Vadastra

Middle and Late Neolithic culture of southwest Rumania and northern Bulgaria in the late 5th millennium BC. The tell's stratigraphy includes an Aurignacian level, separated by a long hiatus from two Vadastra culture levels and a Salcuta culture level (early 4th millennium BC). There are large gra...

archaeologsEnglishCultures, Place Names

Vadastra

Habitat

The physical environment where a plant or animal naturally or normally lives and grows. An area in the biome where different communities and populations flourish, each with specific locales.

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Habitat

Abu Simbel

The site of two rock-cut temples of the Egyptian king Rameses II (1279-1213 BC), located southeast of Aswan, formerly Nubia. The facade of the largest temple is dominated by four 20-meter-high (67 feet) seated figures of Rameses and the main part of the temple is cut into the solid rock of the hi...

archaeologsEnglishArchitectural, Tombs, Place Names

Abu Simbel

Boghazköy

The site of the Hittite capital of Hattusas, excavated by Hugo Winckler in the early 20th century and which yielded thousands of cuneiform tablets from which much of Hittite history was reconstructed. The capital is on a rock citadel near the Halys River in central Turkey and the site had been oc...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

Boghazköy

Amlash

A site in northwest Iran, southwest of the Caspian Sea, dating to the late 2nd millennium BC. Rich burials in tombs have produced gold and silver vessels, pottery figurines, animal-shaped pottery rhytons (ritual vessels) - material similar to that at Marlik Tepe.

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Amlash

Jhukar

A site in Sindh, Pakistan, lending its name to a Late Harappan culture of Chalcolithic times (2nd millennium BC). The culture, which succeeded the Indus Civilization on certain sites in Sindh (type site of Chanhu-daro; Amri) has material showing a mixture of elements from the Indus, Baluchistan, ...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Jhukar

Agordat

A town in western Eritrea, Ethiopia, with four village sites from around the 3rd millennium BC. Surface artifacts, such as stone maceheads and ground stone axes seem related to the Nubian C Group of the Nile Valley. Other artifacts suggest an early practice of food production that may have been p...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

Agordat

Orchomenos

Important Bronze Age site in Boeotia, central Greece, home of the legendary King Minyas. Extensive remains of the Early and Middle Helladic periods survive, though the Mycenaean levels are badly eroded. A large frescoed Late Helladic structure is probably a palace, and to the east lies the tholos...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

Orchomenos

Acropole Of Susa

A site in southwestern Iran including a large cemetery and platform from Susa's initial occupation, dating to the end of the 5th millennium BC. The site is divided into Acropole 1 and 2; Acropole 1 has provided a sequence of 27 levels up to the Akkadian period. Some levels contain evidence of the...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Acropole Of Susa

Beijing

The modern capital of China. More than 2,000 years ago, a site just outside present-day Peking was already an important military and trading center for the northeastern frontier of China. The Shang civilization reached this area in the early part of their dynasty and a grave of c 14th century BC ...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Beijing

Behbet El-Hagar

A town in the northern central Nile Delta which flourished in the 30th Dynasty (380-343 BC) and the Ptolemaic period (332-30 BC). The site is dominated by the remains of a large granite temple of Isis.

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

Behbet El-Hagar

Kition

An important Late Cypriot settlement in southern Cyprus, first occupied in the 13th century BC. The copper trade supported it until it was destroyed c 1200 BC, possibly by the Sea Peoples. In the 11th century BC, possibly because of an earthquake, it was abandoned but then recolonized by the Phoe...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names, Ancient Cities

Kition

Füzesabony

The third stage of the early Hungarian Bronze Age, named after the Tószeg Tell in Heves. The Füzesabony culture of the 21st-19th centuries BC is the Hungarian version of the Transylvanian/Rumanian Otomani culture. Most known settlements are unfortified tells with wattle-and-daub timber-framed hou...

archaeologsEnglishCultures, Place Names

Füzesabony

Hattusas

The ancient name for Boghaz Köy, the capital of the Hittites, who established a powerful empire in Anatolia and northern Syria in the 2nd millennium BC.

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

Hattusas

Commagene

An area in ancient Syria at the junction of the Taurus Mountains and the Euphrates River - a strategic position between the Roman and Parthian empires from which obsidian was exported from c 8000 BC. Commagene broke from the Seleucid Empire about 162 BC and its king, Antiochus I (c 69-34 BC) help...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Commagene

Qaluyu

A site and cultural phase of the Early Horizon Period in northern Titicaca area of Peru. The pottery had incisions or simple painted geometric motifs in red on cream.

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Qaluyu

Tordos

A site on the Mures River in Transylvania, Rumania, with archaeological finds dating from the Middle Neolithic Age (3500-2600 BC). Its has given its name to the Transylvanian regional group of the Vinca culture and is often coupled with that of Vinca to describe a Middle Neolithic culture coverin...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Tordos

Columnata

A site in the Atlas Mountains of northern Algeria with several Mechtoid-type human burials dated to 8300-7300 BP.

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Columnata

Argissa

An important Neolithic site in Thessaly, northern Greece, which has given much information on the early phases of the Greek Aceramic Neolithic period. In the Argissa Magula near Larissa, there have been early prepottery Neolithic finds of probably the 6th millennium BC. Timber-framed huts consist...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Argissa

El Khiam

A site in Palestine with a distinctive point of the PPNA lithic industry. The point is a truncated and symmetrically notched bladelet with a tip formed by marginal retouching.

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

El Khiam

Ele Bor

A rock shelter site which was first occupied in the Middle Stone Age. There was a backed-microlith industry used by them and the following group of the Aquatic Civilization. Domestic sheep/goats and camel were present in small numbers from about the 3rd millennium BC, at which time pottery also c...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Ele Bor

Sippar

Ancient city of Babylonia, southwest of Baghdad, Iraq, an ancient Sumerian city lying on a canal linking the Tigris and the Euphrates. It was an important religious and trading center in southern Mesopotamia. Sippar was subject to the 1st dynasty of Babylon, but little is known about the city bef...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

Sippar

Poverty Point

A site in northern Louisiana with a spectacular group of late Archaic sites, c 1300-400 BC in the Woodland stage. The site consisted of six concentric octagons, each formed of earthen ridges that seem to have been used as dwelling areas. There are also two mounds, and from the larger one the vern...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Poverty Point

Hongshan

A site in Liaoning Province, China, an the name of a Neolithic culture dated to c 3500-3000 BC. Hongshan had elaborate jade animal ornaments, large temple sites, female figurines, and masks.

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Hongshan

Karolta

A site in northwest South Australia with petroglyphs in Panaramitee-style engravings. Dates range from 31,600-1400 bp.

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Karolta