🇲🇷 Mauritania · Ancient village
Akjoujt (Agueijit)
Chalcolithic to Early Iron Age (1800–500 BCE) · Pre-Mauritanian / early Berber / unknown Saharan smiths
West Africa's earliest copper-mining landscape Akjoujt — 1,000 tons slag from 1500 BCE.
🇲🇽 Mexico · Pyramid
Uxul — Pyramid M1 and Acropolis Pyramid (Calakmul Biosphere, Campeche, Mexico)
Preclassic to Late Classic (100 BCE–900 CE) · Maya (Kaan polity satellite)
Hugely sprawling 4 km² Late Classic centre (250–900 CE) between Tikal and Calakmul, dominated by Pyramid M1 (30x25 m, 14 m high with roof comb) and K2 double pyramid acropolis (two 12 m pyramids on…
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Crystal River Mounds
Middle Woodland (Deptford–Weeden Island, 200 BCE–750 CE) · Deptford–Weeden Island (Florida Woodland)
Woodland plaza center (200 BCE–750 CE) with 6 mounds and Hopewell exotics on Crystal River estuary, Florida.
🇱🇹 Lithuania · Earthwork
Apuolė Hillfort – Earliest Lithuanian Stronghold
Early Middle Ages (850–1250 CE) · Curonian / Baltic
Apuolė Hillfort – Earliest Lithuanian Stronghold in Klaipėda County, Skuodas District, Apuolė village, Lithuania is a Early Middle Ages (850–1250 CE) Curonian / Baltic site built pre-850 CE, siege…
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Mound Bottom–Pack Site Complex
Mississippian Middle Cumberland (1000–1350 CE) · Mississippian (Mound Bottom phase)
Major Mississippian town (1000–1350 CE) on Harpeth River meander: 14 platform and burial mounds including 13-m-high Monks-Mound-scale Mound A (90×70 m base) within 10 ha palisaded plaza, plus Pack…
🇬🇹 Guatemala · Pyramid
Yaxhá — Plaza C North Pyramid and Lakeside Pyramids (Petén, Guatemala)
Preclassic to Late Classic (600 BCE–900 CE) · Maya (Yaxhá–Naranjo rivalry)
Major Petén lakeside Maya city (600 BCE–900 CE) between Yaxhá and Sacnab lakes, rival to Naranjo, covering 3 km² with 9 pyramids.
🇵🇪 Peru · Pyramid
Honcopampa — Recuay-Wari Pyramid Platform Town (Ancash, Peru)
Early Intermediate to Middle Horizon (400–800 CE) · Recuay (Pashash)–Wari
High puna fortified town (400–800 CE) of Recuay then Wari, built as terraced pyramidal platform town with 4+ stone masonry pyramids (8–12 m high, 20–30 m per side) capped by elite halls and…
🇵🇪 Peru · Pyramid
Pacatnamú — Pyramid Complex of the Jequetepeque Valley (La Libertad, Peru)
Gallinazo to Late Intermediate (500 BCE–1470 CE) · Moche–Lambayeque–Chimú palimpsest
Huge coastal Moche–Lambayeque pyramid and fortress city perched on bluff above Jequetepeque delta (500 BCE–1370 CE continuous).
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Moorehead Circle at Fort Ancient
Middle Woodland Hopewell (c.100 BCE–250 CE) with Fort Ancient reuse · Hopewell → Fort Ancient
Outer-embankment timber circle 60 m diameter discovered 2007 by magnetometry inside Fort Ancient Hilltop Enclosure (Hopewell 100 BCE–500 CE, later Fort Ancient reuse).
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Watson Brake
Middle–Late Archaic (3500–2800 BCE) · Middle Archaic Watson Brake culture
Oldest North American mound complex: 11 mounds 5400 BP enclosing oval plaza, hunter-gatherer monument without agriculture.
🇮🇳 India · Ancient city
Sisupalgarh Ancient City
Early Historic to Gupta 700 BCE–400 CE · Kalinga (pre-Mauryan) / Maurya
Massive fortified early historic city (7th/3rd c. BCE–4th c. CE) near Bhubaneswar, largest known settlement of its period in eastern India — nearly perfect square 1.2×1.2 km 1.3 km² with 9 m high…
🇺🇸 United States · Archaeological wonder
Casa Grande Ruins National Monument
Classic Hohokam 1150–1450 CE (Sedentary to Classic transition) · Hohokam (Ancestral Sonoran Desert, ancestors of O’odham)
Ancestral Sonoran Desert four-story Great House (18 m × 13 m, 4 storeys, 11 rooms, caliche clay walls 1 m thick, internal loopholes) – largest known Hohokam structure, preserved under 1932 modern…
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Grand Village of the Natchez
Plaquemine to Historic Natchez (1200–1730 CE) · Plaquemine / Natchez (Muskogean)
Natchez historic capital (1200–1730 CE) — 3 Plaquemine mounds and plaza where French witnessed 1725 sacrifice.
