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The catalogue
9,978 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.
🇨🇱 Chile · Hydraulic works
Formative to Modern (Alto Ramírez to Colonial) · Tarapacá / Pica-Tarapacá / Hispanic oasis
Pica (1,350 m, 20°29′21″S 69°19′46″W) is the only living oasis of the Atacama with active filtration galleries (socavones) tapping the Pica Aquifer; study by Lictevout et al.
🇲🇽 Mexico · Ancient city
Epiclassic to Early Postclassic 600–1100 CE (peak 600–950 CE, Teotihuacan–Tula interstice) · Unclassified central Mexican (earlier linked to early Nahua/Chichimeca? distinctive not Teotihuacan nor Toltec)
Largest pre-Hispanic city on Mexican highlands by area and most elaborate urban fortification: 12 km² (1,215 ha) city on 500 m-wavy basaltic lava field (malpaís) with 7,500+ patios, 24 ballcourts…
🇨🇳 China · Ancient city
Daxi (5500–3300) → Qujialing → Shijiahe 5500–2300 BCE · Daxi → Qujialing → Shijiahe (Middle Yangzi walled cities)
Earliest walled rice city in China (c.5500–3000 BCE) at Chengtoushan plateau on the Liyang Plain near Li County — 8 ha fortified town with 3 m rammed-earth wall 800 m diameter and outer moat,…
🇧🇬 Bulgaria · Archaeological wonder
Chalcolithic (Copper Age Gumelniţa/Kodzhadermen–Gumelnitsa–Karanovo VI) · Varna culture (Late Copper Age Balkan)
4600 BCE cemetery with 6.5 kg gold—world's earliest large stratified gold treasure (Grave 43 penis sheath).
🇦🇲 Armenia · Rock art
Early Bronze to Medieval (Kura-Araxes to Orbelian) · Kura-Araxes to medieval Armenian–Seljuk caravaneer
Vayots Dzor Arpa gorge 400 leopard–goat and caravan cup-marks 3000 BCE–1332 CE linking Ughtasar high to Silk Road Selim.
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia · Rock art
Neolithic to Islamic (7000 BCE–1000 CE, peak South Arabian caravan 500 BCE–600 CE) · Neolithic hunter-pastoralists then South Arabian caravaneers (Qataban, Saba, Nabataean)
Caravan UNESCO 2021 on Najran incense route: 550 panels 100k petroglyphs 7000 BCE–Islamic with 28 caravan wells.
🇮🇳 India · Ancient city
Ahar-Banas Chalcolithic 3000–1700 BCE (Early/Mature/Late) · Ahar-Banas (Mewar Chalcolithic) → contact Harappan
Largest Ahar-Banas Chalcolithic settlement (c.3000–1700 BCE) on the Banas River floodplain in Rajsamand, Mewar — twin mounds (Modiya Magari, 14 ha and western mound 4 ha) excavated 1999–2005 by V.S.
🇮🇹 Italy · Submerged site
Archaic to Late Antique (700 BCE – 400 CE) · Greek Syracusan / Roman
Syracusan colony 700 BCE — 120 m submerged ashlar quay at −3 m on the Tellaro mouth where Athenians landed in 413 BCE.
🇮🇷 Iran · Tell
Ubaid – Early Uruk (5000–3500 BCE) · Ubaid–Susa A Susiana
Ubaid – Early Uruk (5000–3500 BCE) tell of Ubaid–Susa A Susiana in Khuzestan Province, Susiana (c.5000 BCE).
🇷🇸 Serbia · Ancient village
Neolithic–Chalcolithic, Vinča–Tordos to Gradac phases · Vinča culture (Danubian Neolithic)
5700–4500 BCE Vinča tell—type site of Old Europe with early copper and 2,000 masks.
🇱🇰 Sri Lanka · Hydraulic works
Anuradhapura period (400 BCE – 10th c. CE) · Anuradhapura Sinhalese (Sinhala hydraulic civilisation)
400 BCE 350-ha 3.8 Mm³ tank with Bisokotuwa sluice — world's earliest valve 3rd c. BCE.
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Middle Mississippian (c.1000–1450 CE) – Thruston phase Middle Cumberland · Mississippian (Middle Cumberland culture)
The Fewkes Group (Boiling Springs, 40Wm1) is a fortified Middle Mississippian town on the Harpeth River near Brentwood, Tennessee, at 210 m.
