🇮🇶 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).
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Ugarit
Neolithic to Late Bronze collapse 1190 BCE · Ugaritic Semitic (Amorite-Canaanite) under Hittite-Egyptian influence
Late Bronze cosmopolitan port (c.6000 BCE Neolithic to 1190 BCE destruction) on the Mediterranean, capital of the Kingdom of Ugarit (c.1450–1190 BCE) with cuneiform alphabetic tablets (world's first…
🇮🇶 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.
🇮🇱 Israel · Ancient village
Sha'ar Hagolan
Pottery Neolithic / Yarmoukian · Yarmoukian (Levantine Pottery Neolithic)
Type-site of the Yarmoukian culture (6400–5800 BCE), the first Pottery Neolithic culture of the southern Levant, on the Yarmouk River.
🇵🇸 Palestine · Ancient city
Samaria
Iron Age capital to Crusader · Israelite → Assyrian → Herodian
Hilltop capital of Kingdom of Israel after 880 BCE (Omri bought hill from Shemer for 2 talents silver — 1 Kings 16:24) with Israelite palatial ivories (Samaria Ivories, Louvre) and Ostraca warehoused…
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Karahöyük (Konya)
Early Bronze Age II-III peak; MBA-Hittite reuse · Central Anatolian EBA (Konya Plain) → Hittite Lower Land
Konya plain EBA walled city (33 ha) with MB karum and Hittite terraces — Sedat Alp’s plateau urbanism type-site south of Çatalhöyük.
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
Tell Feyda
Halaf–Ubaid (c.5700–4200 BCE) · Halaf → Ubaid northern
Khabur headwaters Halaf–Ubaid tell 7 m high (tholoi, dark-faced ware) at spring source.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Gre Fılla
PPNA to Early PPNB · Upper Tigris PPN (Göbekli sphere northern fringe)
Upper Tigris PPNA village with three T-pillar buildings and skull cult, salvage-saved from Ambar Dam.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Gedikli Karahöyük North Mound
Late Chalcolithic to Middle Bronze (3500–1550 BCE) · North Syrian Chalcolithic → EBA Amuq → MBA Yamhad/Alalakh
Gedikli Karahöyük North Mound is the northern satellite of the Gedikli Karahöyük complex on the Islahiye plain — famed for its 200-grave EBA cemetery linking Amuq–Cilicia–Euphrates.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Kurdu Tepe
Halaf–Ubaid (c.6000–3800 BCE) · Halaf → Ubaid (Amuq A–D)
South Amik Halaf–Ubaid village (c.6000–3800 BCE, geometric painted ware, stamp seals) on former lakebed.
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Tell Ahmar — Til Barsip Neo-Assyrian Extension
Ubaid to Hellenistic (3500 BCE–200 BCE; peak Neo-Assyrian 856–610 BCE) · EBA → Mitanni → Syro-Hittite → Aramean Bit-Adini → Neo-Assyrian
Kar-Shalmaneser lower town 856 BCE — Aramean to Assyrian glazed palace.
🇱🇧 Lebanon · Ancient city
Sarepta (Sarafand)
Bronze – Crusader (peak Phoenician 1200–333 BCE) · Phoenician (Canaanite)
Only excavated Phoenician heartland city (2000 BCE–333 BCE) — pottery, glass and Tanit shrine.
🇮🇶 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).
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Tell Kurdu (Amuq)
Halaf through EBA; Ubaid peak · Amuq Halaf → Ubaid → Amuq F (L. Chalcolithic–EBA)
Halaf-Ubaid tell (15 ha oval) defining Late Chalcolithic Ubaid north expansion, with tripartite kiln houses and channel-painted ceramics.
🇮🇶 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).
🇯🇴 Jordan · Ancient village
Basta
LPPNB (Late PPNB) · Levantine LPPNB
Late Pre-Pottery Neolithic B village (7500–6800 BCE, up to 10 ha), one of the largest and highest-altitude Neolithic settlements, controlling the Petra limestone plateau.
🇲🇷 Mauritania · Ancient city
Koumbi Saleh
Medieval Ghana Empire (c.400–1240 CE; flourished 800–1200) · Soninke (Ghana Empire) / Berber / Islamic traders
Postulated capital of Ghana (Wagadou) Empire (5th–13th c CE) controlling trans-Saharan gold-salt trade.
🇮🇷 Iran · Tell
Tepe Nushi Jan (Noushijan)
Iron Age III Median (c.750–600 BCE) · Median (pre-Achaemenid Iranian)
Hilltop Median triad 60 km S of Hamadan: West Temple with small fire altar inside a sanctuary, Central Temple with vaulted altar niche, and hypostyle Columned Hall (12 wooden posts on stone bases) –…
🇮🇷 Iran · Pyramid
Ziggurat of Tepe Musiyan (Deh Luran)
Late Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age (Uruk to ED) · Proto-Elamite / Jemdet Nasr
Early highland proto-ziggurat at Tepe Musiyan, Deh Luran — 50×70 m oval platform c.3100 BCE linking Uruk Susiana to Elamite highland terraces.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Çakmaktepe
PPNA–PPNB (Taş Tepeler) · Taş Tepeler PPN foragers (Göbekli–Karahan sphere)
Taş Tepeler ridge PPNA enclave (9300–8500 BCE) with T-pillar in round enclosure and terrazzo hamlet — 9th Stone Hill on Karahan ridge.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Borsippa
Old Babylonian to Hellenistic (c.2000–100 BCE; peak Neo-Babylonian 626–539) · Amorite → Kassite → Neo-Babylonian (Nabu cult)
Borsippa (modern Birs Nimrud) is the sister city of Babylon 17 km south, cult centre of Nabu (scribal god) with the Ezida temple and 70-m ruined ziggurat (most...
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Salat Camii Yanı
PPN (9600–8500 BCE, Pre-Pottery Neolithic) · Taurus PPN – Göbekli/ Karacadağ sphere
PPN (9600–8500 BCE, Pre-Pottery Neolithic) Taurus PPN – Göbekli/ Karacadağ sphere tell at Diyarbakır Province, Upper Tigris – early ppn village with round houses pre-pottery (dims Mound 50×40 m, 3 m PPN deposits).
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Sumaki Höyük
Early Bronze I–II (c.3100–2600 BCE) with later BA · Ninevite 5 → Akkadian → Khabur ware
Ninevite 5 period settlement (250 × 200 m, 10 m high) on the Beşiri plain, Ilısu salvage zone, excavated by Barbara Helw...
🇮🇶 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.