🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Tell Uqair
Ubaid to Early Dynastic I (c.5000–2900 BCE; mural is Late Uruk–Jemdet Nasr c.3200 BCE) · Ubaid → Uruk → Jemdet Nasr → Early Dynastic
Painted Temple mound with 3200 BCE leopard mural — first mural art in Mesopotamia.
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🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Shuruppak (Tell Fara)
Jemdet Nasr to Early Dynastic IIIa (c.3000–2500 BCE) · Early Dynastic Sumerian
Canoe-shaped Sumerian city Tell Fara 35 miles S of Nippur, legendary home of Ziusudra (Utnapishtim).
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Umma (Tell Jokha)
Early Dynastic to Old Babylonian (c.2900–1700 BCE; peak Lagash–Umma border war 2500–2350 BCE) · Sumerian (Umma ensi dynasty) → Akkadian → Ur III → Isin-Larsa
Lagash's blood-enemy with Stele-of-Vultures war archive and 20,000 Ur III tablets of a date-palm oligarchy.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Tell el-ʿObeid
Ubaid to Ur III (c.5500–2000 BCE; temple sequence defines Chalcolithic Eridu–Ubaid horizon) · Ubaid → Uruk → Early Dynastic → Ur III
Type-site of Ubaid period — 1919 Ninhursag temple with copper bulls gave Chalcolithic its name.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Shuruppak
Jemdet Nasr to Early Dynastic / Ur III abandonment · Early Dynastic Sumerian
Early Dynastic city-state (c.3000–2300 BCE) famed as home of Utnapishtim/Ziusudra, survivor of the Flood in Gilgamesh and Sumerian Flood story ('Instructions of Shuruppak' wisdom text).
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Eridu
Ubaid to Neo-Babylonian · Ubaid → Sumerian → Babylonian
Sumerian sacred city traditionally first city in the world (Sumerian King List), center of god Enki/Ea cult (Abzu).
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Tell Hawa
Neolithic–Iron Age (c.6100–600 BCE) plus later · Halaf → Ubaid → Ninevite 5 → ED–Akkadian → Mittanian–Assyrian
Sinjar plain megamound 80 ha (Halaf–Assyrian 6k yr sequence, 25 m high) near Tel Afar.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Kisurra (Tell Abu Hatab)
Early Dynastic–Old Babylonian (c.2700–1700 BCE) · Sumerian → Amorite Kisurra kingdom
Twin mound Abu Hatab (Kisurra) in the Euphrates back-marshes: Isin-Larsa era kingdom squeezed between Isin and Larsa, palatial archives (EB Kisurra texts), and ED IIIb votive stone of King Ibaya.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Tell es-Sawwan
Neolithic Samarra (c.6300–5700 BCE) · Samarra → Ubaid
Ditch-moat village with 130 intramural graves: 130 adult Samarra graves beneath floors yielding alabaster “Sawwan” women – elongated skulls, bitumen-banded eyes – the largest Samarra figurine corpus.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Tell al-Rimah (Karana / Qattara)
Old Babylonian–Old Assyrian (c.1900–1700 BCE) to Middle Assyrian · Upper Mesopotamian Old Babylonian kingdom of Karana / Qattara
Upper Jazira fortified court city Karana (Tell al-Rimah) with massive temple Zigg followed by a double palace discovered by David Oates: palace with wall paintings, archive of 600 OB letters (Qattara…
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Adab (Tell Bismaya)
Late Uruk to Old Babylonian (c.3300–1700 BCE; peak ED IIIa and Ur III 2600–2000 BCE) · Uruk → Jemdet Nasr → Early Dynastic → Akkadian → Ur III → Isin-Larsa
Pre-Sargonic scribal city of Ninhursag with earliest school tablets and ED drainage galleries.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient village
Mlefaat
Protoneolithic (10500–9500 BCE) · Zarzian Epipalaeolithic–PPN
Protoneolithic (10500–9500 BCE) Zarzian Epipalaeolithic–PPN ancient village at Erbil Governorate, Greater Zab tributary – open-air forager base preceding first villages (dims Scatter 3000 m² with huts and ground stone).
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient village
Nemrik 9
Protoneolithic (9800–8200 BCE) · Zarzian–PPN (Nemrikian)
Protoneolithic (9800–8200 BCE) Zarzian–PPN (Nemrikian) ancient village at Dohuk Governorate, Upper Tigris/Mosul Dam zone – ppn hamlet with stone sculpture and houses (dims Tell 0.8 ha, 8 PPN houses).
