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Mounds made of layer upon layer of settlement.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Ubaid to Early Dynastic I (c.5000–2900 BCE; mural is Late Uruk–Jemdet Nasr c.3200 BCE) · Ubaid → Uruk → Jemdet Nasr → Early Dynastic
Painted Temple mound with 3200 BCE leopard mural — first mural art in Mesopotamia.
🇸🇾 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.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Old Hittite to Empire (1650–1200 BCE) · Hittite (Hattic substrate)
Old Hittite cult terrace that produced the four-register Inandik vase (acrobats and goddess).
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Chalcolithic to Byzantine (5200 BCE–1200 CE; peak Hittite and Phrygian) · Central Anatolian Chalcolithic → Hattian → Hittite → Phrygian → Roman
Yozgat tell with 5200 BCE-to-Byzantine sequence bridging central plateau and Hittite north.
🇮🇷 Iran · Tell
Pre-Pottery Neolithic to Chalcolithic (c.11700–3600 BCE) · PPNA → PPNB → Early Chalcolithic (Seimareh Neolithic)
Seimareh 10kyr Neolithic tell 8 m (c.11.7–3.6 ka, 12000 plant samples, pisé) near Seimareh valley.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
EBA-MBA-LBA (c.3500-1200 BCE) · Euphrates EBA to Old Babylonian/Mitannian
Hassek Höyük — buried eba-mba-lba tell/village at Şanlıurfa Province.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Jemdet Nasr to Early Dynastic IIIa (c.3000–2500 BCE) · Early Dynastic Sumerian
Canoe-shaped Sumerian city Tell Fara 35 miles S of Nippur, legendary home of Ziusudra (Utnapishtim).
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Neolithic to Late Bronze collapse 1190 BCE · Ugaritic Semitic (Amorite-Canaanite) under Hittite-Egyptian influence
Late Bronze cosmopolitan port (c.6000 BCE Neolithic to 1190 BCE destruction) on the Mediterranean, capital of the Kingdom of Ugarit (c.1450–1190 BCE) with cuneiform alphabetic tablets (world's first…
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Early Dynastic to Old Babylonian (c.2900–1700 BCE; peak Lagash–Umma border war 2500–2350 BCE) · Sumerian (Umma ensi dynasty) → Akkadian → Ur III → Isin-Larsa
Lagash's blood-enemy with Stele-of-Vultures war archive and 20,000 Ur III tablets of a date-palm oligarchy.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Late Chalcolithic–Early Bronze Age (c.3500–2200 BCE) · Late Chalcolithic → Early Transcaucasian/Karabaz
Altınova EBA cemetery-village (c.3500–2200 BCE, 47 cist graves, Karaz ware) by Lake Keban.
🇮🇷 Iran · Tell
Neolithic–Transitional Chalcolithic (c.7500–4500 BCE) · Jeitun-related → Cheshmeh Ali (Northeast Iran Neolithic)
Shahroud two-mound Neolithic tell (c.7500–4500 BCE, West PPN timber, East painted, 1400 m) at Shahrud.
🇮🇱 Israel · Ancient village
Pottery Neolithic / Yarmoukian · Yarmoukian (Levantine Pottery Neolithic)
Type-site of the Yarmoukian culture (6400–5800 BCE), the first Pottery Neolithic culture of the southern Levant, on the Yarmouk River.
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
Early Bronze Age III–IV (c.2600–2000 BCE) · Southern Syria EB (Ghouta palace culture)
Ghouta EB palace 8 ha (c.2600–2000 BCE, wall paintings, double enceinte) 18 km SE Damascus.
🇵🇸 Palestine · Ancient city
Iron Age capital to Crusader · Israelite → Assyrian → Herodian
Hilltop capital of Kingdom of Israel after 880 BCE (Omri bought hill from Shemer for 2 talents silver — 1 Kings 16:24) with Israelite palatial ivories (Samaria Ivories, Louvre) and Ostraca warehoused…
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
Halaf to Ninevite V (5900–2600 BCE) · Halaf → Northern Ubaid → Uruk → Ninevite V
Tell Aqab Settlement Ridge is the Halaf–Ubaid–Uruk ridge on the Upper Khabur headwaters near Amuda — excavated by Davidson & McKerrell as the Halaf-Ubaid transition key in inland Syria.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Aceramic Neolithic (PPNB equivalent) · Central Anatolian Neolithic
Pre-Pottery Neolithic tell (c.8200–7400 BCE) on the Melendiz in Cappadocia, earliest village with brain surgery (trepanation) and animal pen dung layers showing caprine management toward…
🇮🇷 Iran · Tell
Chalcolithic (Bakun, c.4000–3500 BCE) · Fars Chalcolithic Bakun culture
Marv Dasht Bakun twin mounds (c.4000–3500 BCE, painted Bakun ware, sealings, pillared hall) 3 km S Persepolis.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Halaf → Northern Ubaid → Late Chalcolithic → EBA (6200–3000 BCE) · Halaf-Ubaid → Uruk fringe
Halaf-Ubaid village (6200–5000 BCE) — 3 ha Euphrates hamlet, Pollock Birecik Dam salvage.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Early Bronze Age II-III peak; MBA-Hittite reuse · Central Anatolian EBA (Konya Plain) → Hittite Lower Land
Konya plain EBA walled city (33 ha) with MB karum and Hittite terraces — Sedat Alp’s plateau urbanism type-site south of Çatalhöyük.
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Early Bronze to Mitanni (Hurrian Urkesh) · Hurrian
Hurrian capital Urkesh (c.3000–1350 BCE) attributed to the god Kumarbi, with monumental Royal Palace of Tupkish (c.2250 BCE) and underground stone Abi (nekromanteion — pit to summon underworld…
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Neolithic → EBA → MBA Karum → LBA → Iron → Medieval (6000 BCE–1500 CE) · Halaf → Euphrates EBA → Assyrian Karum → Mitanni/Hittite
Euphrates peninsula tell (Neolithic–Medieval) — 12 m double mound with Karum tablets, Hauptmann salvage.
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Bronze Age (c.2000–1187 BCE), peak Late Bronze 1500–1187 BCE · Amorite → Mittanian → Hittite viceregal
Euphrates LB city 10 ha (1200 tablets, Baal/Astarte twin temples) on Lake Assad shore.
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
Halaf–Ubaid (c.5700–4200 BCE) · Halaf → Ubaid northern
Khabur headwaters Halaf–Ubaid tell 7 m high (tholoi, dark-faced ware) at spring source.
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Early Bronze Age III–IV (c.2700–2000 BCE) · Syrian EBA (Ebla–Marra corridor)
Jabbul EB walled town 20 ha (c.2700–2000 BCE, shaft tombs with equid teams, gold jewellery).