Chelco Posted May 6, 2008 Share Posted May 6, 2008 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. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elmar Bijlsma Posted May 6, 2008 Share Posted May 6, 2008 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. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Field Marshal Blücher Posted May 6, 2008 Share Posted May 6, 2008 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 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chelco Posted May 6, 2008 Author Share Posted May 6, 2008 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. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YankeeDog Posted May 6, 2008 Share Posted May 6, 2008 Ya, those look like ancient settlement tells to me. Definitely the right area for them. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SgtMuhammed Posted May 6, 2008 Share Posted May 6, 2008 The area was also heavily fortified by the Romans and Persians as they fought over the area. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlapHappy Posted May 6, 2008 Share Posted May 6, 2008 Scenario opportunity? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thewood Posted May 6, 2008 Share Posted May 6, 2008 I thought some of thosae looked like depressions. Maybe mining. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YankeeDog Posted May 7, 2008 Share Posted May 7, 2008 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 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonS Posted May 7, 2008 Share Posted May 7, 2008 http://oi.uchicago.edu/research/pubs/nn/fal99_qin.html 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cool breeze Posted May 7, 2008 Share Posted May 7, 2008 Cant wait to see them in scenarios! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonC Posted May 7, 2008 Share Posted May 7, 2008 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. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pandur Posted May 7, 2008 Share Posted May 7, 2008 can that be the same "Tel" that is found in some city names like "Tel Aviv" or is this comming from somewhere else!? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moon Posted May 7, 2008 Share Posted May 7, 2008 I'm pretty sure those are UFO landing sites. Martin 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mishga Posted May 7, 2008 Share Posted May 7, 2008 haha "WELCOME" scratched into the earth? or "NO PARKING FINES" would convince me too 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonC Posted May 7, 2008 Share Posted May 7, 2008 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". 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chelco Posted May 7, 2008 Author Share Posted May 7, 2008 Thanks! Great info. Is it me or this one looks like it has been shelled? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pandur Posted May 7, 2008 Share Posted May 7, 2008 JasonC wow thats quiet some Tells around that region thanks for the info! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jtcm Posted May 7, 2008 Share Posted May 7, 2008 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. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonS Posted May 7, 2008 Share Posted May 7, 2008 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. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jtcm Posted May 7, 2008 Share Posted May 7, 2008 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 ] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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