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CategoriesTells
Mounds made of layer upon layer of settlement.
🇯🇴 Jordan · Tell
Late Bronze to Islamic (c.1600 BCE–1400 CE; peak Iron 1200–760 BCE, Balaam c.800) · LB Canaanite → Iron Ammon/Gilead → Persian → Hellenistic
Deir Alla in Jordan Valley is famed for 1967 Balaam inscription — plaster wall with earliest Aramaic/Hebrew prophetic text 'Balaam son of Beor, seer of the gods...
🇯🇴 Jordan · Tell
Iron Age (c.800–600 BCE; Moabite 800–600) · Moabite ( contemporary with Dibon, ruler Mesha? )
Khirbat al-Mudayna al-Aliya is a one-period enclosed Iron Age Moabite town (30 ha with 900-m casemate wall, 40 houses, sanctuary and reservoirs) — best-preserve...
🇮🇱 Israel · Tell
EB to Ottoman (c.3500 BCE–1917 CE; peak Canaanite–Philistine–Herod 3000 BCE–74 CE) · Canaanite → Philistine → Israelite → Philistine → Hellenistic → Herodian (Antipatris)
Tel Aphek (Herodian Antipatris) guards the Yarkon springs — Via Maris bottleneck, famous as Philistine camp before Saul's defeat (1 Sam 4) and Herod's Antipatri...
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Early Bronze Age to Iron Age (c.3000–600 BCE) · Hurrian → Mittanian → Neo-Assyrian
Nusaybin palatial tell 13 m high (Mitanni–Assyrian palace, Nuzi ware, tablets) on Tigris watershed.
🇮🇷 Iran · Tell
Chalcolithic (c.4200–3500 BCE; Bakun B–A 4200–3700) · Bakun (Fars Chalcolithic, Ubaid-related)
Tall-i Bakun (Mound A, Fars) is the type-site of Bakun Chalcolithic (c.4200–3700 BCE) — elaborate black-on-buff painted ware with ibex and geometric motifs, sea...
🇮🇱 Israel · Tell
MB to Crusader (c.2000 BCE–1260 CE; peak Philistine–Judah–Sanhedrin 1200 BCE–70 CE) · Canaanite → Philistine → Judahite → Hellenistic → Roman (Sanhedrin 70–135 CE) → Crusader
Tel Yavne (biblical Jabneel, Philistine Jamnia) is famed as the seat of the Sanhedrin after 70 CE — Yochanan ben Zakkai's Yavne academy that reconstituted Judai...
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Late Uruk to Old Babylonian (c.3400–1700 BCE; peak Early Dynastic) · Uruk → Jemdet Nasr → Early Dynastic (Akkadian/Sumerian Diyala) → Akkadian → Old Babylonian/Eshnunna
Diyala Sequence key town with 10-phase Sin Temple and Samsuiluna earthquake horizon.
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
Middle Bronze to Neo-Assyrian (c.2000–600 BCE; bilingual 850 BCE) · Old Babylonian → Mittani (Washukanni?) → Middle Assyrian → Aramaean → Neo-Assyrian
Tell Fecheriye (ancient Sikan/Sikani) is 90-ha dual-mound south of Halaf on Khabur source, famed for 1979 Hadad-yithʻi bilingual statue — life-size basalt with...
🇯🇴 Jordan · Tell
Chalcolithic-Iron Age (c.5000-600 BCE) · Levantine EBA to Iron Age (Jordan Valley)
Tell el-Hayyat — buried chalcolithic-iron tell/village at Irbid Governorate.
🇮🇹 Italy · Buried city
Classical Antiquity (800 BCE–500 CE) · Local Neolithic
Bouldnor Cliff Mesolithic Submerged Floor North in Pozzuoli Bay, Italy is a Classical Antiquity (800 BCE–500 CE) buried city attributed to Local Neolithic culture.
🇷🇴 Romania · Tell
Gumelniţa–Kodžadermen (4600–4300 BCE) · Gumelniţa–Karanovo VI–Varna
Gumelniţa gold necropolis 4600 BCE — 1500 flat graves with Spondylus (Andreescu).
