Lehringen

A Middle Palaeolithic site near Bremen in north Germany (Lower Saxony), where organic muds revealed a pollen diagram of the last Interglacial. In these muds, a yew wood spear broken into several pieces was found. It passed between the ribs of the skeleton of an Elephant of Elephas antiquus type. ...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Lehringen

Beersheba

A site in southern Israel which was a frontier post in ancient Palestine. The earliest occupations were in 12th and 11th centuries BC, but the first town belonged to the period of the United Monarchy (10th century). The 8th century BC town wall with a great gateway flanked by double guard chamber...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Beersheba

Córdoba

A site in southern Spain that was probably Carthaginian in origin and was occupied by the Romans in 152 BC. It declined under the rule of the Visigoths from the 6th to the early 8th century AD. In 711 Córdoba was captured and largely destroyed by the Muslims. Its recovered under 'Abd ar-Rahman I,...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Córdoba

Mitla

A site in central Oaxaca, Mexico, which was first occupied in the centuries before 800 BC, after which it became an outpost of Monte Albán civilization. It is generally believed that Mitla (Nahuatl: Place of the Dead) was established as a sacred burial site long before the Christian Era, probably...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Mitla

Gallery Hill

A site in Western Australia with petroglyphs of tracks, circles, animals, and some human figures. Later pecked engravings show a wide range of subjects, including anthropomorphs.

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Gallery Hill

Giza

The site of the pyramid complexes of the Egyptian kings Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure on the west bank of the Nile opposite modern Cairo. It is most famous for the Great Pyramid of Khufu, two only slightly smaller pyramids, the Great Sphinx (statue of a human-headed lion) and its temple, and the to...

archaeologsEnglishRegions, Place Names

Giza

Olympia

Principal sanctuary of Zeus in Greece and the site of the original Olympic Games, a Panhellenic sanctuary in the western Peloponnese of Greece. It originated in the Greek Bronze Age and has a 7th century BC Temple of Hera and 5th century BC Temple of Zeus. Traces of the circular building of Phili...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Olympia

Munhata

A site occupied in the PPNB phase, located on a high terrace of the River Jordan in Israel, with a radiocarbon date of c 7200 BC. Several different building phases are documented and the architecture is characterized by plastered areas and raised stone platforms; earlier rectangular buildings wer...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Munhata

Nippur

A city and important cultural center at the heart of Sumer of southern Mesopotamia (now Iraq), first occupied in 'Ubaid times and inhabited into the 1st millennium AD. Nippur played a special role in the life of Sumer as a religious city, center of the worship of Enlil. Lying between the Tigris a...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Nippur

Tiryns

A fortified citadel of the Mycenaeans in the Argolid, Greece, an important Bronze Age center. The palace of its rulers, a megaron opening onto a porticoed court, was decorated with frescoes after the style of the Minoans. They include one of the best surviving representations of the bull-leaping ...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

Tiryns

Kudaro

Two cave sites in the Greater Caucasus Mountains of Georgia with Acheulian layers associated with Middle Pleistocene vertebrates and bifaces, choppers, and sidescrapers. Some Middle Palaeolithic artifacts are associated with Late Pleistocene vertebrates and points and sidescrapers. There are also...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Kudaro

Huai Yai

A site in central Thailand that was a center of copper and bronze production in the 2nd and 1st millennia BC. It was also a center for making polished stone adzes and stone bracelets.

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Huai Yai

Ahar

A site in Rajasthan, western India, belonging to the Chalcolithic Banas culture and dated c. 2500-1500 BC. The people cultivated cereal crop, hunted deer, used copper and a variety of pottery, including Black and Red Ware. A second period of occupation later in the 1st millennium BC used Northern...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Ahar

Qishan

A site in Shaanxi province, China, where the Zhou people established their dynasty and capital before they overthrew the Shang dynasty in 1027 BC. A large palace complex included inscribed oracle bones antedating the founding of the dynasty. The tiled roofs of the buildings are the earliest known...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Qishan

Deh Luran

The site in Iran where Frank Hole and Ken Flannery studied the origins of food production. They excavated at Tepe Ali Kosh, Tepe Sabz, and Choga Sefid to create a cultural sequence from around 8000 bc through the Uruk period to historical times.

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Deh Luran

Great Wall Of China

A monumental building project which created a wall running (with all its branches) about 4,000 miles (6,400 km) west to east from Bohai Bay to a point deep in central Asia, the Tarim Basin. Parts of the vast fortification date from the 4th century BC. In 214 BC, the first emperor of a united Chin...

archaeologsEnglishArchitectural, Place Names

Great Wall Of China

Chedworth

A site in Cotswold, southern England, with the ruins of a large Roman villa, one of the best-preserved in Britain. The villa was typical of the last years of the Roman occupation. Three phases have been found, c 100-150 AD, early 3rd century, and early 4th century.

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Chedworth

Beni Hassan

A Middle Kingdom archaeological site, on the eastern bank of the Nile, Egypt, about 150 miles south of Cairo. The site is known for its rock-cut tombs of the 11th- and 12th-dynasty (2125-1795 BC) officials of the 16th Upper Egyptian (Oryx) nome, or province. Some of the 39 tombs are painted with ...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

Beni Hassan

Thinis

A site in Upper Egypt where the 1st and 2nd Dynasties originated, according to the 3rd-century-BC historian Manetho. Thinis is located north of the Predynastic and Early Dynastic cemeteries of Abydos (modern al-Barba).

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Thinis

Tutishcainyo

One of the oldest sites in Upper Amazon, South America, with evidence of human occupation on Lake Yarinacocha in eastern Peru. The distinctive sand or shell-tempered pottery was decorated with incision the Early Tutishcainyo is dated to c 2500-1300 BC. There is also wattle-and-daub construction.

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Tutishcainyo

Kumbi

A site in Ghana whose extensive ruins have been identified as the capital of the 11th century. Excavations have revealed the presence of a stone-built mosque and two-story houses with storerooms. Pottery and glass indicate trans-Saharan trade with North Africa. It was the last of the capitals of ...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Kumbi

Ayutthaya

A town in south-central Thailand founded c 1350 by Ramathibodi I in his attempt to unify the countries of Siam and Lopburi. It became the capital of the powerful Thai kingdom of the same name for more than 400 years until its destruction by invading Myanmar in 1767. Much architecture, art, and li...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

Ayutthaya

Chandoli

A site in southern India occupied in the 2nd millennium BC. Ground stone axes, copper flat axes and antenna swords/daggers, and pottery of Malwa type have been found as well as urn burials.

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Chandoli

Kom Ombo

The site of a unique double temple of the Ptolemaic and Roman periods, which is dedicated to Sebek (Suchos), the crocodile god, and to Horus, the falcon-headed god. Ombos was important for its strategic location, commanding both the Nile River and the routes from Nubia northward to the Nile River...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

Kom Ombo

Ai Khanum

A Hellenistic city, occupied between 400-100 BC, at the confluence of the Oxus and Koktcha in Afghanistan. The city comprises a citadel, acropolis, and lower town with an administrative center. The administrative center was an imposing complex of a courtyard with a peristyle. Nearby is a funerary...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

Ai Khanum