Tell
A tell or tel, (from Hebrew: תֵּל,[1] Arabic: تلّ, tall)[2] is a type of archaeological mound created by human occupation and abandonment of a geographical site over many centuries. A classic tell looks like a low, truncated cone with a flat top and sloping sides.[1]
Archaeology [edit]
A tell is a hill created by many generations of people living and rebuilding on the same spot. Over time, the level rises, forming a mound. [3] The single biggest contributor to the mass of a tell are mud bricks, which disintegrate rapidly. Excavating a tell reveals buried structures such as government or military buildings, religious shrines and homes, located at different depths depending on their date of use. They often overlap, horizontally, vertically, or both. Archaeologists excavate tell sites to interpret architecture, purpose, and date of occupation. Since excavating a tell is a destructive process, physicists and geophysicists have developed non-destructive methods of mapping tell sites.[4]
List of tells [edit]
- Sultantepe
- Tell Barri
- Tell Bazmusian
- Tel Be'er Sheva
- Tel Bet Shean
- Tell Beydar
- Tell Brak
- Tel Hazor
- Tel Jerusalem
- Tel Lachish
- Tell Leilan
- Tel Megiddo
- Tell Shemshara
References [edit]
- ^ a b Archaeology of Palestine, Art of Excavating a Palestinian Mound, William Foxwell Albright, 1960, p. 16
- ^ Kirkpatrick, E. M. (1983). Chambers 20th Century Dictionary (New ed.). Edinburgh: W & R Chambers Ltd. p. 1330. ISBN 0-550-10234-5.
- ^ "Amateur Archaeologists Get the Dirt on the Past", New York Times
- ^ Data analysis of tell sites
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