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

Bulgaria

Egypt

Gaza Strip

Iran

Iraq

Israel

Jordan

Lebanon

Syria

Turkey

UAE

West Bank

See also

References

  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.
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