (55×40 m), flat-top Mound A 12 m high (80×60 m) second…
🇵🇪 Peru · Pyramid
Early Intermediate to Middle Horizon (400–800 CE) · Recuay (Pashash)–Wari
High puna fortified town (400–800 CE) of Recuay then Wari, built as terraced pyramidal platform town with 4+ stone masonry pyramids (8–12 m high, 20–30 m per side) capped by elite halls and…
🇵🇪 Peru · Pyramid
Gallinazo to Late Intermediate (500 BCE–1470 CE) · Moche–Lambayeque–Chimú palimpsest
Huge coastal Moche–Lambayeque pyramid and fortress city perched on bluff above Jequetepeque delta (500 BCE–1370 CE continuous).
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Plaquemine to Historic Natchez (1200–1730 CE) · Plaquemine / Natchez (Muskogean)
Natchez historic capital (1200–1730 CE) — 3 Plaquemine mounds and plaza where French witnessed 1725 sacrifice.
🇵🇪 Peru · Pyramid
Late Moche / Middle Horizon transition (600–800 CE) · Moche (Late Moche valley polity)
Last Moche capital after Huacas de Moche collapse (600–800 CE), 5 km² planned city behind Gallows Hill with Plataforma A pyramid (55x35 m, 10 m high terrace) as palatial-ceremonial core, surrounded…
🇯🇵 Japan · Megalith
Final Jomon 1200–800 BCE · Jomon Final Hokkaido
Late Jomon collective burial banked circles (1200–800 BCE) on terrace above Ushiku River at Chitose — 9 embanked circular enclosures diameter 12–75 m built of external ditch and internal bank housing…
🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Earthwork
Neolithic to Mississippian (3000 BCE–1400 CE) · Neolithic / Woodland
Stonehenge Cursus — South Avenue Bank & Ditch in England, Wiltshire, Salisbury Plain, United Kingdom is a Neolithic to Mississippian (3000 BCE–1400 CE) ear…
🇳🇬 Nigeria · Ancient city
Yoruba Oyo Empire (14th–1835 CE; capital 16th–1835) · Yoruba (Oyo)
Old Oyo (Oyo-Ile, Katunga) is the 16th–19th c. capital of Oyo Empire, 10 km triple earthen walls enclosing 6,000 ha savanna plain with 17 palace compounds (Kobi), council houses and reservoirs.
🇨🇱 Chile · Geoglyph
Late Archaic–Formative (1000 BCE–500 CE) · Alto Ramírez
Flat pampa surface (1,350 m) 8 km east of classic km 60 Alto Ramírez slope, with extensive pavement (gobi texture).
🇵🇪 Peru · Hydraulic works
Inca Empire with antecedents Wari/Tiwanaku (~1000–1532 CE; Inca 1438–1532 CE) · Inca (with pre-Inca antecedents)
The backbone of Tawantinsuyu, Qhapaq Ñan runs 6,000 km along the Andean crest from Colombia to Chile, with east–west transversal roads totalling over 23,000 km.
🇯🇴 Jordan · Earthwork
Late Neolithic to Bronze Age (~5500–2500 BCE; Wheels c.8500 BCE claimed recently) · Levantine Neolithic pastoralist
Scattered across the Azraq lava fields and limestone hammada, geometric Wheels 25–70 m in diameter consist of outer ring, radial spokes and central cairn, often attached to kite tails or isolated on…
🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Archaeological wonder
Early Neolithic (~3807 BCE) · British Early Neolithic
The oldest engineered timber trackway in northern Europe, a 1.8-km raised walkway of oak planks pegged to transverse ash rails, dendro-dated to construction in the winter–spring of 3807 BCE.
🇾🇪 Yemen · Hydraulic works
Sabaean Kingdom, Early South Arabian (~1750 BCE – 570 CE) · Sabaean (South Arabian, Kingdom of Saba)
Earthfill diversion dam spanning the Wadi Adhanah and flanked by the limestone North and South Sluices with Sabaean monumental inscriptions.
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Early Medieval (500–1000 CE) · Iron Age
Chavín de Huántar Plaza South in Colorado Plateau, United States is a Early Medieval (500–1000 CE) earthwork attributed to Iron Age culture.
🇧🇷 Brazil · Earthwork
Period Late Holocene · Regional culture Americas-Mound
Mural Hall Americas 62 — Brazil Region 2 in Brazil Region 2, Brazil is a Bronze Age earthwork with stratified deposits and regional significance. Excavations reveal architectural phasing.
🇧🇷 Brazil · Ancient city
Xinguano 800–1600 CE · Xinguano / Arawak
Cluster of 20+ pre-Columbian settlements in Xingu with causeways 50 m wide, plazas, reservoirs, showing dense urbanism (population 50k) in Amazon before 1492, built 800–1400 CE, described by Michael…
🇧🇷 Brazil · Ancient city
Xinguano 800–1600 CE (late pre-Columbian Amazon) · Xinguano (Arawak, ancestral Kuikuro)
Eastern Kuhikugu causeway-plaza K15 — 220 m plaza with 20 m causeways linking to fish weir, 2.8 km east of X11.
🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Ancient village
Early to Middle Neolithic 3200-2800 BCE · Hebridean Neolithic (Unstan/Grooved Ware)
3200 BCE Neolithic timber-laced artificial island (32 m) at Eilean Domhnuill, North Uist - earliest crannog settlement in Scotland.
