Tell (archaeology) in the context of "Ebla"

Ur (/ʊr/ or /ɜːr/) was a major Sumerian city-state in ancient Mesopotamia, located at the site of modern Tell el-Muqayyar (Arabic: تَلّ ٱلْمُقَيَّر, lit. 'mound of bitumen') in Dhi Qar Governorate, southern Iraq. Although Ur was a coastal city near the mouth of the Euphrates on the Persian Gulf, the coastline has shifted and the site is now well inland, on the south bank of the Euphrates, 16 km (10 mi) southwest of Nasiriyah in modern-day Iraq. The city dates from the Ubaid period c. 3800 BC, and is recorded in written history as a city-state from the 26th century BC, its first recorded king being Mesannepada.

The city's patron deity was the moon god Nanna (Sin in Akkadian), and the name of the city is derived from UNUG, literally "the abode (of Nanna)". The site is marked by the partially restored ruins of the Ziggurat of Ur, which contained the shrine of Nanna, excavated in the 1930s. The temple was built in the 21st century BC (short chronology), during the reign of Ur-Nammu and was reconstructed in the 6th century BC by Nabonidus, the last king of Babylon.

Yeşilova Höyük is a höyük (tell) in the Bornova district of İzmir, Turkey, and is the oldest known prehistoric human settlement in the area of İzmir. It was occupied continuously from roughly 6500 to 4000 BC, and was covered with silt afterwards.

Discovered in 2003, the site has been explored since 2005 by a team under the direction of Associate Professor Zafer Derin of Ege University. By 2005, important new light had been shed on the Neolithic-Chalcolithic phases of İzmir's metropolitan area in particular and of Turkey's Aegean Region in general.

Kültepe (Turkish: lit. 'ash-hill'), also known under its ancient name Kaneš (Kanesh, sometimes also Kaniš/Kanish) or Neša (Nesha), is an archaeological site in Kayseri Province, Turkey. It was already a major settlement at the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC (Early Bronze Age), but it is world-renowned for its significance at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC (Middle Bronze Age). The archaeological site consists of a large mound (also known as höyük, tepe or tell), and a lower city, where a kārum (the Assyrian word for trading district) was established in the beginning of the 2nd Millennium BC. So far, 23,500 cuneiform tablets recovered from private houses constitute the largest collection of private texts in the ancient Near East. In 2014, the archaeological site was inscribed in the Tentative list of World Heritage Sites in Turkey.

Ugarit (/juːˈɡɑːrɪt, uː-/; Ugaritic: 𐎜𐎂𐎗𐎚, ủgrt /ʾUgarītu/) was an ancient Levantine coastal city located in what is today northern Syria. The site, with its corpus of ancient cuneiform texts, was discovered in 1928. The texts were written in a previously unknown Northwest Semitic tongue—the Ugaritic language. Archaeological excavations of Ugarit show evidence of occupation since the 8th millennium BC. Research has focused on the late Bronze Age levels; relatively little is known about earlier occupation. The ongoing archaeological investigation of Ugarit has proven to be invaluable to the study of the Bronze Age in the eastern Mediterranean.

Ugarit is 10 km north of the Syrian city Latakia; at its zenith it ruled an area roughly equivalent to the modern Latakia Governorate. The ruins are often called "Ras Shamra" or "Tell Shamra" after the local place names.

Bin Tepe (lit. "1000 Tells" in Turkish) is an archaeological site on the southern shore of Marmara Lake in Manisa Province, Turkey. Consisting of over 100 tumuli, it served as a cemetery for the elites of nearby Sardis.

In 2025, Bin Tepe was listed as UNESCO World Heritage Site.

A mound is a heaped pile of earth, gravel, sand, rocks, or debris. Most commonly, mounds are earthen formations such as hills and mountains, particularly if they appear artificial. A mound may be any rounded area of topographically higher elevation on any surface. Artificial mounds have been created for a variety of reasons throughout history, including habitation (see Tell and Terp), ceremonial (platform mound), burial (tumulus), and commemorative purposes (e.g. Kościuszko Mound).

Jemdet Nasr (Arabic: جمدة نصر) (also Jamdat Nasr and Jemdat Nasr) is a tell or settlement mound in Babil Governorate, Iraq that is best known as the eponymous type site for the Jemdet Nasr period (c. 3100–2900 BC), under an alternate periodization system termed the Uruk III period, and was one of the oldest Sumerian cities. It is adjacent to the much larger Neo-Babylonian and Sassanian site of Tell Barguthiat (also Tell Bargouthiat) to the northeast. The site was first excavated in 1926 by Stephen Langdon, who found Proto-Cuneiform clay tablets in a large mudbrick building thought to be the ancient administrative centre of the site.A second season took place in 1928, but this season was very poorly recorded. Subsequent excavations in the 1980s under British archaeologist Roger Matthews were, among other things, undertaken to relocate the building excavated by Langdon. These excavations have shown that the site was also occupied during the Ubaid, Uruk and Early Dynastic I periods. Based on texts found there mentioning an ensi of NI.RU that is thought to be its ancient name. During ancient times the city was on a canal linking it to other major Sumerian centers.

The Kingdom of Awsan, commonly known simply as Awsan (Qatabanian: 𐩱𐩥𐩯𐩬, romanized: ʾwsn; Arabic: أوسان, romanized: ʾAwsān), was a kingdom in Ancient South Arabia, centered around a wadi called the Wadi Markha. The wadi remains archaeologically unexplored. The name of the capital of Awsan is unknown, but it is assumed to be the tell that is today known as Hagar Yahirr (locally named Ḥajar Asfal), the largest settlement in the wadi. Hagar Yahirr was 15 hectares and surrounded by an irrigated area of nearly 7,000 hectares, indicating that it was a formidable power in its time. The main god of Awsan was called Balu (blw).

The Kingdom of Awsan experienced two main periods of activity. The first began in the 8th century BC, and in this time, Awsan was militarily allied with the Kingdom of Saba and, together, launched campaigns against common enemies. In the late 7th century BC, this alliance changed into a rivalry and Saba, under Karib'il Watar, obliterated Awsan, then ruled by a king named Murattaʿ. The later kingdom of Awsan experienced a resurgence around or after the 2nd century BC, its independence waning and waxing against Qatabanic control of the area.