Tell (archeology)

In archeology , the Arabic word tell (or Tel , Arabic تل, DMG Tall 'hill', meaning: settlement hill) an elevation that arose through repeated settlement, such as the citadel of Aleppo in Syria or the citadel of Erbil in the autonomous region of Kurdistan .

Aleppo Citadel

Name and occurrence

In Hebrew it is called tells tel ( תל), in Turkish Höyük or Hüyük , in Persian Tepe or Tappa , in Greek Magoula (also called Toumba in northern Greek Macedonia ), Romanian Magura and in Bulgarian Mogila (actually burial mound). Kom is the name in Egypt and North Sudan . The prehistoric residential mound, also known as the tell settlement in southeastern Europe, is called Byhøj (literally city mound ) in Denmark .

Tells are created in areas where adobe or rammed earth ( Pisé ) are the preferred building material, where there is little rainfall and where settlements are built in one place over a longer period of time. They can be found in the entire Middle East , also in Europe, in Greece, Bulgaria, Romania (Neolithic settlement of Pietrele , with Tell Măgura Gorgana) and in parts of Hungary (as in Jászberény ) and Serbia, but do not reach the same height as for example here in Iraq . One of the largest known tells is located in the city of Erbil (Arbela) in Kurdistan ( Citadel of Erbil ).

In Europe, tells were formed mainly during the Neolithic and Eneolithic . In the Hungarian lowlands, tells were only made between 5500 and 4500 BC. For the following Eeolithic Tiszapolgár culture , scattered flat settlements were typical.

In contrast to Tell, which has grown into an artificial hill over time due to the settled settlement rubble , the Arabic word qalʿa , corresponding to Turkish kale , describes a settlement built on a natural hill.

Examples

Tell

The following locations and excavation sites are designated with Tell or Tepe:
(alphabetic after main name)

Tall Abila , Jordan

Tell Abu Habbah, the historic city of Sippar , Iraq

Tell Abu-Shahrin, Mesopotamia , the excavation site of Eridu , Iraq

Tell Ahmar, today Til Barsip , Assyrian Kar-Salmanasser in Mesopotamia, Syria

Tell Afar , Iraq

Tell Agrab , Iraq

Tel Akko , Israel

Tel Arad , the ancient Arad in southern Israel

Tell Arqa , Lebanon, excavation site near Arqa

Tell Asmar , Mesopotamia, Iraq

Tel Aviv , Israel, Hebrew for "hill of spring": poetically translated title of the Hebrew edition of Theodor Herzl's 1902 novel Altneuland

Tel Aseka , Israel

Tell el-Balamun , Egypt

Tell Balata, Shechem in Palestine

Tell Barri , Syria, near Tell Brak

Tell Bashir , Turkey, prehistoric settlement hill with medieval fortress Turbessel

Tall Bazi , Syria

Tell Be'er Sheva , Israel

Tell Beydar , Nabada, Syria

Tell Bi'a, ancient Tuttul , Syria on the Euphrates

Tell Bismaya , in Iraq, see Adab

Tell Brak , Nagar, Syria, on the Chabur

Tell el-Burak , on the coast south of Sidon in Lebanon

Tel Khamis , Northeast Syria

Tell Chuera , excavation site in Syria

Tel ed-Duwer , Israel, the ancient city of Lachish

Tell el-Chulefi , Ezion-Geber on the Gulf of Aqaba

Tell el-Dab'a, Egypt near the historic Auaris , south city of the histor. City of Pi-Ramesse

Tel Dan , Arabic Tell al-Kadi or Tell el-Qadi, northern Israel, near Kibbutz Dan

Tell Deir Alla, Jordan (historical country Gilead ), where an inscription about the biblical seer Balaam was found

Tulul adh-Dhahab , Jordan, double hills in the Jabbok valley

Tell Dja'de al Mughara , Northern Syria

Et-Tell, Palestine, the biblical Ai

Tell el-Fara'in, Egypt, today's Dep, district of Buto

Tell el-Farama, Egypt, ancient Pelusium

Tell-i-Ghazir, Iran

Tel Goren, Tel En-Gedi near En Gedi on the Dead Sea

Tell Habwe, Nile Delta in Egypt, inscription by Pharaoh Nehesy

Tel Hadar, Israel, on the Sea of Galilee

Tell Halaf , Syria, eponymous for the Halaf culture , as the Guzana capital of the Aramaic empire Bit-Bahiani

Tell Hariri, Syria, ancient Mari

Tell Harmal , Iraq

Tel Hazor , Israel

Tell el-Hiba, Iraq, ancient Lagasch

Tall Hujayrat al-Ghuzlan , Jordan near Aqaba

Tell Jemmeh in Gaza

Tell Jokha, Mesopotamia, ancient Umma

Tell Kāmid el-Lōz , Lebanon

Tell Karanovo , Bulgaria

Tel Keisan, Biblical Akhshaph, Akšapa, near the coast north of Haifa in Israel

Tell Khanasri, near Irbid in northwestern Jordan

Tell Kujundschik, ancient Nineveh in northern Iraq

Tell Kuran in northeast Syria

Tall al-Magass, Jordan, near Aqaba

Tell Măgura Gorgana

Tell Mardikh, old Ebla

Tell el-Maschukah, Egypt, the cities of Heroonpolis and Pi-Thum (Pa-Thom)

