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Mounds made of layer upon layer of settlement.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Ubaid to Ur III (6500–2000 BCE; peak Ubaid 5500–3800 BCE) · Ubaid (southern Mesopotamian) → Uruk → Early Dynastic → Ur III
Type-site of the Ubaid period — low mound with tripartite temples and ophidian figurines.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Samarra through Ubaid 3 (c.5500–4100 BCE); Samarra, Hajji Muhammad, Ubaid 3 · Samarra (Choga Mami) → Hajji Muhammad → Ubaid 3 Hamrin facies
Samarra–Ubaid transition village (c.5500–4100 BCE) with tripartite houses and Iran–south assimilation — Hamrin Samarra outpost.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Pyramid
Early Dynastic to Ur III / Isin-Larsa · Sumerian
E-mah ziggurat of Ninhursag at Adab (Tell Bismaya) — 50 m square platform c.2600 BCE, place of the Indiana-Jones-associated Banks 1903–04 excavations.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Ubaid through Early Dynastic I (c.4000–2800 BCE); Ubaid 4, Uruk, Jemdat Nasr, ED I · Ubaid → Uruk colonial (southern Mesopotamian) → Jemdet Nasr → ED I Diyala
Hamrin Uruk colonial tell with bevelled-rim and cylinder sealings (c.3800–3100 BCE) — Roaf’s Ubaid→ED sequence.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Early Dynastic III through Ur III/Isin-Larsa (c.2600–1900 BCE); ED III, Akkadian, Ur III · ED III Diyala → Akkadian → Ur III provincial Hamrin
Hamrin cemetery tell with 200 ED III–Ur III shaft graves — Fujii’s Diyala–Zagros transition necropolis (Songor A–C).
🇮🇶 Iraq · Pyramid
Early Dynastic to Ur III · Sumerian (Umma dynasty / Ur III province)
Shara temple ziggurat mound at Umma (Tell Jokha) — 60×45 m platform c.2500–2100 BCE, city-god Shara's E-mah towering over Umma–Lagash frontier.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Old Babylonian to Mitanni, c.1900-1400 BCE (Shamshi-Adad, Hammurabi, Mitanni) · Old Babylonian / Mitanni (Karana / Qattara)
Tell al-Rimah (ancient Qattara/Karana) south of Jebel Sinjar: massive tell 40 ha with high ziggurat mound 30 m high (200×200 m base) and lower town.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Ubaid to Middle Bronze (5000–1500 BCE; peak Chalcolithic 4500–3500 BCE) · Northern Ubaid → Gawran Chalcolithic → Uruk → Early Dynastic → Mitanni
Northern Ubaid–Uruk reference mound with 18 m Round House and 20-level sequence.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Early Dynastic to Old Babylonian (c. 2700 – 1600 BCE) · Sumerian / Akkadian / Ur III / Isin-Larsa / Old Babylonian
Sargonic linen harbour city – canal harbour 80×50 m silted 500 m east of tell with 1200 tablets.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Ubaid through Early Dynastic II (c.5000–2500 BCE); Ubaid 3–4, Uruk, Jemdat Nasr, ED I–II · Ubaid southern → Uruk–Jemdat Nasr → Early Dynastic Diyala regional
Ubaid–ED Hamrin house mound with tripartite ED I house (House 1) — British Hamrin Dam salvage town (5000–2500 BCE).
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Ubaid 0 through Ubaid I (c.6500–5500 BCE); late Samarra–Hajji Muhammad horizon · Samarra–Ubaid 0 (Oueili phase) → Ubaid 1 (Hajji Muhammad) southern Mesopotamian
Ubaid 0 (c.6500–5500 BCE) earliest village in southern Mesopotamia predating Eridu — 11 m sounding with buttressed temple (Huot).
🇮🇶 Iraq · Pyramid
Hassuna–Samarran, Ubaid (6000–4800 BCE) · Samarra culture
Type mound for Samarran culture immediately south of Samarra on cliff overlooking Tigris floodplain, excavated by al-Adhami and Yasin (1964–69).
🇮🇶 Iraq · Pyramid
Isin-Larsa, Old Babylonian · Akkadian/Amorite — Old Babylonian
Mound in eastern Baghdad now within urban fringe, excavated by Taha Baqir (1945–63), preserving complete Old Babylonian administrative quarter with 3000 cuneiform tablets covering law, mathematics…
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Early Dynastic to Old Babylonian (Isin-Larsa contemporary) · Sumerian-Akkadian Eshnunna kingdom
Akkadian-Old Babylonian city-state of Eshnunna (c.3000–1760 BCE) controlling Diyala basin between Sumer and Elam, famous for the Laws of Eshnunna (c.1930 BCE, ~60 laws predating Hammurapi by two…
🇮🇶 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…
🇮🇶 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.
🇮🇶 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'.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Pyramid
Proto-Hassuna, Hassuna, Samarran (6500–5500 BCE) · Hassuna culture
Between two wadis south-west of Mosul, this 1943–44 excavation by Seton Lloyd and Fuad Saffar defined the Hassuna culture — earliest ceramic Neolithic in northern Iraq — through 15 building levels.
🇮🇶 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…
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
EBA-MBA-LBA (c.3500-1200 BCE) · Euphrates EBA to Old Babylonian/Mitannian
Tell al-Rimah (Qattara/Karana) — buried eba-mba-lba tell/village at Nineveh Governorate.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Early Dynastic to Neo-Assyrian to Parthian · Assyrian (Akkadian dialect)
First capital and holy city of Assyria (c.2600 BCE–614 BCE, 70 ha on Tigris bend) — temple of god Assur (Ashur) whose city and god name are one.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Neolithic Hassuna-Samarra (c.6000–5600 BCE) · Hassuna
Type site 1939–44 excavation by Seton Lloyd that defined the Hassuna painted pottery tradition of northern Iraq.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Ubaid to Old Babylonian (c.5000–1700 BCE; peak ED IIIb–Lagash II) · Ubaid → Sumerian (Lagash) → Akkadian → Ur III → Isin-Larsa → Babylonian
Lagash state capital with Gudea statues, 50,000 tablets and newly CT-mapped canal temple.
