🇺🇸 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…
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Spruce Hill Earthworks
Middle Woodland / Late Woodland debated · Hopewell tradition or Fort Ancient tradition
Hilltop stone-walled enclosure 42 ha above Paint Creek; Hopewell vs Fort Ancient debate.
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Larkin Mound
Middle Woodland Weeden Island 200–600 CE · Weeden Island / Gulf Hopewell
Crystal River satellite burial mound with Hopewell copper and quartz, Gulf Hopewell southernmost evidence.
🇯🇴 Jordan · Earthwork
Desert Kites of Jordan and Syria
Pre-Pottery Neolithic to Bronze Age (~7000–3000 BCE) · Neolithic–Chalcolithic hunter-pastoralist
Over 5,800 kite structures sprawl across the harraat basalt deserts of Jordan, Syria and Saudi Arabia, each comprising two converging low walls up to 5 km long funneling gazelle herds into a stone…
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Emerald Mound
Plaquemine Mississippian Emerald phase 1250–1600 CE · Plaquemine (Natchez)
Second-largest mound in N America, 10.7 m terraced pyramid, 1250–1600 CE.
🇵🇪 Peru · Hydraulic works
Qhapaq Ñan – Andean Road System
Inca Empire with antecedents Wari/Tiwanaku (~1000–1532 CE; Inca 1438–1532 CE) · Inca (with pre-Inca antecedents)
The backbone of Tawantinsuyu, Qhapaq Ñan runs 6,000 km along the Andean crest from Colombia to Chile, with east–west transversal roads totalling over 23,000 km.
🇲🇽 Mexico · Archaeological wonder
La Joya
Classic Veracruz 100–1000 CE · Classic Veracruz (Remojadas-Early Gulf)
26-m earthen platform pyramid on Gulf coastal plain, 100–1000 CE.
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Rock Eagle Effigy Mound
Archaic–Woodland 1000 BCE–1000 CE · Woodland / Archaic
36.5-m quartz eagle effigy, 1000–500 BCE.
🇨🇷 Costa Rica · Megalith
Diquís Stone Spheres
Chiriquí period (~600–1500 CE; peak Aguas Buenas 800–1350 CE) · Diquís (Chiriquí, Isthmo-Colombian)
Costa Rica's Diquís Delta preserves over 300 near-perfect spheres of gabbro up to 2.66 m diameter and 16 tonnes, shaped by pecking and grinding until calipers verify sphericity within 2 cm.
🇺🇸 United States · Ancient city
Caddo Mounds State Historic Site
Caddoan Mississippian 800–1300 CE (Early Caddo) · Caddoan (Hasinai)
Southernmost Caddoan Mississippian center with three mounds, plaza and El Camino trace.
🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Archaeological wonder
Sweet Track
Early Neolithic (~3807 BCE) · British Early Neolithic
The oldest engineered timber trackway in northern Europe, a 1.8-km raised walkway of oak planks pegged to transverse ash rails, dendro-dated to construction in the winter–spring of 3807 BCE.
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Turner Group Earthworks
Middle Woodland Hopewell 100–400 CE · Hopewell tradition (Turner phase)
Hopewell enclosure-mound group source of copper effigies and mica tombs on Little Miami terrace.
🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Earthwork
Stonehenge Cursus
Early Neolithic 3800–3600 BCE · Early Neolithic Britons
2.7-km Neolithic processional enclosure predating Stonehenge by 500 years.
🇳🇬 Nigeria · Ancient city
Birnin Gazargamu
Late Medieval Kanem–Bornu (1460–1808 CE) · Kanuri (Kanem–Bornu)
Birnin Gazargamu (1460–1808) was Kanem–Bornu Empire capital, 6.5 km earthen walls 5 m high enclosing palace mound, great mosque 100×50 m and 200 compound mounds on Yo/ Kamadugu Yobe. 15th-c.
🇿🇦 South Africa · Earthwork
Bokoni Stone-Walled Terraces
Late Iron Age (1500–1820 CE; peak 1700–1820) · Eastern Sotho (Bokoni)
Bokoni (Koni) terraces in Mpumalanga escarpment are 150 ha dry-stone agricultural terraces 16th–19th c., built by Eastern Sotho Bokoni people on hillslopes with road causeways and stock kraal…
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Grave Creek Mound
Early Woodland, Adena culture 1000 BCE–1 CE (peak 250–150 BCE) · Adena
Largest conical burial mound in North America (62 ft/19 m high, 240 ft/73 m diameter, 60,000 tons earth moved by basket) built by Adena peoples at Moundsville, WV.
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Hopewell Culture National Historical Park (Mound City Group)
Hopewell 1–500 CE (Middle Woodland, peak 100–400 CE) · Hopewell tradition (Scioto Hopewell)
Finest Hopewell enclosure: 13-acre (5.3 ha) flat-topped earthen-walled enclosure (1,211 m perimeter, 1–1.8 m high) near Scioto River enclosing 24 conical, elongated and effigy mounds.
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Cahokia Woodhenge
Mississippian Emergent–Early 900–1150 CE · Mississippian (Cahokia)
Mississippian timber Stonehenge: 410 m 48-post solar calendar aligned to Monks Mound solstice.
🇲🇽 Mexico · Pyramid
La Venta Pyramid (Complex C)
Middle Formative Olmec 1000–400 BCE (pyramid c. 1000–600 BCE) · Olmec
Olmec capital La Venta (1000–400 BCE) great pyramid Complex C: 31–33 m high clay mound (150 × 130 m base, volume 100,000 m³), earliest known intentional pyramid in Mesoamerica (1000 BCE) – uniquely…
🇵🇪 Peru · Hydraulic works
Moray Agricultural Terraces
Late Horizon, Inca (~1300–1530 CE) · Inca
Three colossal natural depressions on the Maras plateau were amplified by Incas into concentric circular andenes up to 150 m across and 30 m deep, each terrace a microclimate ring with temperature…
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park
Mississippian Early 900–1200 CE atop Woodland-Archaic · Mississippian (Lamar and Etowah)
17,000-year occupation culminating in 17 m Temple Mound, 900–1200 CE.
🇺🇸 United States · Rock art
Pipestone National Monument Quarries
Archaic to present (1000 BCE–present) · Sioux (Dakota/Lakota/Nakota), Oneota predecessors
2,000-year sacred catlinite quarries: 3000 pits in Sioux quartzite cliff plus thunderbird petroglyphs.