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CategoriesTells
Mounds made of layer upon layer of settlement.
🇸🇾 Syria · Pyramid
Early Bronze to Old Babylonian (2900–1759 BCE) · Sumerian, Amorite
Legendary Euphrates emporium at Tell Hariri, 120 km south-east of Deir ez-Zor, capital of Amorite kingdom under Yahdun-Lim and Zimri-Lim, sacked by Hammurabi 1761 BCE, freezing palace archive of…
🇮🇷 Iran · Ancient city
Chalcolithic to Islamic (5600 BCE–1500 CE; urban peak MBA 2000–1500 BCE) · Zagros Chalcolithic → Early Dynastic Zagros → Old Babylonian peripheral → Kassite → Islamic
45 m Zagros mound with Old Babylonian archive linking Babylon to Iranian intermontane valley.
🇮🇳 India · Ancient village
Southern Neolithic 3000–1400 BCE → Megalithic 1000 BCE–300 CE · Southern Neolithic Ash Mound Culture (Karnataka–Andhra)
Southern Neolithic ash mound (3000–1400 BCE) in Tumkur granite — 12 m burnt dung vitrified ash with cattle pen sequence.
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Late Uruk (LC5) southern colony · Uruk (southern Mesopotamian)
Uruk planned colonial city (c.3500–3300 BCE, LC5, contemporary with Jemdet Nasr south) on Euphrates terrace — mother colony that proved Uruk expansion: fully gridded 18-ha walled town built ex novo…
🇮🇱 Israel · Tell
Neolithic through Persian–Hellenistic (c.5000 BCE–332 BCE); EBA, MB–LB Canaanite, Iron I–II, Persian · Chalcolithic–EBA Canaanite → LB Canaanite → Iron I Philistine/Judahite → Persian province
1890 stratigraphic excavation origin — 12-m Petrie tell with EBA–Persian sequence (Neolithic–Iron) founding ceramic seriation.
🇮🇶 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.
🇺🇦 Ukraine · Tell
Late Chalcolithic–Early Bronze Tripolye C2 → Usatovo (c.3500–3200 BCE) → Early Yamnaya fringe · Late Trypillia C2 → Usatovo (Post-Trypillia) steppe–farming synthesis → Early Yamnaya infiltration
Usatovo village–kurgan cemetery (c.3500–3200 BCE) on liman — Trypillia→Yamnaya bridge with stelae and copper (Petrenko).
🇯🇴 Jordan · Tell
EB III through EB IV/Intermediate Bronze (c.2500–2000 BCE) with EBA predecessor and MB I squatter · EB III Canaanite → EB IV transitional (Intermediate Bronze) highland town
Fortified EB IV town (c.2500–2000 BCE) with double walls — only continuous EBA III→EB IV survival above 4.2kya collapse (Richard).
🇪🇬 Egypt · Ancient city
Predynastic (Buto-Maadi) to Dynastic to Greco-Roman · Lower Egyptian (Buto-Maadi) → Unified Egyptian
Dual city Pe and Dep — cult centre of cobra goddess Wadjet (tutelar of Lower Egypt) and predynastic–archaic capital that gives 'Buto-Maadi' culture (c.4000–3400 BCE, Palestine-like beveled rims,…
🇺🇸 United States · Tell
Pre-Classic to Classic Hohokam (800–1450 CE) · Hohokam Pre-Classic (Colonial–Sedentary) → Classic (Soho–Civano)
Pueblo Grande Phoenix Canal Mound South is the canal headgate mound south of Pueblo Grande platform — headquarters of the Phoenix Hohokam canal system (Canal Grande) that irrigated 1000 ha on the…
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
EBA through Iron III; Iron Age capital phase · Amuq EBA → Syro-Hittite Luwian-Aramaean Pattin → Assyrian Kinalua
Neo-Hittite capital of Pattin (20 ha double city) on Orontes — Bit-Hilani palaces, colossal Syro-Hittite sculpture and Luwian inscriptions, now cotton-buried lower town.
🇧🇬 Bulgaria · Tell
Early Chalcolithic to Late Chalcolithic (4600–3800 BCE) · Boian–Gumelnița → KGK VI (Kodzhadermen–Gumelnița–Karanovo VI)
Hotnitsa Tell North Settlement is the 3.2-ha north extension of the Hotnitsa Eneolithic tell on the Yantra River — a Gumelnița–KGK VI tell 15 km northeast of Veliko Tarnovo.
