In archaeology, a tell, or tel (derived from Arabic: تَل, tall, 'hill' or 'mound'),[1][2] is an artificial mound formed from the accumulated refuse or deposits of people living on the same site for hundreds or thousands of years. A classic tell looks like a low, truncated cone with sloping sides[3] and can be up to 30 metres high.[4]

Tells are most commonly associated with the archaeology of the ancient Near East, Southeast Europe (Bulgaria[5] and Greece[6][7]), also reaching Central Asia and West Africa.[8] Within the Near East, they are concentrated in less arid regions, including Upper Mesopotamia, the Southern Levant, Anatolia and Iran.[4]

Azerbaijan edit

Bulgaria edit

Egypt edit

Gaza Strip edit

Iran edit

Iraq edit

Israel edit

Jordan edit

Lebanon edit

Syria edit

Turkey edit

UAE edit

West Bank edit

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ "tell". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  2. ^ Kirkpatrick, E. M. (1983). Chambers 20th Century Dictionary (New ed.). Edinburgh: W & R Chambers Ltd. p. 1330. ISBN 978-0-550-10234-8.
  3. ^ Archaeology of Palestine, Art of Excavating a Palestinian Mound, William Foxwell Albright, 1960, p. 16
  4. ^ a b Wilkinson, Tony J. (2003). Archaeological Landscapes of the Near East. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press. pp. 100–127. ISBN 978-0-8165-2173-9 – via Internet Archive.
  5. ^ Bailey, Douglass W.; Tringham, Ruth; Bass, Jason; Stevanović, Mirjana; Hamilton, Mike; Neumann, Heike; Angelova, Ilke; Raduncheva, Ana (1998-01-01). "Expanding the Dimensions of Early Agricultural Tells: The Podgoritsa Archaeological Project, Bulgaria". Journal of Field Archaeology. 25 (4): 373–396. doi:10.1179/009346998792005298. ISSN 0093-4690.
  6. ^ Davidson, Donald A.; Wilson, Clare A.; Lemos, Irene S.; Theocharopoulos, S. P. (2010-07-01). "Tell formation processes as indicated from geoarchaeological and geochemical investigations at Xeropolis, Euboea, Greece" (PDF). Journal of Archaeological Science. 37 (7): 1564–1571. Bibcode:2010JArSc..37.1564D. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2010.01.017. hdl:1893/16434.
  7. ^ Kotsakis, Kostas (1999). "What Tells can Tell: Social Space and Settlement in the Greek Neolithic". In Halstead, Paul (ed.). Neolithic Society in Greece. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press. ISBN 9781850758242.
  8. ^ MacDonald, Kevin C. (1997). "More forgotten tells of Mali: an archaeologist's journey from here to Timbuktu". Archaeology International. 1 (1): 40–42. doi:10.5334/ai.0112.