🇵🇪 Peru · Pyramid
Galindo — Platform Pyramid and Moche Urban Terrace (Moche Valley, Peru)
Late Moche / Middle Horizon transition (600–800 CE) · Moche (Late Moche valley polity)
Last Moche capital after Huacas de Moche collapse (600–800 CE), 5 km² planned city behind Gallows Hill with Plataforma A pyramid (55x35 m, 10 m high terrace) as palatial-ceremonial core, surrounded…
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Monks Mound
Mississippian 900–1200 CE (peak 1050–1200) · Mississippian (Cahokia)
Largest earthen structure in the Americas north of Mexico and centerpiece of Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site.
🇬🇹 Guatemala · Pyramid
Xultun — Los Arboles Pyramid and Acropolis (Petén, Guatemala)
Maya Preclassic to Late Classic (400 BCE–900 CE) · Maya (Petén lowland)
Massive Classic Maya city 16 km NE of San Bartolo (400 BCE–900 CE) with 5 km² settlement and 35 m-high Lost World pyramid (12H3, 50x20 m base, 26 m high, 5 phases).
🇨🇦 Canada · Archaeological wonder
Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump
Archaic to Protohistoric 3600 BCE–1850 CE (use from 5700 years BP) · Plains Indigenous (Blackfoot / Niitsitapi – Peigan, Kainai, Siksika; earlier Besant, Avonlea)
UNESCO World Heritage buffalo jump (1981) used continuously 5,700 years: 300 m cliff with 10 m drop onto bone bed 11 m deep of bison skeletons, drive lanes marked by 240 cairns stretching 20 km to…
🇯🇵 Japan · Megalith
Kiusu Earthwork Burial Circles
Final Jomon 1200–800 BCE · Jomon Final Hokkaido
Late Jomon collective burial banked circles (1200–800 BCE) on terrace above Ushiku River at Chitose — 9 embanked circular enclosures diameter 12–75 m built of external ditch and internal bank housing…
🇺🇸 United States · Ancient city
Blood Run Site
Late Prehistoric Oneota (Blood Run phase 1500–1700 CE) · Oneota (ancestors Dakota-Ioway)
Largest Oneota town 1500–1700: 76 mounds and boulder enclosure, 6,000 residents on Big Sioux.
🇺🇸 United States · Ancient city
Fort Center
Woodland Glades 450 BCE–1700 CE · Belle Glade (Calusa/Glades)
Glades woodland pond-mortuary and 1200 m causeway with charnel house, wood effigies in submerged pond.
🇳🇬 Nigeria · Ancient city
Old Oyo (Oyo-Ile)
Yoruba Oyo Empire (14th–1835 CE; capital 16th–1835) · Yoruba (Oyo)
Old Oyo (Oyo-Ile, Katunga) is the 16th–19th c. capital of Oyo Empire, 10 km triple earthen walls enclosing 6,000 ha savanna plain with 17 palace compounds (Kobi), council houses and reservoirs.
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Hopeton Earthworks
Middle Woodland Hopewell 100 BCE–500 CE · Hopewell tradition
Hopewell 22 ha circle-square with 321 m Great Circle, UNESCO 2023 unit-of-measure type-site.
🇸🇪 Sweden · Earthwork
Bulverket Lake Fortress (Tingstäde Träsk, Gotland)
Early Middle Ages (c.1120–1150 CE) · Medieval Gotlandic
Massive 1130s timber platform fortress in Tingstäde Träsk lake, Gotland: 170 × 170 m square bulwark of ca. 25,000 pine logs forming a square grid with causeway to shore.
🇳🇬 Nigeria · Ancient city
Zaria City Walls
Early Kano to Sokoto (14th–19th c. CE; peak 16th–18th c.) · Hausa (Zazzau) / Fulani
Zaria City Walls (Birnin Zaria) are Hausa Kingdom of Zazzau's 14th-c. mud walls 14 km circuit encircling Zau Zau hill and Emir's palace, founded by Queen Amina legend but archaeologically Sarkin…