🇷🇸 Serbia · Tell
Late Neolithic Vinča D (c.4700–4500 BCE) with Bubanj Hum I (c.4500–4200 BCE) intrusive · Vinča D (Late Vinča Banat) → Bubanj Hum I proto-Eneolithic
Late Vinča tell (c.4500 BCE) with tripod altar and Bubanj Hum break on Tamiš — Tasić/Hiller Banat–Morava type-site.
🇧🇬 Bulgaria · Tell
Late Neolithic to Chalcolithic (5000–4000 BCE) · Boian → Polyanitsa → Gumelnița (KGK VI)
Ovcharovo Tell North Mound is the northern tell of the Ovcharovo complex on the Ludogorie plateau — one of Todorova's Polyanitsa–Gumelnița tells documenting Late Neolithic to Chalcolithic nucleation…
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient village
Late Neolithic → Halaf → Ubaid (6000–4300 BCE) · Halaf (North Mesopotamian painted) → Northern Ubaid
Halaf hamlet (c.6000–4300 BCE, 175 m) — classic Halaf tholoi type-site on Diyarbakır piedmont (Watson/LeBlanc 1968).
🇷🇸 Serbia · Tell
Neolithic through Medieval (c.6000 BCE–15th c. CE); Starčevo, Vinča, Vučedol, Vatin–Belegiš, La Tène, Roman–Medieval · Starčevo–Koros → Vinča → Kostolac–Vučedol → Vatin–Belegiš (Bronze) → Hallstatt–La Tène Scordisci
6th-mill.–15th-c. Srem tell (45 ha survey) with Vinča–Vučedol–Scordisci sequence — 10 m stratigraphy on Sava (Garašanin).
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
PPNA through Ubaid (c.9600–5500 BCE); PPNA, PPNB, Halaf, Ubaid · Upper Euphrates Neolithic (Mezraa phase) → Halaf → Ubaid
Neolithic–Halaf Euphrates tell (c.9600–5500 BCE) with PPNA round huts to Halaf painted pottery — Euphrates Neolithic type-site.
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient village
PPNB to Halaf (8000–5500 BCE) · Steppe PPNB → Halaf-Ubaid (Palmyrene)
Palmyrene desert oasis PPNB village cluster around artesian spring, desert Neolithisation laboratory.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Neolithic through Byzantine; Cilician corridor · Cilician Neolithic → Hittite Kizzuwatna → Neo-Hittite Que → Greco-Roman
Mersin coastal tell with 25 m deposit from Aceramic Neolithic (7000 BCE) to Roman — Garstang’s Cilician Neolithic–Hittite maritime gateway sequence.
🇮🇳 India · Ancient village
Neolithic 2500–1500 → Chalcolithic 1500–600 BCE → NBPW 600 BCE · Mid-Gangetic Neolithic–Chalcolithic — Chirand facies
Chirand Gangetic Settlement — Neolithic–Chalcolithic–NBPW stratified mega-mound (2500 BCE–600 BCE) on Ghaghara–Gandak–Ganges triple confluence 14 km east Chhapra, excavated 1960–71 and 2004 by B.N.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Early Neolithic to Chalcolithic (6200–3800 BCE) · Starčevo → Karanovo I → Karanovo–Gumelnița
Aşağı Pınar Kırklareli Thracian Tell is the flagship Turkish Thrace tell on the Ergene floodplain south of Kırklareli — an 8-m Early Neolithic to Chalcolithic tell (6200–3800 BCE) linking Karanovo I…
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Middle Bronze to Iron Age (2000–700 BCE; peak Hittite 1500–1180 BCE) · Hattian → Old Assyrian karum → Hittite → Kaška/Phrygian
Confirmed Šamuḫa on upper Kızılırmak — palace archive and Storm-God cult city of Empire zenith.
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Ubaid to Late Chalcolithic / Early Bronze (c.4500–3200 BCE; urban peak LC2 c.3700 BCE) · North Mesopotamian LC indigenous → confronts Late Uruk expansion
13 ha fortified pre-Uruk northern city with eye-idol temple destroyed by Uruk sling-blitz.
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
Pre-Pottery Neolithic B to Pottery Neolithic to Halaf (7100–5500 BCE, Burnt Village c.6000 BCE) · Neolithic Balikh (Pre-Halaf, early Ubaid influence)
Neolithic clustering Tell Sabi Abyad (Balikh) 4 mounds I–III covering 10 ha, 8 m high on Balikh spring line: Pre-Pottery Neolithic B to Halaf (7100–5500 BCE) with rectangular mudbrick houses,…
