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CategoriesMounds
Platform and burial mounds of the Americas and beyond.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Early Bronze to Iron (3200 BCE–800 BCE) · EBA → MBA → Hittite → Iron Age (Urartian–Phrygian periphery)
Norsun Tepe Keban Dam Rescue Trench is the southern salvage sector of Norsun Tepe on the southern Altınova plain — one of Hauptmann's Keban rescue tells with an Hittite palace (1600–1350 BCE) burnt…
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
EB I–III → MBA → Late Bronze Hittite (3200–1200 BCE) with Iron Age coda · Kura-Araxes → Eastern Anatolian EBA → Hittite-Kizzuwatna fringe
EB–MBA–Hittite tell (Kebanon) — Kura-Araxes to Hittite fortress, Esin Keban salvage key sequence.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Early Dynastic to Old Babylonian (Isin-Larsa contemporary) · Sumerian-Akkadian Eshnunna kingdom
Akkadian-Old Babylonian city-state of Eshnunna (c.3000–1760 BCE) controlling Diyala basin between Sumer and Elam, famous for the Laws of Eshnunna (c.1930 BCE, ~60 laws predating Hammurapi by two…
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
MBA to Hellenistic (2000 BCE–100 BCE) · MBA Levantine → Hittite → Neo-Assyrian → Hellenistic Issos
Kinet Höyük North Harbour is the 15-ha northern basin of Kinet Höyük — identified with Issos, where Alexander beat Darius III (333 BCE).
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
Late Neolithic (Halaf–Hassuna), c.6200-5800 BCE (Neolithic, burn layer) · Halaf
Tell Sabi Abyad Balikh Valley (Raqqa): 5 ha tell (mound 10 m high) excavated by Peter Akkermans (Leiden/Amsterdam 1986–): Operation I Burnt Village 6000 BCE — intact burned houses with 3D preserved…
🇲🇽 Mexico · Pyramid
Late Preclassic to Late Classic (600–800 CE peak Rio Bec–Chenes, moat c.100 BCE–150 CE early) · Maya (Rio Bec–Chenes, Becán polity)
Largest moated Maya city (550 BCE–1000 CE, peak 600–800 CE) 5.75 ha enclosed by artificial ditch and rampart (1900 m perimeter moat) with 7 entrances: Structure VIII twin-tower pyramid 32 m high east…
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Pre-Pottery Neolithic to Bronze (9500 BCE–2000 BCE) · PPN → Chalcolithic → EBA
Grike Havuz Ritual Platform is the limestone-framed T-pillar pool edge at the karstic Havuz depression in the Karababa basin northeast of Şanlıurfa.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Late Chalcolithic to Middle Bronze to Byzantine · Western Anatolian (Troy I prelude → Hittite Luwian)
Multi-period mega-tell (c.4000 BCE Late Chalcolithic to 1200 BCE Byzantine, peak EBA–MBA) dominating Çivril Plain on Meander headwaters, excavated 1954–59 by Seton Lloyd & James Mellaart then 2007–…
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Halaf to Islamic (5600 BCE–1500 CE) · Halaf → Ubaid → Uruk → EBA Syrian → Hittite → Islamic Harran
Harran Plain Tell A is a 2.8-ha Halaf–Ubaid mound 8 km northeast of Harran city on the Balikh floodplain — one of Wilkinson's mapped Harran plain tells tracking the shift from dispersed Halaf…
🇺🇸 United States · Ancient village
Hohokam Pioneer to Classic (300 BCE–1450 CE) · Hohokam (Sonoran Desert farmers)
Type-site and capital of Hohokam Culture (c.300 BCE–1450 CE, Pioneer to Classic) — 2 km² canal-irrigated village with 2 ballcourts, platform mounds, and 100 km of canals off Gila River irrigating…
🇸🇩 Sudan · Pyramid
Classic Kerma (c.1750–1500 BCE, Kerma Moyen to Classique) · Kerma culture (Nubian, Classic Kerma)
Massive Classic Kerma mudbrick sacred mountain (c.1750–1500 BCE) in Kerma capital: 52×52 m base, 19 m high preserved with three-stage stairway on east, internal rooms with timber roofs, and ritual…
🇵🇪 Peru · Pyramid
Initial to Early Formative (Bagua-Jaén, Bracamoros) · Bagua-Jaén / Bracamoros culture (Marañón)
Jaén valley mound cluster Huaca La Ventilla (1500–500 BCE) near Montegrande: 40×40 m 15 m adobe-cobble pyramid — Bagua-Jaén phase dense temple field in upper Marañón.
