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The catalogue
13 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.
🇮🇷 Iran · Tell
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 · 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…
🇮🇷 Iran · Tell
Medes to Early Bronze (c.7000 BCE–Medes 7th c. BCE) · Medes–Achaemenid transition plus prehistoric Tappeh
Nine-period mound 15 km SSW of Qazvin with Halil Tepe–like sequence: Median mudbrick fortress + intact brick vault & rampart (oldest in Iran), Edriss Iron-Age citadel, Ozbaki Maad temple?
🇮🇷 Iran · Tell
Hajji Firuz to Iron I (c.5000–900 BCE) · Hajji Firuz → Early Transcaucasian → Iron
Burton-Brown 1948 type-site near Rezaiyeh (Urmia) giving K-stage Geoy sequence: Gurney’s Parallels to Pisdeli ware: Hajji Firuz burnished, Geoy M painted orange-over-buff, and Hasanlu Grey ware…
🇮🇷 Iran · Tell
Chalcolithic to Early Bronze (c.4300–1900 BCE) · Hissar I–IIIC
Damghan plain 40-ha complex with three mounds: Hissar IIIB–C painted/grey ware, lapis bead workshop, arsenical bronze workshop, “Burnt Building” massacre layer ~1900 BCE with 11 skeletons and Grey…
🇮🇷 Iran · Tell
Kura-Araxes to Iron III (c.3000–600 BCE) · Kura-Araxes → Urmia ware → Urartian
30-m high mound near Khoy: massive Kura-Araxes burnished black-burnished, Urmia orange painted ware, Mitanni green-glazed cylinder seals, Urartian pillar hall, Sasanian church.
🇮🇷 Iran · Tell
Urartian (8th–6th c. BCE; Argishti/Rusa) · Urartu
Small but classic Urartu hydraulic fortress damming a karstic spring valley NW of Khoy: cyclopean dam wall, rectangular fort, storage pithoi, Haldi-temple pebble mosaic, with red polish Urartu ware…
🇮🇷 Iran · Tell
Pre-Pottery Neolithic to Tepe Sarab ware (c.7000–5000 BCE) · Zagros Neolithic (Sarab culture)
Small but culturally seminal tell near Kermanshah at Sarab pass with Braidwood 1947 type-site red-painted Sarab ware, proto-domestic goat bones, and pisé hamlets preceding Jarmo and Hassuna…
🇮🇷 Iran · Tell
Late Bronze to Iron II (c.1400–800 BCE) · Central Plateau Iron Age (grey ware → red ware) → Median precursor
Iron Age I–II fortified town (12 ha, 12 m high) on the Qazvin plain, excavated by E.O. Negahban. Early Iron (c.1400–900...
🇮🇷 Iran · Tell
Late Neolithic to Early Chalcolithic (c.6000–4300 BCE) · Qazvin Plain Chalcolithic → Sialk I–II related
Chalcolithic painted-ware village (4 ha) on the Qazvin plain, excavated by Negahban and Malek Shahmirzadi. Late Neolithi...
🇮🇷 Iran · Tell
Late Chalcolithic to EBA (c.4000–2900 BCE) · Sialk III–IV → Uruk-related → Early Bronze Central Plateau
Chalcolithic double-mound (5 ha) on the Qazvin plain, excavated by E.O. Negahban and later Tehran University. Sequence L...
🇮🇷 Iran · Tell
Median (c.750–550 BCE) · Median
Median period fire-temple complex (3 ha) on a low hill near Malayer, excavated by David Stronach. Median levels (c.750–5...
🇮🇷 Iran · Tell
Aceramic to Pottery Neolithic (c.8000–7500 BCE; cluster horizon) · Zagros PPN cluster (Ganj Dareh variant)
Harsin satellite PPN hamlet (8000 BCE) 2 km west of classic Ganj Dareh.
