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CategoriesTells
Mounds made of layer upon layer of settlement.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Bronze Age to Commagene Kingdom (3000 BCE–72 CE) · Bronze Age Kummuh → Hittite → Neo-Hittite Kummuh → Commagene (Mithridatic)
Samsat Höyük Submerged Citadel Approach is the drowned approach ramp and lower town of Samosata — capital of Hittite Kummuh and later Commagene Kingdom under Antiochus I.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Hittite Old to Empire · Hittite (upper Kızılırmak frontier)
Highest Hittite frontier city (c.1600–1200 BCE) on 1650 m steppe ridge, holy city of Weather God, planned on grid with dam. Andreas Müller-Karpe (Marburg) excavations (1995–2004) revealed 2.
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
Halaf to Mitanni (6000 BCE–1300 BCE) · Halaf → Ubaid → Uruk → Ninevite V → Akkadian → Mittani
Tell Arbid Southern Ridge is the 14.2-ha southern ridge extension of Tell Arbid on the Wadi Jaghjagh between the Khabur and Tigris headwaters.
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
EB IV to Iron Age (2500 BCE–800 BCE) · EB IV Amorite → Middle Bronze Yamhad → Late Bronze Hittite/Mittani → Iron Age Luwian
Tell Tuqan Southern Rampart is the 12-m-high earthen rampart sealing the 35-ha Middle Bronze walled city 35 km east of Maarrat al-Numan.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Ancient city
Predynastic to Ptolemaic to Late Antique · Egyptian (Lower Egyptian Delta)
Delta metropolis and cult centre of ram god Banebdjedet (Greek Mendes), capital of 16th Nome and briefly capital of 29th Dynasty (Nepherites I, c.399–380 BCE) under Persian-period independence.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Middle to Neo-Assyrian (1350–612 BCE) · Assyrian
Second capital of Assyria after Assur under Ashurnasirpal II (883 BCE), who built the Northwest Palace with 600 m of alabaster lamassu and bas-reliefs (Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III showing King…
🇸🇾 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).
🇮🇶 Iraq · Pyramid
Old Babylonian to Mitanni · Amorite / Old Assyrian
Old Babylonian planned city ziggurat at Tell al-Rimah (Qattara/Karana) c.1800 BCE: 45×45 m Adad ziggurat on 130 m terrace, Sinjar plain encircled city.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Chalcolithic to Medieval (4000 BCE–1400 CE) · North Syrian → Hittite → Neo-Assyrian → Islamic
Oylum Höyük Lower Town is the 30-ha extra-mural city wrapping the 20-m citadel on the Kilis plain.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Ancient city
Predynastic to Ptolemaic (Naqada to Late) · Egyptian Upper Egyptian → Pharaonic
Walled twin of Hierakonpolis — goddess Nekhbet vulture cult centre and Predynastic to Ptolemaic town with massive mudbrick walls (11 m thick, 500×550 m) dated Early Dynastic (c.3100 BCE) to Late…
🇹🇷 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
Late Chalcolithic through Medieval; EBA III, MBA II, Hittite, Neo-Hittite, Assyrian · Syro-Anatolian; EBA Islahiye cluster → Hittite sphere → Neo-Hittite/Assyrian
37-m high Kilis plain tell (460×370 m) with EBA–Hittite–Neo-Hittite town and 30 ha buried lower town — frontier type-site.
🇮🇳 India · Ancient village
Savda–Malwa–Jorwe 1900–1000 BCE → Early Historic 300 BCE–300 CE · Savda-Chalcolithic → Malwa–Jorwe → Satavahana
Tapti Chalcolithic–Early Historic sequence (1900 BCE–300 CE) with Indo-Roman amphorae at Dhule ford.
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
Early Neolithic PPNA (c.9600–8800 BCE) · PPNA Euphrates village culture (with Jerf el Ahmar and Tell Qaramel)
PPNA farming village with painted communal building and rye-cultivation proof, drowned by Tishrin Dam.
🇹🇷 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.
🇮🇱 Israel · Tell
Chalcolithic to Byzantine (peak Iron I–II, 1200–701 BCE) · Chalcolithic well-diggers → Canaanite → Israelite/Judahite → Assyrian → Byzantine
UNESCO biblical frontier tell with four-room houses and Israel's earliest engineered water-tunnel.
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Early Bronze Age to Iron Age (c.3000–600 BCE) · Amorite → Hittite–Egyptian frontier → Iron Age Aramaean
Qadesh/Kadesh Orontes city 33 ha (1274 BCE Battle of Kadesh battlefield, double walls) SW of Homs.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Early Bronze Age I–III through Middle Bronze Age (c.3000–1500 BCE) · Islahiye EBA (Amanus) with Early Transcaucasian influence → Hittite
Amanus cemetery-tell with 200+ EBA pithos burials and EBA–MBA houses — Islahiye plain mortuary type-site.
🇷🇴 Romania · Tell
Chalcolithic Precucuteni–Cucuteni A–B and Horodiștea (c.5800–3500 BCE) · Cucuteni–Trypillia
Archetypal Cucuteni tell on a 30 m terrace of the Tazlău Sărăt, with 12 m cultural deposit and ~13 stratified horizons from Precucuteni to Cucuteni B and Horodiștea.
🇷🇴 Romania · Ancient village
Middle Neolithic to Late Neolithic (Hamangia I–IV) · Hamangia (Black Sea Neolithic)
Type-site Hamangia culture (c.5250–4550 BCE, Middle Neolithic–Early Chalcolithic) on Goloviţa lagoon: low tell plus flat cemetery famous for 'The Thinker' (Gânditorul) and Woman seated figurines —…
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient village
Late Neolithic to Chalcolithic to Early Bronze · Hacilar-Kuruçay-Beycesultan sequence
Neolithic to Early Bronze lakeside tell with 13 levels (c.6200–3800 BCE, + EBA), bridging Hacilar (Level 6 early pottery) to Chalcolithic fortified town.
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
MB → LBA Egyptian/Hittite → Iron Phoenician → Persian → Hellenistic (2000–300 BCE) · Amorite → Egyptian (Amarna) → Hittite → Phoenician
Amarna Sumur (350×325 m oval) — Egyptian garrison, Hittite destruction, Phoenician plain capital in Akkar.
🇹🇷 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.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Pre-Pottery Neolithic to Late Chalcolithic (9700–3500 BCE) · PPN → Halaf → Ubaid → Late Chalcolithic
Zeytinli Bahçe Step Trench East is the eastern step-trench sounding of Zeytinli Bahçe on the Euphrates left bank 5 km north of Birecik — the Neolithic step-trench key from PPN (9700 BCE) to Late…