🇯🇴 Jordan · Tell
Chalcolithic through Nabataean; Iron Edomite peak · Feinan Chalcolithic → EBA → Edomite Iron → Nabataean
Feinan copper smelting metropolis (10 ha slag fields, Iron Edomite fortress) — Chalcolithic to Nabataean copper metropolis, biblical Punon with 100k tons 10th c. BCE slag.
🇷🇴 Romania · Tell
Late Neolithic to Eneolithic (5000–3500 BCE) · Boian → Gumelnița (Kodjadermen–Gumelnița–Karanovo VI)
Pietrele Tell Central Platform is the central terrace of the Pietrele mega-tell — a 10-m Gumelnița tell in southern Romania with one of the thickest Eneolithic sequences in the Balkans.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Late Chalcolithic through Byzantine; Hittite peak · Cilician Plain → Hittite Kizzuwatna frontier → Rough Cilicia Luwian
Göksu terrace tell with Chalcolithic–Byzantine sequence — Hittite pithos warehouses (Ura?), Luwian seals and buried industrial zone on plateau road.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Bronze Age to Commagene Kingdom (3000 BCE–72 CE) · Bronze Age Kummuh → Hittite → Neo-Hittite Kummuh → Commagene (Mithridatic)
Samsat Höyük Submerged Citadel Approach is the drowned approach ramp and lower town of Samosata — capital of Hittite Kummuh and later Commagene Kingdom under Antiochus I.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Hittite Old to Empire · Hittite (upper Kızılırmak frontier)
Highest Hittite frontier city (c.1600–1200 BCE) on 1650 m steppe ridge, holy city of Weather God, planned on grid with dam. Andreas Müller-Karpe (Marburg) excavations (1995–2004) revealed 2.
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
Halaf to Mitanni (6000 BCE–1300 BCE) · Halaf → Ubaid → Uruk → Ninevite V → Akkadian → Mittani
Tell Arbid Southern Ridge is the 14.2-ha southern ridge extension of Tell Arbid on the Wadi Jaghjagh between the Khabur and Tigris headwaters.
🇲🇽 Mexico · Pyramid
Late Classic Maya (650–850 CE, Rio Bec–Chenes peak) · Maya (Rio Bec–Chenes, Hormiguero style)
Most theatrical Rio Bec city (650–850 CE peak) with Structure II central 8-chamber palace-pyramid 12 m high, Structure V twin-tower pyramid and mask façades.
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
EB IV to Iron Age (2500 BCE–800 BCE) · EB IV Amorite → Middle Bronze Yamhad → Late Bronze Hittite/Mittani → Iron Age Luwian
Tell Tuqan Southern Rampart is the 12-m-high earthen rampart sealing the 35-ha Middle Bronze walled city 35 km east of Maarrat al-Numan.
🇪🇨 Ecuador · Pyramid
Integration Period (Manteño-Huancavilca 800–1534) · Manteño-Huancavilca (Manta-Jocay chiefdom)
Manteño maritime pyramid Huaca Jocay (800–1534 CE) above Manta Bay: 30×50 m stone platform 6 m with ramps, Spondylus workshops and stone seats — Spondylus balsa-raft capital.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Ancient city
Predynastic to Ptolemaic to Late Antique · Egyptian (Lower Egyptian Delta)
Delta metropolis and cult centre of ram god Banebdjedet (Greek Mendes), capital of 16th Nome and briefly capital of 29th Dynasty (Nepherites I, c.399–380 BCE) under Persian-period independence.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Middle to Neo-Assyrian (1350–612 BCE) · Assyrian
Second capital of Assyria after Assur under Ashurnasirpal II (883 BCE), who built the Northwest Palace with 600 m of alabaster lamassu and bas-reliefs (Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III showing King…
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Early Bronze to Mitanni to Neo-Assyrian (Jezirah) · Hurrian Mitanni → Aramaean Sikani → Assyrian
Spring-mound town Sikani (Mitanni to Neo-Assyrian) candidate for Mitanni capital Washukanni (hot debate) — 90 ha lower town + 8 ha citadel mound at main Khabur karst spring (Ras al-Ain).
