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The catalogue
13,227 places to sift through. Narrow by kind, country, period or how firmly each one is established — contested and pseudoarchaeological claims are labelled here, never hidden.
🇹🇳 Tunisia · Ancient city
Punic to Late Roman (Berber–Punic village to 5th c CE; peak 2nd–3rd c) · Berber / Punic / Roman / Early Christian
55 ha roadside city with Capitolium, twin baths 3,800 m², and Temple of Baalit-Caelestis on Carthage–Theveste road.
🇯🇵 Japan · Ancient village
Late Jomon 3rd c BCE → Yayoi 300 BCE–300 CE → Kofun · Yayoi rice-farming (Tokai Yayoi)
Toro — Yayoi rice-paddy village (1st c CE Yayoi, also 3rd c BCE late Jomon) 2 km south Shizuoka station, Abe River lowland, excavated 1943–47 (Japan's first post-war dig) by Matsumoto.
🇲🇽 Mexico · Ancient city
Epiclassic (650 – 900 CE) · Central Mexican Epiclassic
Xochicalco Mountain in Morelos, Mexico is a Epiclassic (650 – 900 CE) ancient city attributed to Central Mexican Epiclassic culture. UNESCO 1999. Observatory cave with 6-month solar 30 cm beam.
🇧🇷 Brazil · Hypothetical site
Holocene savanna seasonal flooding; colonial cartographic projection onto Rupununi hydrology; pre-Columbian savanna field ridges (no Manoa horizon) · Wapishana savanna field ridges (500–1500 CE) projected as Manoa by European cartographers
El Dorado Lake Parime Uruao southern seasonal varzea 2000 km² — 0.3–1 m Aug–Oct, causeways 3 km are savanna ridges misread as Manoa walls.
🇯🇵 Japan · Ancient city
Yayoi Late 100–250 CE → Kofun Early 250–350 CE (Yamatai → Yamato) · Yayoi → Kofun transition (Yamato initial urbanism)
Yamato proto-city (180–300 CE) at Sakurai foot Mt. Miwa — 3 km village with palace pillars and Himiko Yamatai candidate (Wei Zhi 240 CE).
🇮🇳 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.
🇩🇿 Algeria · Ancient city
Phoenician / Roman / Early Christian · Phoenician / Roman / Christian
Phoenician-Roman-Christian cape town with Great 7-aisle basilica (largest in Africa) and St Salsa martyrion.
🇹🇳 Tunisia · Ancient city
Epipaleolithic to Modern (10,000 BCE-present; peak Capsian 8000-6000 BCE and Roman 1st-4th c CE) · Capsian Epipaleolithic / Numidian / Roman / Byzantine
Capsian oasis fortress Capsa.
🇪🇸 Spain · Megalith
Chalcolithic (c.3000–2800 BCE) · Valencina Chalcolithic (Guadalquivir millares group)
Dolmen de Matarrubilla (Chalcolithic c.3000–2800 BCE) on the Aljarafe plateau above Valencina, Seville, is a 34-m corridor tholos with dry-stone chamber 2 m diameter capped by a 2-m granite capstone…
🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Northern Dynasties to Qing (Western Wei to 19th c.) · Han-Tibetan Buddhist communities of Longxi
Yellow River Tibetan fringe 5-cave scarp Western Wei 540 CE seated Buddha with Tibetan repaint.
🇺🇿 Uzbekistan · Ancient city
Greco-Bactrian 3rd c BCE → Kushan 1st–3rd c CE · Greco-Bactrian → Kushan Bactria
Dalverzin Tepe Surkhandarya — Greco-Bactrian → Kushan fortified city (3rd c BCE–3rd c CE) on Surkhandarya plain 30 km NE Denau, excavated 1960s–80s by G.A. Pugachenkova and Turgunov (Uzbek).
🇨🇳 China · Ancient city
Hwando (Chinese: 丸都; pinyin: Wandu) is a mountain fortress of the ancient Korean kingdom of Goguryeo, built to protect Goguryeo's second capital, Gungnae.
🇯🇴 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).
🇦🇫 Afghanistan · Temple complex
The Abdul Rahman Mosque (Pashto: د عبدالرحمان جومات; Dari: مسجد عبدالرحمان), also known as the Grand Mosque of Kabul, is a Sunni Congregational mosque, located in the central commercial area of Deh…
🇬🇹 Guatemala · Pyramid
Maya Postclassic Contact · Maya Kaqchikel
Kaqchikel capital Iximché (1470–1524 CE): hilltop twin-pyramid plazas Temple 2 10 m with ballcourt and 40 m ravine defences, first Spanish capital of Guatemala 1524.
🇯🇵 Japan · Tumulus
Middle–Late Kofun 350–600 CE (Yamato mature) · Yamato Mozu–Furuichi Kofun tradition
Mozu Kofun Cluster — dense kofun cemetery (49 kofun inscribed, 160,000+ total in Japan, 4th–6th c CE) across Mozu and Furuichi plains 10 km south Osaka, excavated 1970s–2019 Shiraishi et al.
🇵🇪 Peru · Geoglyph
Early Intermediate to Middle Horizon (Nazca-Caravelí / Huari) · Nazca-Caravelí desert pampa tradition
Broad, crimson deflation plain (890 m, 15°52′11″S 74°05′23″W per Maplandia 15.8697S 74.0897W) north of the Atico drainage, bearing 30+ linear geoglyphs: 90-310 m cleared lines, 45 m trapezoid, and…
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Mississippian Pensacola phase (1250–1550 CE) · Mississippian (Pensacola culture)
Pensacola-Mississippian island capital (1250–1550 CE) on low swamp island (0.4 sq km) in Mobile-Tensaw Delta: 18 platform and burial mounds (largest Mound A 11 m high 90×60 m) enclosing 5 plazas on…
🇨🇳 China · Ancient city
Early Shang Erligang 1600–1400 BCE (Xia→Shang transition) · Early Shang (Erligang culture, Zhengzhou phase)
Erligang (Zhengzhou Shang City) — Early Shang walled capital (c.1600–1400 BCE, Erligang culture) under modern Zhengzhou old city, excavated 1950s–80s An Jinhuai and Zou Heng (Henan Institute).
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Plaquemine–historic Natchez (1200–1730 CE, observed 1682–1729) · Natchez (Plaquemine descendant – Muskogean)
Historic Natchez capital (1682–1729) directly observed by French colonists (Iberville, Le Page du Pratz), linking archaeology to eyewitness chiefdom: two platform mounds—Great Sun's Mound A (3.5 m,…
🇯🇵 Japan · Ancient village
Jomon Early 5000 BCE → Middle 3000–2000 BCE → Late 2000–1000 BCE · Jomon (Noto Sea of Japan coastal, Hokuriku)
Mid-Jomon bayhead village (4000–1200 BCE) at Mawaki Noto — 30 m wooden post circle and 6 m pit-house row with dolphin harpoon.
🇬🇹 Guatemala · Pyramid
Preclassic (1000 BCE–250 CE), Late Preclassic 400–100 BCE · Maya (Lowland Preclassic)
Revolutionary Preclassic centre (400 BCE–200 CE) with 7-m-tall Late Preclassic murals — earliest Maya polychrome mythology preserved inside 10 m-high Las Pinturas pyramid (90x60 m base) beneath later…
🇹🇷 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.
🇷🇺 Russia · Submerged site
Archaic to Hellenistic (c.600–100 BCE) · Sindian / Toretae with Greek imports
Toretae promontory harbour on Anapa south cape — small ashlar fort and submerged cove 1–3 m, Sindic coast chain between Bata and Gorgippia.