🇮🇷 Iran · Ancient city
Neolithic to Medieval (c.4200 BCE–1218 CE; Elamite capital c.2700–646 BCE; Achaemenid palace 522–331 BCE) · Elamite / Persian Achaemenid / Seleucid / Parthian / Sassanian
Elamite capital then Achaemenid administrative capital (Darius I, 522 BCE), Susa preserves mound sequence from 4200 BCE: Apadana of Darius (36 limestone columns, glazed brick friezes of Immortals and…
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
Uruk to Islamic (4000 BCE–1200 CE) · Uruk → EBA Karababa → MBA → Hellenistic
Uruk–EBA ford mound 2700 BCE — burnt sealing houses at Qara Quzaq crossing.
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
Late Chalcolithic to Iron Age (3500–600 BCE; peak MBA–Neo-Assyrian) · Uruk → EBA → Middle Assyrian → Neo-Assyrian Aramean (Bit-Adini)
Burmarina Neo-Assyrian tablet town 725 BCE — MBA to cremation cemetery.
🇮🇷 Iran · Tell
Late Neolithic to Bronze Age (c.5000–2500 BCE; Plateau Chalcolithic type) · Tehran-Qazvin plateau Chalcolithic
Twin mound 330 × 250 m, 18 m high at Savajbolagh: type site of Qazvin Plain Chalcolithic where Fazeli & Coningham revealed Sialk I–II painted transition, first crude brick, kiln, and Zagros sealings…
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
EBA → MBA → LBA → Phrygian → Persian (2600–500 BCE) · Anatolian EBA → Assyrian Colony fringe → Phrygian
EBA–Iron steppe tell (2600–500 BCE) — Haymana corridor walled town, Gordion-Hattusa buffer.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Neolithic–Iron (6000–600 BCE) · Halaf to Neo-Hittite
Neolithic–Iron (6000–600 BCE) Halaf to Neo-Hittite tell at Gaziantep Province – citadel on aleppo–carchemish road (dims Mound 25 m high, lower town 10 ha).
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Halaf-Ubaid to Late Bronze (5.5k–1200 BCE) · Ubaid → Khabur → Mitanni → Middle Assyrian
Beşiri Tigris tell (Ubaid through Late Bronze) with 12 m sequence — Mitanni kilns and Khabur ware, Ilısu Garzan buffer salvage.
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Early Bronze to Late Bronze (Amorite Hurrian) · Amorite then Hurrian-Mitanni Egyptian orbit
Mighty Middle Bronze (c.2800–1340 BCE) kingdom city of Qatna controlling eastern Homs basin, with 1 km-square royal palace (largest Bronze Age palace in Syria, 10,000 m²) and intact royal hypogeum…
🇯🇴 Jordan · Tell
Chalcolithic-Iron Age (c.5000-600 BCE) · Levantine EBA to Iron Age (Jordan Valley)
Tell Abu Suwan — buried chalcolithic-iron tell/village at Mafraq Governorate.
🇯🇴 Jordan · Tell
Chalcolithic-Iron Age (c.5000-600 BCE) · Levantine EBA to Iron Age (Jordan Valley)
Tell Abu al-Kharaz — buried chalcolithic-iron tell/village at Irbid Governorate.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Ur III (c.2112–2004 BCE; peak Shulgi–Ibbi-Sin c.2050 BCE) · Ur III state (Third Dynasty of Ur)
Ur III state cattle redistribution centre Puzrish-Dagan (Drehem) — Shulgi's royal livestock agency (c.2050 BCE) processing thousands of cattle/sheep for Ur and...
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
Halaf late to Ubaid 4 (5200–3700 BCE; peak Ubaid 3 4500 BCE) · Halaf → Ubaid (Khabur facies)
Ubaid tripartite houses 4800 BCE — most intact Halaf-Ubaid transition cluster.
🇵🇰 Pakistan · Tell
Pre-Harappan (3600–2600 BCE) · Amri
Amri — Dadu in Sindh, Dadu, Pakistan is a Pre-Harappan (3600–2600 BCE) tell attributed to Amri culture.
