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CategoriesTumuli
Burial mounds raised over the dead.
🇲🇳 Mongolia · Archaeological wonder
Xiongnu Empire (~200 BCE – 100 CE) · Xiongnu (Hsiung-nu nomadic empire)
Forested ridge north of Ulaanbaatar concealing over 200 deep shaft-tombs (6–18 m deep) of the Xiongnu steppe empire that confronted Han China.
🇷🇺 Russia · Archaeological wonder
Early Scythian (~900–700 BCE) · Aldy-Bel / Arzhan (early Scythian–Siberian)
Enormous 120-m stone platform kurgan in the Uyuk depression, where archaeologists led by Gryaznov and later Chugunov uncovered a radial larch log mortuary house with central royal double burial and…
🇸🇪 Sweden · Tumulus
Vendel Period to Viking Age (c.550–1100 CE) · Vendel / Viking Age Svear
Cemetery on a ridge above the Fyris river used for 600 years (5th–11th c.) with 15 Vendel–Viking boat graves (c.600–1100), chamber graves and 62 cremations.
🇸🇪 Sweden · Tumulus
Vendel Period (550–800 CE) · Vendel Period Svear
Eponymous Vendel Period cemetery in Vendel churchyard with 14 intact boat graves 550–800 CE excavated 1881–93 by Hjalmar Stolpe.
🇷🇺 Russia · Archaeological wonder
Scythian Iron Age (~600–250 BCE; main Pazyryk phase 300 BCE) · Pazyryk (Scythian/Altaic nomadic)
Five large larch-log chamber tombs in the dry Ukok and Ulagan valleys where permafrost preserved tattooed chieftains, silk from China, Persian pile carpets (the oldest extant, 5th century BCE) and 10…
🇷🇺 Russia · Megalith
Tagar culture, Scythian (~800–200 BCE; Salbyk 500 BCE) · Tagar (Scythian-Siberian, Khakass steppe)
So-called Siberian Stonehenge: a 71-m square enclosure of standing Devonian sandstone slabs weighing up to 50 tonnes enclosing a truncated pyramid kurgan 12 m high.
🇰🇿 Kazakhstan · Archaeological wonder
Saka (400–200 BCE) · Saka (Issyk–Tasmola, East Scythian)
Six-meter stone mound on the Talgar fan where Kemal Akishev in 1969 recovered an undisturbed side cist containing an 18-year-old Saka prince clad in 4,000 gold plaques depicting leopard, ibex and…
🇰🇿 Kazakhstan · Archaeological wonder
Scythian Pazyryk phase (~400–250 BCE) · Saka/Pazyryk (East Kazakh nomadic)
Seventy burial mounds in the Bukhtarma valley of the Altai where Canadian–Kazakh teams uncovered horse sacrifices wearing antlered ibex-horn masks transforming them into griffins.
🇫🇷 France · Megalith
Early to Middle Neolithic · Atlantic Early Neolithic / Cerny
Necropolis of six tumuli A-F spanning 4800-3000 BCE, including oldest megalithic building in western France.
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Early Woodland Adena 1000–200 BCE · Adena
Second-largest conical mound in Ohio (65 ft/20 m high, 877 ft circumference) and tallest surviving Adena mound, preserved at Miamisburg Mound State Park.
🇸🇪 Sweden · Tumulus
Iron Age–Viking (500 BCE–1050 CE) · South Scandinavian Iron Age
Sweden's greatest burial field (14 ha) at Anundshög–Badelunda 9 km NE of Västerås: 14 m high 60 m diameter Anund mound (c.550 CE), 12 smaller mounds, 9 stone ships (largest 53×16 m), 12 stone circles…
🇩🇰 Denmark · Tumulus
Iron Age to Viking Age (500–1000 CE) · South Scandinavian Iron Age / Viking
Dramatic Viking burial field (700 graves) and Iron Age/Viking settlement on hill overlooking Limfjord at Nørresundby–Aalborg, preserved under windblown sand after 1000 CE abandonment.
🇫🇷 France · Megalith
Early to Middle Neolithic · Morbihan Neolithic
140 m Neolithic tumulus at Locmariaquer — longest in Brittany, part of Grand Menhir alignment.
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Early Woodland Adena 1000–400 BCE · Adena
Large Adena conical mound (38 ft/11.5 m high, 140 ft/43 m diameter) preserved in Indian Mound Reserve, Enon. One of the best-preserved Adena mounds in Ohio, surrounded by former enclosures now plowed.
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Early Woodland Adena · Adena
Adena conical mound (19.5 ft/6 m high, 95 ft/29 m diameter) preserved as Story Mound State Memorial, encircled by suburban Chillicothe but intact with original ditch.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tumulus
Persian period (c.525 BCE; chamber c.525–500 BCE) · Persian-period Lycian (Elmalı dynasty under Achaemenid satrapy)
Persian-period painted chamber tomb (525 BCE) with 2.5 m banquet frieze under tumulus at Elmalı.
🇸🇪 Sweden · Tumulus
Vendel Period (c.550–600 CE) · Vendel Period Scandinavia
Monumental Vendel Period tumulus at Vendel parish (Tierp) — 37 m diameter, 8 m high, excavated 1914 (Stolpe monument) with cremation of King Ottar Vendelcrowk (Ohthere) noted in Ynglingatal and…
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Middle Woodland Miller culture 100–600 CE · Miller (Woodland)
Isolated conical mound 25 ft/7.6 m high, 70 ft/21 m diameter, tallest extant Woodland mound in north Mississippi.
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Early Woodland Adena to Early Hopewell transition · Adena
Adena conical mound (20 ft/6 m high, 100 ft/30 m diameter) preserved in Campbell Park, Columbus — one of few surviving mounds in Ohio's capital city.
🇮🇪 Ireland · Megalith
Neolithic · Irish Middle Neolithic (Boyne Valley)
Grand passage tomb in the Bend of the Boyne with 85 m diameter cairn, decorated kerbstones and cruciform chamber. Famous for winter solstice sunrise illuminating chamber through roof-box.
🇪🇸 Spain · Megalith
Neolithic to Bronze Age · Iberian megalithic
Three megalithic monuments (Menga, Viera, El Romeral) forming UNESCO site with natural monuments Peña de los Enamorados and El Torcal.
🇫🇷 France · Megalith
Neolithic · Morbihan Neolithic
Er Grah Tumulus & Grand Menhir Brisé in Brittany, Morbihan, France is a Neolithic megalithic attributed to Morbihan Neolithic culture.