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

Hadar

A site in northeast Ethiopia where remains of Australopithecus 3.5 to 2.5 million years old have been found, named by their finders A. afarensis. The best-known specimens are an almost half-complete skeleton known as Lucy, and fragments of at least thirteen individuals found together. Claims of s...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Hadar

Bodrogkeresztur

The site of a Middle Copper Age cemetery and culture in eastern Hungary, c 3900-3500 BC. It is the type site for an occupation that made Linear Pottery and used metal battle-axes and ax-adzes of shaft-hole type. The cemetery has at least fifty inhumation graves. The Bodrogkeresztur culture repres...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Bodrogkeresztur

Ozieri Culture

Late Neolithic culture of Sardinia, known from caves and open villages, and dated to the late 4th and 3rd millennia BC. It produced elaborately decorated, high-quality pottery. Classic Ozieri decorated ware has been dated to c 4100-3500 BC at the Grotta di Filiestru (Bonu Ighinu). There are rock-...

archaeologsEnglishCultures, Ancient Pottery, Place Names

Ozieri Culture

Medinet Maadi

A site in the southwestern Fayyum region where a temple of the cobra-goddess Renenutet (harvest deity) was founded during the reigns of Amenemhat III and IV, c1855-1799 BC.

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Medinet Maadi

Pomongwe

A cave in Matopo Hills near Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, with fine rock paintings, especially of giraffe. The cave has a long sequence of stone industries and the name Pomongwe also refers to a Later Stone Age industry of southwestern Zimbabwe dated between 10,800-9400 bp. At the very bottom of the deep a...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Pomongwe

Valsequillo Reservoir

A site south of Puebla, Mexico, with radiocarbon dates that would be the earliest for man's presence in the New World, c 36,000 BC. A level containing bifacial and stemmed points has been dated 21,800 BC. These dates are not widely accepted.

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Valsequillo Reservoir

Zazaragi

Palaeolithic site in Miyagi prefecture, Japan, dated to c 45,000-40,000 bp, a very early occupation for the islands.

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Zazaragi

Didyma

A temple site in Miletus, Turkey, dating to the 8th century BC. The reconstructed Hellenistic temple included a naiskos inside the adyton.

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names, Ancient Cities

Didyma

Yazilikaya

(Turkish: "inscribed rock") Hittite monument just northeast of Bogazköy; it was the site of the Hittite capital Hattusa in eastern Turkey. In a northeastern recess (open-air gallery) is carved a long procession of mostly male figures. The east gallery contains a relief of a procession of warriors...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Yazilikaya

Cuello

A small Maya site in northern Belize, with one of the longest and most complete sequences covering the whole of the Pre-Classic period of Lowland Maya culture. It is the earliest-known ancient Maya site. A major discovery was of an early (Swasey) stage, c 2500-1200 BC, below Middle and Late Forma...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Cuello

Monteoru

A fortified hilltop near Bucharest which is the type site of a Middle to Late Bronze Age culture, c 2000-1600 BC, covering much of eastern Romania. This culture of the Sub-Carpathian zone was of local origin, but absorbed influences from both the south (notably faience in trade) and the steppes. ...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Monteoru

Dendera

A site in Upper Egypt with a well-preserved temple of Hathor from the Middle Kingdom and frequently added to by later rulers through to the Roman emperor Trajan. It was the site of the ancient capital of the sixth Upper Egyptian nome, located near modern Qena, close to the mouth of the Wadi Hamma...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Dendera

Hureidah

A site in Yemen, southwestern Arabia, with a temple to the god Sin. The temple of dressed stone blocks on a plastered rubble platform has a tentative date of 7th-6th century BC.

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Hureidah

Tanagra

Site in Boeotia, Greece, where a large cache of finely worked, cast terra-cotta figurines were found in Hellenistic period cemeteries spanning the period from c 340-150 BC. There are also Mycenaean chamber tombs in the area. The nearly circular hill of the ancient ruined city was first occupied b...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names, Ancient Cities

Tanagra

Kamid Al Loz, Tell

A site in Lebanon, Kumidi, that was the seat of a state during the Late Bronze Age (mentioned in the Amarna archive). Settlement began in the late Neolithic and continued to Byzantine times. In the Middle Bronze Age and Late Bronze Age, it was a walled down with a palace and temples. Its location...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Kamid Al Loz, Tell

Mylasa

A town in Asia Minor possibly founded by Mausolus, ruler of Caria (377-353 BC). Hellenistic and Roman site with Corinthian-style Temple of Zeus, Temple of Augustus and Rome, and ceremonial arch.

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

Mylasa

Sarmizegethusa

Late Iron Age town of eastern Romania, seat of the Dacian state founded by Burebistas in the 1st century BC. A hilltop citadel is next to a sanctuary area with several shrines and temples. Bronze and iron products and pottery were made in an industrial area. In 101, Trajan led an invasion of Daci...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

Sarmizegethusa

Persepolis

The capital of the Achaemenid empire, in the Zagros Mountains of Iran, founded by Darius shortly after 518 BC; it was destroyed by Alexander the Great in 330 BC. The ceremonial palace was built by teams of workers and craftspeople from all parts of the empire. It replaced the earlier capital, Pas...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names, Ancient Cities

Persepolis

Vilcabamba

Inca site in the eastern Andes, north of Cuzco, Peru, established after the Spanish conquest.

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names