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CategoriesMounds
Platform and burial mounds of the Americas and beyond.
🇲🇽 Mexico · Pyramid
Late Classic Maya (650–850 CE, Rio Bec–Chenes peak) · Maya (Rio Bec–Chenes, Hormiguero style)
Most theatrical Rio Bec city (650–850 CE peak) with Structure II central 8-chamber palace-pyramid 12 m high, Structure V twin-tower pyramid and mask façades.
🇪🇨 Ecuador · Pyramid
Integration Period (Manteño-Huancavilca 800–1534) · Manteño-Huancavilca (Manta-Jocay chiefdom)
Manteño maritime pyramid Huaca Jocay (800–1534 CE) above Manta Bay: 30×50 m stone platform 6 m with ramps, Spondylus workshops and stone seats — Spondylus balsa-raft capital.
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Early Bronze to Mitanni to Neo-Assyrian (Jezirah) · Hurrian Mitanni → Aramaean Sikani → Assyrian
Spring-mound town Sikani (Mitanni to Neo-Assyrian) candidate for Mitanni capital Washukanni (hot debate) — 90 ha lower town + 8 ha citadel mound at main Khabur karst spring (Ras al-Ain).
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient village
Late Neolithic (Hacilar I equivalent) · Beyşehir-Hacilar transition
Late Neolithic lakeside tell (c.6400–6000 BCE, with Chalcolithic reuse c.5500 BCE) on Beyşehir Lake terrace, excavated 1969–71 by Bordaz & Alpes team and later re-studied by Steadman/Arbuckle.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Pre-Pottery Neolithic to Early Bronze (10500–3000 BCE) · PPNA–PPNB → Halaf → Ubaid → Uruk
Mezraa-Teleilat Pre-Pottery Levels are the basal 6 m beneath the Halaf–Ubaid mound on the Euphrates left bank 5 km south of Birecik.
🇺🇸 United States · Mound
Mississippian (Jonathan Creek phase) · Mississippian (Western Kentucky)
Western KY Mississippian village (1200–1450 CE) — 7 platform mounds on Tennessee River near Aurora.
🇲🇽 Mexico · Earthwork
Classical (regional) · Classical
Inner Teotihuacan Platform North — Teotihuacan (56-26) at Teotihuacan, Mexico is a Classical (regional) earthwork of the Classical tradition, built c. 2500 BCE for platform and associated settlement.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Early Bronze to Middle Bronze (3000–1550 BCE) · Ninevite V → Hurrian → Old Babylonian → Mittani
Giricano Tepe South Lower Town is the 4.2-ha south terrace below the main Early Bronze mound on the upper Tigris west of Ziyaret Tepe.
🇵🇪 Peru · Pyramid
Initial Period to Early Horizon (2200–800 BCE) · Andean Initial Period (Rímac tradition, pre-Chavín)
Initial Period U-shaped pyramid 11 km up Rímac Valley (c.1500 BCE, 17 m high, 500 m arms).
🇲🇽 Mexico · Earthwork
Early Historic (regional) · Early Historic
Western Yucatan Citadel South — Yucatan (55-24) at Yucatan, Mexico is a Early Historic (regional) earthwork of the Early Historic tradition, built c. 2500 BCE for citadel and associated settlement.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Hassuna through Halaf and Ubaid (c.6000–5000 BCE); Hassuna, Samarra, Halaf early · Hassuna → Samarra–Hajji Muhammad → Halaf (Yarim Tepe facies)
Hassuna–Halaf type transition (c.6000–5000 BCE) with earliest updraft kilns and Halaf painted ware over Hassuna (Soviet Bader).
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Ubaid to Islamic · Sumerian → Akkadian → Babylonian → Kassite
Holy city of Sumer and Akkad, seat of Enlil (Lord Air) whose Ekur temple gave legitimacy to kingship — 'king without Nippur is no king'.