🇺🇸 United States · Tell
Pueblo IV (Ancestral Puebloan post-Mesa Verde, 1285–1400 CE) · Ancestral Puebloan (Hopi ancestor — Homolovi Cluster)
Homolovi I (Homolovi State Park — Sunset Mesa Pueblo) is a multi-period tell/ancient village in Arizona, Navajo County, Winslow–Little Colorado, Homolovi State Park, United States — Largest Homolovi…
🇰🇿 Kazakhstan · Tumulus
Early Saka (Arzhan–Shilikty 800–700 BCE) — Shilikty middle terrace · Saka of eastern Kazakhstan (Mayemer–Shilikty)
68 m middle terrace royal 730 BCE: 13 horse western compartment and 432 eagle-griffin plaques including stag 22 cm.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Hydraulic works
Late Roman to Ottoman (4th–19th c. CE) · East Roman (Byzantine) Constantinople
Valens 971-m double-tier bridge head of 426-km Thracian late Roman water network 373 CE.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Buried city
Old Kingdom to Byzantine (2700 BCE – 700 CE) · Pharaonic / Roman Egyptian
Southern terrace Nile harbour of Akoris at Tihna — 50 m quay revetment and tomb forecourt quay.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Submerged site
Archaic to Ottoman (560 BCE – 1923 CE) · Megarian / Boeotian / Pontic Greek / Roman / Genoese
Megarian coal port 560 BCE — 110 m ashlar mole at −2 m off Ereğli with Heracles Acherusian cave above harbour where triremes wintered.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Submerged site
Late Pharaonic to Late Byzantine (380 BCE – 8th c. CE) · Egyptian-Greek / Greco-Roman / Byzantine
Canopic Isis oracle town adjoining Heracleion — sanctuary and quays 5–8 m down in Abu Qir Bay.
🇷🇺 Russia · Rock art
Early Bronze to Medieval (Okunevo to Tagar to Yeniseian Kyrgyz runic) · Okunevo, Andronovo, Karasuk, Tagar Scythian, Yenisei Kyrgyz
Yenisey Sayan Gorge 200 panels Okunevo masks to Tagar scythians 2800 BCE–700 CE, half drowned by Sayano dam.
🇷🇺 Russia · Tumulus
Early Iron Age Tagar culture 700-400 BCE · Tagar (Minusinsk Basin)
700 BCE Tagar royal kurgans (8 mounds, 40-85 m) on Yenisei terrace co-located with 3,000-panel rock-art cliff at Shalobolino.
🇹🇭 Thailand · Ancient village
Neolithic → Bronze Age → Iron Age 3000 BCE–200 CE · Ban Chiang culture (Isan Neolithic–Bronze, Ban Kao related)
Neolithic–Iron Age moated village (c.3000 BCE–200 CE) at Ban Chiang, Isan, northeast Thailand — 30 ha UNESCO World Heritage (ID 359) excavated 1967–73 by Chester Gorman, Pisit Charoenwongsa and later…
🇵🇪 Peru · Tomb
Late Intermediate (c.1200–1470 CE) Chancay · Chancay
Cerro Trinidad is the classic Chancay funerary ridge cemetery in the lower Chancay Valley near Chancay port, Lima.
🇷🇺 Russia · Submerged site
Archaic to Late Antique (580 BCE – 300 CE) · Milesian Greek / Bosporan / Sarmatian
Eastern necropolis terrace of Kepoi in Taman Gulf east — 90 cist graves at –2 m and 60 m wall.
🇮🇷 Iran · Tell
Middle Chalcolithic (5000–4000 BCE) · Dalma–Pisdeli Chalcolithic
Middle Chalcolithic (5000–4000 BCE) tell of Dalma–Pisdeli Chalcolithic in West Azerbaijan, Urmia Plain (c.5000 BCE).
