Mounds in northern Syria

[Chelco]

I don't know if this have been posted before, but here it goes anyway.

While looking around in google earth for good scenario locations I noticed this mound in the middle of a farmland.

Then I noticed more ... In the north of Syria, they are everywhere! (I have a google earth .kmz file: if you want it, email or PM me)

One of them is actually the site of a castle.

Do you know what are these mounds? Sites of old cities?

Thanks in advance.

[Elmar Bijlsma]

I'm putting my money on hill forts.That someone built a castle on top of it sure seems to point that way. a good location for bronze age man to construct a simple hill fort is typically a good place to build a full blown crusader castle. Or somefink.

[Field Marshal Blücher]

Originally posted by Elmar Bijlsma:

I'm putting my money on hill forts.That someone built a castle on top of it sure seems to point that way. a good location for bronze age man to construct a simple hill fort is typically a good place to build a full blown crusader castle. Or somefink.

Yup. Many Medieval castles were built in the same sites as older fortifications.

-FMB

[Chelco]

Thanks,

It's really impressive how widespread they are. I have counted 26.

Some of them are in the middle or nearby a village/town. Like this one:

The one shown above is the town of Hadir, southwest of Aleppo.

[YankeeDog]

Ya, those look like ancient settlement tells to me. Definitely the right area for them.

[SgtMuhammed]

The area was also heavily fortified by the Romans and Persians as they fought over the area.

[SlapHappy]

Scenario opportunity?

[thewood]

I thought some of thosae looked like depressions. Maybe mining.

[YankeeDog]

Originally posted by thewood:

I thought some of thosae looked like depressions. Maybe mining.

It's true that from a near-direct overhead view, it can sometimes be difficult to tell the difference between a positive and a negative terrain feature.

In this case, though, all the images above definitely show mounds, not pits or depressions. The trick is to compare the shadows to the shadows cast by a known object.

Compare the shadows cast by the buildings and trees in the images, to the shadows cast by the mounds/pits. They point in the same direction. This tells you that the mounds are, indeed, mounds and not pits.

Cheers,

YD

[JonS]

http://oi.uchicago.edu/research/pubs/nn/fal99_qin.html

[cool breeze]

Cant wait to see them in scenarios!

[JasonC]

Those are "Tel" (or Tells). A Tel is a mound created by an old settlement site, that has been rebuilt on over and over for eons. They are common from Asia minor to northern Iran. Many are stone age village sites, a smaller number were larger towns into the bronze age.

[Pandur]

can that be the same "Tel" that is found in some city names like "Tel Aviv" or is this comming from somewhere else!?

[Moon]

I'm pretty sure those are UFO landing sites.

Martin

[Mishga]

haha "WELCOME" scratched into the earth? or "NO PARKING FINES" would convince me too

[JasonC]

Pandur - sure. Tel Dan, Tel Shiloh, Tel Megiddo, Tel Dor, Tel Rehov, Tel Arad, Tel Rumeida, Tel Quasile, Tel Jezreel, Tel Ashdod, Tel Gezen, Tel Lavnin, Tel Hatzor - are all archeological sites in Israel. Tell Tuneinir, Tell Acharneh, Tell Hum, Tell Abu, Tell Kurdu, Tell Mozan, Tell al-Ubaid, Tell Sabi Abyad, Tell Brak, Tell Acana - are in Turkey, Syria, and Iraq. As a word it means "mound" in semitic languages. Rather like all the Bir this and Bir thats, Bir meaning "well", and the Harm or Arm this or that, those meaning "hill".

[Chelco]

Thanks! Great info.

Is it me or this one looks like it has been shelled?

[Pandur]

JasonC

wow thats quiet some Tells around that region

thanks for the info!

[jtcm]

JasonC is right-- typical phenomenon of the archaeological landscape of the ancient near east (and not so east: Hisarlik, the site of ancient Troy, can be considered as a tell); the Turkish is "tepe", simply hill.

The last one above may well have been gone over by illegal excavators.

[JonS]

Originally posted by cool breeze:

Cant wait to see them in scenarios!

FWIW, I should think that LOAC, and putative ROE, to prohibit fighting on and around them. Yes, I know, those eeeeevil rag heads are likely to abuse that protection. Something to consider though.

[jtcm]

The Iraq War of 2003, and the subsequent years, have not seen great respect for archaeological sites on the part of US forces.

https://listhost.uchicago.edu/mailman/listinfo/iraqcrisis

http://oi.uchicago.edu/OI/IRAQ/sites/sitesintro.htm

and especially

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/4710/chalmers_johnson_on_robbing_the_cradle_of_civilization

[ May 11, 2008, 05:26 PM: Message edited by: jtcm ]