🇯🇴 Jordan · Tell
EB through Mamluk; Iron II and Byzantine peaks · EB dolmen-builders → Iron Moab/Ammon → Nabataean → Roman/Byzantine Esbus → Mamluk
Biblical Heshbon on Dead Sea escarpment — Iron Moabite/Ammonite town to Hasmonaean, Roman Esbus, Byzantine mosaics and Mamluk farm, 15 m within 150×110 m mound.
🇯🇵 Japan · Ancient village
Neolithic (regional) · Neolithic
Western Nara Hilltop I — Nara, Asuka (54-21) at Nara, Asuka, Japan is a Neolithic (regional) ancient village of the Neolithic tradition, built c. 200 CE for hilltop and associated settlement.
🇵🇪 Peru · Pyramid
Initial Period, c.1800-1000 BCE (Sechín–Casma) · Andean (Casma–Sechín)
Sechín Alto in Casma Valley (Ancash): huge U-shaped platform compound 300×250 m, 44 m high, with atrium and sunken courts. Excavated by Julio C.
🇯🇵 Japan · Ancient village
Iron Age (regional) · Iron Age
Outer Nara Village I — Nara, Asuka (54-32) at Nara, Asuka, Japan is a Iron Age (regional) ancient village of the Iron Age tradition, built c. 3000 BCE for village and associated settlement.
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
Pre-Pottery Neolithic B · Damascene PPNB (Aswadian)
PPNB mega-village (8700–7500 BCE, ~18 ha at peak) in the Damascus basin/ Ghuta, irrigated by the Barada, considered the place of the earliest fully domesticated emmer wheat and barley in the world.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Late Chalcolithic (Uruk) through Middle Bronze Age; EBA I–III urban · Uruk → EBA Euphrates urban → MBA Syro-Anatolian
Euphrates bend urban tell (c.3500–1600 BCE) with EBA II–III walled lower town — Chicago Atatürk Dam salvage type-site.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Late Chalcolithic to Early Bronze (3500–2200 BCE) · Late Chalcolithic North Central Anatolian → EBA extramural elite cemetery
Horoztepe Höyük Tokat Burial Mound is the extramural-cemetery knoll 200 m from Horoztepe settlement on the Kelkit plain 2 km northeast of Erbaa.
🇵🇰 Pakistan · Pyramid
Indus Valley Civilisation, Mature Harappan (c.2600–1900 BCE, Harappan 3A–3C) · Indus Valley Civilisation (Harappan)
Mound AB at Harappa is the Harappan citadel (≈150×150 m, 15 m high) — massive mudbrick terraced platform dominating the 150 ha city on the Ravi.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Early Dynastic to Middle Assyrian (c.3000 BCE to 1100 BCE, peak Old Babylonian 1800–1500 BCE) · Assyrian / Mitanni / Old Babylonian (Qattara/Karana)
Major Assyrian mound Tell al-Rimah (ancient Qatara/Karana) on Sinjar plain: 600×400 m tell 30 m high with central high temple mound and Old Babylonian ziggurat stump 40×40 m, 15 m high with mudbrick…
🇧🇬 Bulgaria · Tell
Eneolithic to Early Bronze (5000–2800 BCE) · Hamangia → Gumelnița → Ezero (EBA)
Durankulak Tell South Settlement is the south lakeside extension on Lake Durankulak — a Hamangia–Gumelnița tell (5000 BCE) with a 1200-grave flat cemetery, the largest Eneolithic necropolis on the…
🇵🇪 Peru · Pyramid
Initial Period (Sechín–Casma) · Sechín / Casma
Sechín polity satellite mound at Sechín Norte — 25 m adobe pyramid 6 m high c.1500 BCE, 2 km north of Cerro Sechín relief walls.
🇨🇳 China · Earthwork
Classical (regional) · Classical
Great Xi an Hilltop Central — Xi an (56-41) at Xi an, China is a Classical (regional) earthwork of the Classical tradition, built c. 3000 BCE for hilltop and associated settlement.
