Tell

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Tell

Tell, tel (From , tel or tall in , tall), meaning "hill" or "mound", is a type of archaeological

Archaeology

Archaeology, archeology, or arch?ology is the science that studies Homo cultures through the recovery, documentation, analysis, and interpretation of material remains and environmental data, including architecture, Artifact , features, Biofact s, and cultural landscape....
site in the form of an earthen mound that results from the accumulation and subsequent erosion

Erosion

For morphological image processing operations, see Erosion 'For use of in dermatopathology, see Erosion Erosion is the removal of solids in the natural environment....
of material deposited by long human

Human

A human being, also human or man, is a member of a species of bipedalism primates in the family Hominidae . Mitochondrial DNA evidence indicates that modern humans originated in east Africa about 200,000 years ago....
occupation.

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Encyclopedia

Tell, tel (From , tel or tall in , tall), meaning "hill" or "mound", is a type of archaeological

Archaeology

Erosion

Human

Architecture

The term architecture can refer to a process, a profession or documentation.As a process, architecture is the activity of designing and construction buildings and other physical structures by a person or a computer, primarily to provide shelter....
building materials containing a high proportion of stone, mudbrick

Mudbrick

A mudbrick is a firefree brick made of clay, or mud mixed with a binding material such as rice husks or straw.In warm regions with very little timber available to fuel a kiln, bricks were generally sun dried....
, or loam

Loam

Loam is soil composed of sand, silt, and clay in relatively even concentration , considered ideal for gardening and agricultural uses. Loam soils generally contain more nutrients and humus than sandy soils, have better infiltration and drainage than silty soils, and are easier to tillage than clay soils....
as well as (to a minor extent) domestic refuse. The distribution of this phenomenon spans from the Indus valley in the east to Central Europe

Central Europe

Central Europe is the region lying between the variously and vaguely defined areas of Eastern Europe and Western Europe Europe. In addition, Northern Europe, Southern Europe and Southeastern Europe may variously delimit or overlap into Central Europe....
in the west. There are about 50,000 visible tells in the Middle East, a testament to the long settlement of the area.

The word is commonly used as a general term in archeology, particularly in Near Eastern archaeology

Near Eastern archaeology

Near Eastern Archaeology is a regional branch of the wider, global discipline of Archaeology. It refers generally to the excavation and study of Artifact and material culture of the Near East from antiquity to the recent past....
. It is also sometimes used in a toponym, that is, as part of a town or city name, the best known example being the city of Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv-Yafo , usually Tel Aviv, is the List of largest cities and second largest cities by country List of cities in Israel in Israel, with an estimated population of 390,100....
(Hebrew, "Hill of [the season] Spring"), although Tel Aviv doesn't actually rest on a tell. A modern city is often located next to an ancient mound with a similar tell name, for example the city of Arad

Arad, Israel

Arad is a city in the South District of Israel. It is located on the border of the Negev and Judean Deserts, west of the Dead Sea and east of the city Beersheba....
, Israel

Israel

Israel officially the State of Israel , is a country in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area....
, is a few kilometers away from an ancient mound called Tel Arad

Tel Arad

Tel Arad or 'old' Arad is located west of the Dead Sea, about 10km west of modern Arad, Israel in an area surrounded by mountain ridges which is known as the Arad Becken....
. A proper use is in the case of the Tell of Akka, a hillock on which the actual city of Akka is situated.

Occasionally the word "tell" is misapplied to a site whose form does not warrant the designation. The site of Amarna

Amarna

The site of Amarna is located on the east bank of the Nile River in the modern Egyptian province of Minya Governorate, some 58 km south of the city of al-Minya, 312 km south of the Egyptian capital Cairo and 402 km north of Luxor....
in middle Egypt

Egypt

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west....
, frequently misnamed "Tell el-Amarna", is the best example of such an error; or the Tell Atlas

Tell Atlas

The Tell Atlas is a mountain chain over 1,500 kilometers in length, belonging to the Atlas Mountains ranges in North Africa, stretching from Morocco, through Algeria to Tunisia....
mountains in the Maghreb

Maghreb

The Maghreb , also rendered Maghrib , meaning "place of sunset" or "western" in Arabic, is a region in North Africa. The term is generally applied to all of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, but in older Arabic usage pertained only to the area of the three countries between the high ranges of the Atlas Mountains and the Mediterranean Sea....
, whose naming is unrelated to the word "Tell".

Other names

The Turkish

Turkish language

Turkish is a language spoken by over 63 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Cyprus, with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania and other parts of Eastern Europe....
word for tell is höyük, as in Çatalhöyük

Çatalhöyük

?atalh?y?k was a very large Neolithic and Chalcolithic settlement in southern Anatolia, c 7500-5700 BCE. It is the largest and best preserved Neolithic site found to date....
, or tepe. The Persian

Persian language

Balkans

The Balkans is the historical name of a geographic subregion of southeastern Europe. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains, which run through the centre of Bulgaria into eastern Serbia....
are often translated as "grave

Grave (burial)

A grave is a place where a dead body is burial. The grave is usually in a graveyard or cemetery.Graves may contain objects that provide clues for archaeology about the life and culture of the time....
": magoula or toumba (because small tells can be confused with burial mounds

Tumulus

A tumulus is a mound of Soil and Rock s raised over a Grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, H?gelgrab or kurgans, and can be found throughout much of the world....
) in Thessaly

Thessaly

Thessaly is one of the 13 Peripheries of Greece of Greece, and is further sub-divided into 4 Prefectures of Greece. The capital of the periphery and traditional Regions of Greece is Larissa....
and Macedonia

Macedonia (region)

Macedonia is a geographical and Historical regions of the Balkan Peninsula in southeastern Europe whose area was re-defined in the early 20th century....
. The word mogila is used in Bulgaria

Bulgaria

The state of Bulgaria , Scientific transliteration Balgarija, officially the Republic of Bulgaria has played a significant role in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe for over fourteen centuries....
, gomila in Slovenia

Slovenia

Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in southern Central Europe bordering Italy to the west, the Adriatic Sea to the southwest, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north....
, and magura in Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located in Southeastern Europe Central Europe, North of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian Mountains, bordering on the Black Sea....
.