Kuk

A site complex in the New Guinea Highlands, near Mount Hangen, which has produced several systems of swamp-drainage ditches, going back to about 7000 BC. A drain and evidence of clearance took place then and a sequence of field systems were made from about 6000 bp to the present. The findings hav...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Kuk

Ruanga

An Iron Age settlement in northern Mashonaland, Zimbabwe, where a stone building appears to have been occupied by people related to those of Great Zimbabwe.

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Ruanga

Lake Nitchie

Ancient lake bed in western New South Wales, Australia, with a shaft burial of a very tall man wearing a necklace of 159 pierced teeth of the Tasmanian devil - about 47 of the now-extinct animals. The burial was dated to c 6500-7000 bp.

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Lake Nitchie

Lantian

Early Palaeolithic site in Shensi Province, China, with Homo Erectus remains at Gongwangling and Chenjiawo dated to c 700,000 bp (Middle Pleistocene). Lantian Man is the hominid species identified by Chinese archaeologists, the remains (both female) are as old as Java man, an early form of Homo e...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Lantian

Cayönü Tepesi

A site on a tributary of the Tigris River in eastern Turkey with occupation dating from c 7500-6500 BC. There are impressive architectural remains with stone foundations and evidence of a farming and hunting community. The latest phase included domesticated sheep and goats. Einkorn wheat was cult...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Cayönü Tepesi

Olduvai

A site in northern Tanzania which is one of the most important sites for the understanding of both human evolution and the development of the earliest tools. The gorge is 30 miles long, located on the volcanic belt of the Great Rift Valley. Louis and Mary Leakey uncovered numerous Hominid remains...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Olduvai

Kraków-Spadzista

Three Upper Palaeolithic sites in Kraków, Poland, including Eastern Gravettian artifacts from 23,040-20,600 bp and an Aurignacian assemblage.

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Kraków-Spadzista

Aniba

The site of a cemetery and settlement in Lower Nubia, founded as an Egyptian fortress in the Middle Kingdom (2055-1650 BC). It is near the gold-mining region of Nubia.

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Aniba

Tiemassas

Site in Senegal, south of Dakar, with extensive undated microlithic industry. There may have been successive occupation phases, including a pre-pottery phase characterized by large backed tools, geometric microliths, and hollow-based and leaf-shaped bifacial projectile points.

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Tiemassas

Adrar Bous

An informative site on the Tenere Desert in Niger where excavations revealed a long succession of prehistoric occupation. The first was a Levalloiso-Mousterian settlement. By early in the 4th millennium BC, food production techniques are attested. A skeleton of a domestic shorthorn ox dates to 37...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Adrar Bous

Polada

An Early Bronze Age lake dwelling site near the southern end of Lake Garda in Lombardy, Italy, the type site of the Polada culture, c 2200-1600 BC. The culture was characterized by a coarse undecorated ware forming deep carinated cups and various simple jars. The strap handles were often surmount...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Polada

Kausambi

A site in the Ganges Valley of northern India which was a great urban center in the early historical period. Its earliest wall, of mudbrick faced with baked brick 12 m high, was built about 500 BC. Within it is a Buddhist monastery the fifth century BC where, according to an inscription, the Budd...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names, Architectural

Kausambi

Sakazhia

Middle and Upper Palaeolithic cave site in western Georgia on the Tskhaltsitela River. Assemblages include scrapers and denticulates from the Middle Palaeolithic and backed blades and points of the Upper Palaeolithic. Skeletal fragments classified as Neanderthal are in one of the lower levels of ...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Sakazhia

Liulige

A town in Hui Xian, Hunan province, China, where many burials of the Shang and Eastern Chou periods have been excavated. The Shang burials, some containing bronze ritual vessels, belong to the Erligang Phase. Eastern Chou finds date from the 7th-2nd centuries BC, and include one of the largest of...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

Liulige

Ellora

A site in central India with a series of magnificent rock-cut Buddhist, Jain, and Hindu temples, mainly of the Gupta Period c 320-540 AD. Many of them have fine sculptures. The most remarkable of the monuments is the monolithic Kailasa Temple, cut from a single outcropping of rock. It is extensiv...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Ellora

Erbil

Ancient Assyrian city buried beneath a modern town in Iraq, on the summit of a large tell. Because there has been little excavation, it is known mainly from texts which say it had a temple dedicated to Ishtar and was a cult center second only to Assur. The earliest records referring to Arab'ilu b...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names, Ancient Cities

Erbil

Iceland

An island country founded during the Viking age of exploration (late 9th century) and one of the most active volcanic regions in the world. The country was rich in fertile land and natural resources and independent farmers, mainly coming from Norway, flourished. There was much trade with the Viki...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Iceland

Snaketown

Large, important Hohokam site in the lower Gila River valley of Arizona with 1400 years of continuous occupation beginning c 300 BC. It is the best documented of all Hohokam villages, with 60 mounds (some rubbish heaps, others platforms) and a ball court, as well as fields, irrigation canals, and...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Snaketown

Kommos

Minoan settlement on the southern coast of Crete, possibly the harbor town for the palace of Phaistos. In the 10th century BC, a temple was built on the ruins of the Minoan town.

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Kommos

Kamilamba

Named after a site in the Upemba depression of the valley of the upper Lualaba in southeastern Zaire, this is the initial phase of the local Early Iron Age, precursor of the Kisalian. Dated to between the 5th and 8th centuries ad, it is poorly illustrated by the research so far undertaken, but th...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Kamilamba

Ai Bunar

A site with three copper mines, located near Stara Zagora in central Bulgaria. The open-cast mining of malachite ore beds dates to the 4th millennium BC (Karanovo VI period) and was later used in the Late Bronze Age. Quantities of this ore have been discovered in settlements in Moldavia and the U...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Ai Bunar

Alaca Hüyük

[Alacahuyuk, Alacahüyük, Alacahöyük] A tell site in north central Turkey, near Boghaz Köy and 150 km east of Ankara, that was occupied in the 4th, 3rd, and 2nd millennia BC. Its Chalcolithic and Copper Age phases include a cemetery of 13 extremely rich tombs from c 2500 BC (Early Bronze Age II). ...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

Alaca Hüyük

Romanelli

A large coastal cave in Apulia, Italy, occupied in the Palaeolithic period. Over a beach of last Interglacial date came some Mousterian deposits and a series of Upper Palaeolithic (c 12,000 BP) deposits of 'Romanellian' type. There are engraved art objects in these layers and on the walls, and sk...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Romanelli

Philia

Type site for Chalcolithic III culture in northern Cyprus, mid-3rd millennium BC. It is characterized by red polished pottery.

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names, Ancient Cities

Philia

Hierakonpolis

An important Predynastic and Archaic settlement and necropolis in southern Upper Egypt (Luxor). The town's population was in excess of 5000 and it was particularly associated with the god Horus. In proto-dynastic times Hierakonpolis was the capital of southern Egypt. Discoveries of this period ar...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

Hierakonpolis