Amekni

A site in southern Algeria dating to c 7th millennium BC. Pottery similar to wavy-line ware of Early Khartoum. There is not evidence of food production or of fishing in this early settlement.

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Amekni

Medvednjak

A pair of Neolithic settlement sites on adjoining hills, north of Smederevska Palanka in northern Serbia. The first site is dated to the earliest Vinca phase; the second has two occupations of the Early Vinca and Late Vinca (Vinca culture c 4500-3500 BC). Complete house-plans from the latest leve...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Medvednjak

Jellinge

A site in East Jutland, in Denmark, which seems to be the remains of a 10th-century royal palace and important burial ground. Among the groups of remarkable monuments are the two largest barrows in that country. The barrows are traditionally held to be that of Viking king Gorm (d. c 950 AD) and T...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Jellinge

Kok Charoen

A site in central Thailand, dating to the 2nd and 1st millennia BC, which yielded occupational remains and more than 60 burials furnished with pottery similar to that of Non Nok Tha. It is considered to be the largest Neolithic burial site so far discovered in Southeast Asia.

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Kok Charoen

Dainzú

A site in central Oaxaca, Mexico, dating to c 300 BC with bas-relief carvings similar to the Danzantes at Monte Albán.

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Dainzú

Sitagroi

Settlement mound in eastern Macedonia, northern Greece, which has produced an important stratigraphy for the chronology of the north Aegean. Sitagroi began with a Middle Neolithic occupation dated c 4500 BC, and continued into the Early Bronze Age in the 3rd millennium BC. The site was chosen for...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Sitagroi

Phaistos

The site of a Bronze Age palace of the Minoans in south-central Crete, constructed c 1900 BC, destroyed by an earthquake c 1700 BC, rebuilt, and succumbing to final destruction c 1450 BC from the eruption of Thera. Its plan follows closely the pattern of other Minoan palaces - a large central cou...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Phaistos

Nea Nikomedeia

An Early Neolithic tell settlement in Macedonia in northern Greece. From a large structure (shrine?) in the center of the mound, there were terra-cotta female figurines thought to have been used in rituals. The remains of rectangular mud houses, a number of crouched burials, and plain and painted...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

Nea Nikomedeia

Kissonerga-Mylouthkia

Early Chalcolithic site in western Cyprus of the mid-4th millennium BC.

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Kissonerga-Mylouthkia

Cyprus

The third largest island in the Mediterranean, on its east end. Cyprus was inhabited as early as the late Neolithic Age (mid-6th millennium BC) and by the late Bronze Age (c 1600 BC-c 1050 BC) had become a trading center, visited and settled by Mycenaeans and Achaeans, who introduced Greek cultur...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Cyprus

Venosa

A town in southern Italy that has a Lower Palaeolithic site with a hand axe or Acheulian level overlying one with abundant sidescapers (evolved Clactonian, Tayacian or Charentian?). Originally a settlement of the Lucanians (an ancient Italic tribe), it was taken by the Romans after the Samnite Wa...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

Venosa

Aq Kupruk

A rock shelter (Aq Kupruk II) and open site (Aq Kupruk III) on the Balkh River in northern Afghanistan. It is one of the richest Palaeolithic sites in that area. Aq Kupruk II had a single late Palaeolithic deposit with a blade industry (including microliths) with a radiocarbon date of c 14,600 BC...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Aq Kupruk

Buret

A site in southern Sibera, western Turkistan, which was occupied in late Palaeolithic times. It is known for mammoth-tusk figurines of women. They resemble Paleolithic statuettes from Europe and the Middle East and the nude ones probably served as fertility symbols or as representations of the gr...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Buret

Lower Egypt

The northern part of Egypt, land around the Nile delta and Memphis, from modern Cairo to the Mediterranean coast. This geographic and cultural division of Egypt was bounded generally by the 30th parallel north in the south and by the Mediterranean Sea in the north. The boundary between Lower and ...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Lower Egypt

Royal Cemetery

A site in Ur in southern Mesopotamia with 1500 tombs from the later Early Dynastic to the Ur III period, mostly of the c 2600-2300 BC time. The richest tomb belonged to king Meskalamdug, which held many precious materials and famous artifacts of the Sumerian civilization. The royal burials were a...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Royal Cemetery

Kivik

A site in southern Sweden with one of the largest grave mounds in Scandinavia, c 70 m in diameter. The barrow covers a central cyst made of slabs with carvings on their inner faces. The designs include processional scenes, a chariot with rider, ships, horses, fish, axes, sun-wheels, and human fig...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Kivik

Pucara

A major urban center of the Early Intermediate Period, near the Peruvian shore of Lake Titicaca. The important buildings included a walled sanctuary, monumental U-shaped sunken court surrounded by structures, and walls of dressed stone slabs. The city is best known for its carved stone statues an...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Pucara

Gaocheng

Area in southern Hebei province, China, with widely scattered Shang remains. At Taixicun, the main occupation postdates the Erligang Phase and has one radiocarbon date of c 1500 BC. The site is dominated by three large rectangular Hangtu platforms and a large house foundation with sacrificial bur...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Gaocheng

Smolensk

A site in western Russia first mentioned in 863, when it was already a key stronghold controlling the portages between the Dnieper and the Western Dvina rivers and the route between the Moscow region and western Europe. The town also lay on the trade route between the Baltic Sea to the north and ...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Smolensk

Amorgos

An island in the eastern Cyclades, Greece, which was prosperous in the Early Bronze Age and had three cities, Arcesine, Minoa, and Aegiale. There is an important cemetery on the island with single burials in cist graves, accompanied by copper weapons and pottery. Fine carved stone figurines of Ea...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Amorgos

Karmir-Blur

Urartian city near modern Erevan, Armenia, with a citadel and walled residential area, mainly occupied in the 7th century BC. There were pre-Urartian graves and Hellenistic occupation. It may have replaced Erebuni as the Urartian seat in the 8th century.

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

Karmir-Blur

Malwa

A plateau of northwestern Madhya Pradesh in India which is also the name of a Chalcolithic culture of the early 2nd millennium BC. Important sites include Navdatoli, Nagda, and Kayatha (Ujjain). The characteristic pottery (Malwa ware) is a red-slipped, black painted ware on a red or cream ground ...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Malwa

Cerro De Las Mesas

A site in southern Veracruz, Mexico, in the plains of the Papaloápan River that is a hybrid site of Pre-Classic and Classic periods. Dozens of earthen mounds are scattered over the surface in a seemingly haphazard manner, and the archaeological sequence is long and complex. The site reached its a...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Cerro De Las Mesas

Cheddar

A site in Somerset county, England, where a gorge and caverns have offered up human remains and artifacts (stone and bone tools) dating back to the Stone Age. The Gough's Cave finds probably date from 8-10,000 BC. Cheddar cheese was first made there at or before the beginning of the 12th century ...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Cheddar

Charsada

A site in Pakistan which was the capital of the Achaemenid satrapy of Gandhara. There is a series of mounds, up to 20 meters high, concealing the caravan city of Pushkalavati with occupation from the 6th century BC to the 2nd or 1st century BC. Excavations near the largest mound, Bala Hisar, iden...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Charsada