🇮🇶 Iraq · Pyramid
Ziggurat of Nimrud (Kalhu)
Neo-Assyrian (883–612 BCE imperial capital; ziggurat 883 BCE) · Assyrian (Neo-Assyrian)
Assyrian imperial second capital Kalhu/Nimrud (Assurnasirpal II 883–859 BCE): mudbrick ziggurat crowning citadel mound adjacent to Northwest Palace with famous Nimrud ivories, throne room and lamassu.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Pyramid
Ziggurat of Nippur (E-kur)
Early Dynastic to Parthian (3000 BCE–250 CE; ziggurat Ur III – Kassite layers) · Sumerian → Old Babylonian → Kassite → Assyrian
Religious capital of Sumer: never politically capital but seat of Enlil, father of gods, whose temple E-kur (Mountain House) dominated canal holy city Nippur.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Pyramid
Ziggurat of Borsippa (Biris Nimrud)
Old Babylonian to Neo-Babylonian (Hammurabi to Nebuchadnezzar II peak 605–562 BCE) · Babylonian (Borsippa)
Mighty 7-stage ziggurat dedicated to Nabu (god of writing, son of Marduk), rival to Babylon's Etemenanki as 'Temple that Exalts Nabu' E-zida.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Babylon
Old Babylonian to Neo-Babylonian and Hellenistic (1894 BCE–141 BCE; monumental peak Nebuchadnezzar II 604–562 BCE) · Babylonian / Assyrian / Persian / Hellenistic
Capital of Babylonian empire (1894 BCE–539 BCE) on Euphrates, Babylon at its greatest under Hammurabi and Nebuchadnezzar II (604–562 BCE): Processional Way, Ishtar Gate (glazed brick dragons and…
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Nineveh
Neolithic to Abbasid (6000 BCE–present; Assyrian capital 705–612 BCE) · Assyrian / Babylonian / Persian / Hellenistic / Parthian
Great Assyrian capital under Sennacherib (705–681 BCE) extended by Ashurbanipal (668–630 BCE), Nineveh at fall (612 BCE) was world's largest city (~15 km walls, 100,000 inhabitants).
🇮🇶 Iraq · Pyramid
Ziggurat of Dur-Kurigalzu (Aqar Quf)
Kassite (Middle Babylonian) c. 1375–1155 BCE · Kassite Babylonian
Kassite capital Dur-Kurigalzu built by Kurigalzu I (c. 1375 BCE): enormous ziggurat to Enlil, still 57 m high (originally ~69 m) with rope reinforcement layers (reed mats) visible, highest surviving…
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Tell Billa (Shibaniba)
Late Bronze–Neo-Assyrian (c.1500–600 BCE) · Mitanni → Middle/Neo-Assyrian
Small but archive-rich tell 20 km N of Nineveh: Mitanni layer produced Nuzi-type tablets, Middle Assyrian governor’s correspondence (14 c. tablets) and Neo-Assyrian granaries. E.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Archaeological wonder
Hanging Gardens of Babylon (claimed sites)
Neo-Babylonian claimed 600 BCE; Assyrian alternative 700 BCE · Babylonian or Assyrian (Neo-Assyrian Sennacherib)
Unlocated wonder: Nebuchadnezzar's terraces vs Dalley's Nineveh screw garden.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Pyramid
Tell Yelkhi — Diyala Census Mound
Early Dynastic III to Akkadian (2600–2200 BCE) · Sumerian–Akkadian, Eshnunna sphere
Small but archive-rich Hamrin tell salvaged before dam, excavated by Japanese Mission (Fujii).
🇮🇶 Iraq · Pyramid
Ziggurat Mound of Tell al-Hiba (Lagash — Ibgal)
Early Dynastic to Ur III · Sumerian (Lagash dynasty)
Early Dynastic temple platform ziggurat Ibgal of Inanna at Lagash (Tell al-Hiba) — 40×30 m platform c.2500 BCE, precursor to classic Ur ziggurat.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Lagash
Jemdet Nasr to Ur III / Old Babylonian · Sumerian
Sumerian city-state Lagash (Tell al-Hiba proper) and its religious capital Girsu (Tello, 25 km SE) — often conflated as Lagash-Girsu.