Tell Mashnaqa, Syria, on the Chabur

Tel Masos, in the Beersheba Valley in Israel

Tall Mischrife, ancient Qatna in Syria

Tell Mohdâm, Tell Moqdan or Tell el-Moqdam, Tell el-Muqdam, Egypt, ancient city-state of Leontopolis

Tell Mozan, Syria, Akkadian city of Urkeš

Tell el-Mutesellim, ancient Megiddo

Tell en-Nasbeh, near Jerusalem , probably an ancient mizpah

Tell Nebi Jenus, also part of Nineveh in Iraq

Telloh, Mesopotamia, ancient Sumerian Girsu

Tell Qannas, Habuba Qabira on the central Euphrates in Syria

Tell Qarqur (Qarqar / Karkar), Syria, ancient Aramaic Qarqar

Tell Qasile , Tel Aviv , Israel

Tell er-Retaba , historical site in Egypt

Tall Rifaat , Northern Syria, Aramaic Arpad

Tell Roba, Tell al-Rubˁ, Greek name Mendes , in the Nile Delta in Egypt

Tel es-Safi, Philistine Gat in the Shefela (Gaza Strip)

Tell Schech Hamad , Major Katlimmu

Tell Siran in Amman , archaeological site on the grounds of the University of Jordan

Tell Sukas , ancient city in the Syrian governorate of Latakia

Tell es-Sultan (or Tell Sultan), Palestine, biblical Jericho

Tell Tayinat (Ta'yinat), Turkey near Antakya , 2009 Assyrian cuneiform finds

Tell Temai, Egypt near Mendes

Tell Tuneinir, Syria, on the Chabur

Tell el-Obed , Mesopotamia, eponymous for the Obed period

Tall al-Uhaymir, ancient Kiš in Mesopotamia

Tell el-Yahudiya , Egypt

Tell Yassir , Iraq, probably ancient Malgium

Tell Zeidan , Tell Zaidan near Raqqa , Syria, southeast of Aleppo , see Tuttul # story

Tall Zira'a , Jordan, in the border triangle with Syria and Israel

Tepe

The following locations and excavation sites are designated with Tepe:
(alphabetic after main name)

Ajina Tepe , Tajikistan

Altıntepe , Anatolia, Eastern Turkey

Anzavurtepe , eastern Turkey

Arslantepe , Turkey

Dalmā Tepe , West Azerbaijan (Iran)

Tepe Fullol , Afghanistan

Tepe Gaura , Iraq

Geoy Tepe , an archaeological dig in northwestern Iran

Godin Tepe , Iran

Gohar Tepe , a late Chalcolithic to Iron Age settlement in central northern Iran

Hajji Firuz Tepe , Iran

Haft Tepe , the name of a series of mounds of ruins in Iran

Hora-Tepé , Dacian settlement, city in Romania

Jorgan Tepe , northern Iraq, near Kirkuk , Nuzi , Ga-Sur

Kutlug-Tepe , Afghanistan

Namazga Tepe , settlement hill in Turkmenistan

Tilla Tepe , Afghanistan

Yarim Tepe , Mesopotamia

Yemschi Tepe , Afghanistan

Zernaki Tepe , former. Urartu, east of Lake Van, Turkey

Ziyaret Tepe , on the Tigris, the Assyrian Tushan

Others

Tell in the sense of mountain also generally refers to elevations.

literature

Thomas Link: The end of the Neolithic tell settlements, a cultural-historical phenomenon of the 5th millennium BC In the Carpathian Basin. Habelt, Bonn 2006, ISBN 3-7749-3416-9 .

Web links

Commons : Tell - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Dieter Vieweger : Tell. In: Michaela Bauks, Klaus Koenen, Stefan Alkier (Eds.): The Scientific Biblical Lexicon on the Internet (WiBiLex), Stuttgart 2006 ff.

Individual evidence

↑ Edit Batho Horti u. a .: Life in the land of the Jászen. Guide to the permanent exhibition of the Jász Museum; on the occasion of the 125th anniversary of the founding of the Jász Museum. Foundation for the Jász Museum, Jászberény 1999, ISBN 963-03-6864-1 .

[1] Edit Batho Horti u. a .: Life in the land of the Jászen. Guide to the permanent exhibition of the Jász Museum; on the occasion of the 125th anniversary of the founding of the Jász Museum. Foundation for the Jász Museum, Jászberény 1999, ISBN 963-03-6864-1 .