Tell
Tell or tall , meaning "hill" or "mound", is a type of
archaeological site in the form of an
earthen mound that results from the accumulation and subsequent
erosion of material deposited by
human occupation over long periods of time. A tell mostly consists of
mudbrick or other
architecture containing a high proportion of stone or loam as well as to a minor extent domestic refuse. The distribution of this phenomenon spans from the
Indus valley in the east to southeastern
Europe in the west.
The word is commonly used as a general term in archaeology, particularly in Near Eastern archaeology.
Encyclopedia
Tell or
tall , meaning "hill" or "mound", is a type of
archaeological site in the form of an
earthen mound that results from the accumulation and subsequent
erosion of material deposited by
human occupation over long periods of time. A tell mostly consists of
mudbrick or other
architecture containing a high proportion of stone or loam as well as to a minor extent domestic refuse. The distribution of this phenomenon spans from the
Indus valley in the east to southeastern
Europe in the west.
The word is commonly used as a general term in archaeology, particularly in Near Eastern archaeology. 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 , although Tel Aviv doesn't actually rest on a tel. A modern city is often located next to an ancient mound with a similar
tell name, for example the city of
Arad,
Israel, is a few kilometers away from an ancient mound called Tel Arad. 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 in middle
Egypt, frequently misnamed "Tell el-Amarna", is the best example of such an error.
The
Turkish word for tell is
höyük, as in
Çatalhöyük, or
tepe. Toponyms indicating settlement mounds in the
Balkans are often translated as "grave":
magoula or
toumba in Thessaly and Macedonia. The word
mogila is used in
Bulgaria,
gomila in
Slovenia, and
magura is in
Romania.
References
