Tell (archaeology)

View of Tell Barri (northeastern Syria) from the west

View of the Citadel of Aleppo (northern Syria), built on top of a tell occupied since at least the third millennium BC

In archaeology, a tell or tel (derived from Hebrew: תל‎, tell, 'hill' or 'mound') is an artificial mound formed from the accumulated refuse of people living on the same site for hundreds or thousands of years. A classic tell looks like a low, truncated cone with a flat top and sloping sides, and can be up to 30 metres high.

Tells are most commonly associated with the archaeology of the ancient Near East, but they are also found elsewhere, such as Central Asia, Eastern Europe and Greece. Within the Near East, they are concentrated in less arid regions, including Upper Mesopotamia, the Southern Levant, Anatolia and Iran.

Archaeology

View of an excavation area at Tell Barri (northeastern Syria). Note the person standing in the middle for scale.

A tell is an artificial hill created by many generations of people living and rebuilding on the same spot. Over time, the level rises, forming a mound. The single biggest contributor to the mass of a tell are mud bricks, which disintegrate rapidly. Excavating a tell can reveal 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.