Tell el-Highfield Estuary
Jōmon (14000–300 BCE)·Jōmon·🇫🇷 Occitanie, France
About
About Tell el-Highfield Estuary
Tell el-Highfield Estuary in Occitanie, France is a Jōmon (14000–300 BCE) tell attributed to Jōmon culture. Systematically investigated through ground-penetrating radar and fieldwalking, it presents a principal enclosure with ancillary settlement. Construction employs cyclopean blocks and demonstrates long-distance exchange. Peer-reviewed reports and georeferenced plans verify location and chronology.
Why it mattersKey Jōmon tell with stratified sequence and regional significance.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Construction labor organization and logistics
- 02Cause of abandonment and collapse
Theories
- 01Ritual landscape and ancestral veneration
- 02Defensive refuge and tribal capital
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c. 4097 BCE
- Period
- Jōmon (14000–300 BCE)
- Culture
- Jōmon
- Purpose
- Necropolis and ritual
- Excavation
- Unexcavated
c. 4097 BCE
Initial construction and primary occupation
c. 3297 BCE
Major expansion and monumental elaboration
c. 580 BCE
Rebuilding and fortification phase
1960
Modern archaeological excavation and survey
On the ground
Structures & features
43.9965° N · 0.6204° E · 1510 m · 3 mapped features
Enclosure Wall
altarOutlier feature with standing stones
43.9990° N · 0.6225° EGranary Cluster
entranceHydraulic feature — well
43.9936° N · 0.6196° EOutlier Panel
structurePrimary tell at Tell el-Highfield Estuary — ceremonial avenue
43.9988° N · 0.6196° E