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CategoriesTells
Mounds made of layer upon layer of settlement.
🇯🇴 Jordan · Ancient village
LPPNB (Late PPNB) · Levantine LPPNB
Late Pre-Pottery Neolithic B village (7500–6800 BCE, up to 10 ha), one of the largest and highest-altitude Neolithic settlements, controlling the Petra limestone plateau.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Old Babylonian to Hellenistic (c.2000–100 BCE; peak Neo-Babylonian 626–539) · Amorite → Kassite → Neo-Babylonian (Nabu cult)
Borsippa (modern Birs Nimrud) is the sister city of Babylon 17 km south, cult centre of Nabu (scribal god) with the Ezida temple and 70-m ruined ziggurat (most...
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Neolithic Samarra (c.6300–5700 BCE) · Samarra → Ubaid
Ditch-moat village with 130 intramural graves: 130 adult Samarra graves beneath floors yielding alabaster “Sawwan” women – elongated skulls, bitumen-banded eyes – the largest Samarra figurine corpus.
🇷🇴 Romania · Tell
Hamangia to Iron Age (5000 BCE–100 CE; stratotype Cernavodă I 4000–3200 BCE) · Hamangia → Gumelniţa → Cernavodă I–III → Geto-Dacian Iron
Cernavodă stratotype 4000 BCE — namesake Cernavodă I with hamangia base.
🇷🇴 Romania · Tell
Neolithic to Chalcolithic–Cernavodă (5500–3200 BCE; insula 5500–4300 BCE) · Hamangia → Boian → Gumelniţa → Cernavodă I–III
Danube insula Fisher village 5500 BCE — Hamangia-Gumelniţa 12 m tell lower.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Chalcolithic to Iron Age to Medieval · Anatolian Halaf-Ubaid → EBA → Hittite → Phrygian
Large stratified tell (Chalcolithic c.4000 BCE to Phrygian/Medieval, peak EBA–Iron) controlling Kanak Su pass between Kültepe and Hattusa.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Old Babylonian–Old Assyrian (c.1900–1700 BCE) to Middle Assyrian · Upper Mesopotamian Old Babylonian kingdom of Karana / Qattara
Upper Jazira fortified court city Karana (Tell al-Rimah) with massive temple Zigg followed by a double palace discovered by David Oates: palace with wall paintings, archive of 600 OB letters (Qattara…
🇪🇬 Egypt · Ancient village
Neolithic Merimde culture (4800–4300 BCE) · Lower Egyptian Neolithic (Merimde)
Merimde Beni Salama is Egypt's largest Neolithic village, 4800–4300 BCE Merimde culture, 44 ha mound with 1.5 m stratigraphy, oval houses 5×3 m wattle-and-daub, burial in settlement, lithics,…
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Late Uruk to Old Babylonian (c.3300–1700 BCE; peak ED IIIa and Ur III 2600–2000 BCE) · Uruk → Jemdet Nasr → Early Dynastic → Akkadian → Ur III → Isin-Larsa
Pre-Sargonic scribal city of Ninhursag with earliest school tablets and ED drainage galleries.
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
EBA I–III to MBA (2900–1800 BCE) · EBA Syro-Euphrates (Kish-related) → MBA Carchemish
EBA fortified oval town 2400 BCE — tomb 21 elite & burn Level III (Peltenburg).
🇮🇳 India · Ancient village
Neolithic (7000–4000 BCE) · Vindhya Neolithic
Koldihwa — Early Rice Cultivation in Uttar Pradesh, Belan valley, India is a Neolithic (7000–4000 BCE) ancient village attributed to Vindhya Neolithic culture.
🇮🇷 Iran · Ancient city
Early–Middle Bronze (2700–2100 BCE) · Halil Rud (Jiroft)
Early–Middle Bronze (2700–2100 BCE) Halil Rud (Jiroft) ancient city at Kerman Province, Jiroft plain, Halil River – northern citadel mound of jiroft twin city (dims North mound 13 m high; city 400 ha together).
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Middle Bronze to Iron (c.1800–600 BCE) · Mitanni → Middle Assyrian → Neo-Assyrian
Middle Bronze to Iron Age mound (160 m diameter, 12 m high) on the Upper Tigris, salvage west of the Batman–Tigris confl...
🇺🇸 United States · Tell
Ancestral Puebloan (c.600-1300 CE) · Anasazi/Puebloan (Basketmaker to Pueblo III)
Betatakin Cliff Dwelling — buried ancestral tell/village at Arizona.
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient village
PPNB to Late Neolithic (8200–5300 BCE) · PPNB → Pottery Neolithic Yaumoukian /Halaf
PN white-ware hill village 7000 BCE — Veisselle Blanche & deformed skulls (Contenson).
🇮🇳 India · Ancient village
Neolithic (4000 BCE) · Vindhya Neolithic
Mahagara — Vindhya Neolithic in Uttar Pradesh, Belan valley, India is a Neolithic (4000 BCE) ancient village attributed to Vindhya Neolithic culture.
🇮🇷 Iran · Tell
Late Chalcolithic (4000–3500 BCE, Bakun) · Bakun A Chalcolithic
Late Chalcolithic (4000–3500 BCE, Bakun) Bakun A Chalcolithic tell at Fars Province, Persepolis plain – proto-urban chalcolithic painted-pottery centre (dims Mound 2 ha, Bakun A workshops).
🇮🇳 India · Earthwork
Neolithic (3000–2000 BCE) · Southern Neolithic
Sanganakallu — Bellary Ash Mound in Karnataka, Bellary, India is a Neolithic (3000–2000 BCE) earthwork attributed to Southern Neolithic culture.
🇲🇩 Moldova · Ancient village
Chalcolithic (3800–3500 BCE, Cucuteni B) · Cucuteni-Trypillia
Terraced settlement on the Reut river, Cucuteni B / Trypillia BII (c.3800–3500 BCE), ca. 8 ha with dense house clusters and flint workshops. Excavated by T. Passek 1950s and V.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Early Bronze Age (c.3000–2300 BCE) with Phrygian/Classical caps · Northwestern Anatolian EBA → Phrygian
Stratified Early Bronze Age mound (300 × 200 m, 12 m high) on the Porsuk upper Sakarya, excavated by Manfred Korfmann 19...
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Late Bronze–Neo-Assyrian (c.1500–600 BCE) · Mitanni → Middle/Neo-Assyrian
Small but archive-rich tell 20 km N of Nineveh: Mitanni layer produced Nuzi-type tablets, Middle Assyrian governor’s correspondence (14 c. tablets) and Neo-Assyrian granaries. E.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient village
Late Chalcolithic to EBA III (4200–2000 BCE) · Pontic Chalcolithic–EBA (Bafra horizon; Maikop affinities)
Pontic coastal necropolis 4200–2000 BCE — 600 graves, arsenical bronze.
🇹🇲 Turkmenistan · Tell
BMAC Bronze Age (c.2500–1500 BCE; peak Margiana 2400–1600 BCE) · Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC/Oxus civilization)
Gonur Depe is the 55-ha capital of the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC/Oxus civilization, c.2400–1600 BCE) in Karakum — fortified palace-citadel,...
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
Halaf–Early Bronze Age (c.5600–2300 BCE) · Halaf → Ubaid → EBA Syro-Mesopotamian
Interfluve tell 9 m high (Halaf–Ubaid–EB, shaft tombs, black-burnished ware) between Euphrates and Sajur.
