Top 10 Oldest Archeological Sites

There are more and greater archaeological sites being dug up around the world every year and much more to be discovered.  Derived from the Greek, the word ‘archaeology’ means the pursuit of ancient knowledge.

The purpose of archeology is to learn more about past societies and the development of mankind. More than 99% of humanity has evolved within prehistoric cultures that did not use writing, from which no written record exists for study purposes. Without such written sources, archeology is the only way to understand prehistoric societies.

The archeological sites present not only ancient remains but provide us fruitfull information about ancient culture and tradition and sometimes this information can be so complex that it can take decades to decode information. Tons of puzzles scholars have resolved and tons yet to resolve.

The archeological sites are present in every corner of the earth. It is just a matter of time when and how that site will be revealed to the world. Here top 10 oldest archeological sites aging 10000 BC – 3000 BC are listed.

5 Top Archaeological Sites in Siberia

Dwarka

10 – Dwarka 3000 BC [Mythological Date]

Discovery – 1983

Archaeologist – S. R. Rao

Region – Gujrat, India

Area

Abandoned – 1800 BC

Amazing Facts

1. The Dwarka was established by Hindu God Krishna.
2. Before the discovery of the Dwarka submerged city, it was a mythological city.
3. The city was submerged into the ocean due to an increase in ocean water label.
4. The Submerged Dwarka city is ~30 KM far from the current shore.
5. The departure, or death, of Krishna’s incarnation, is taken at the end of a previous age, of a yuga, and the beginning of the Kali Yuga which is approximately 3100 BC. If Dwarka was created by Lord Krishna then artifacts could have dated to 3100 BC. On the other hand, artifacts show the date of 1700 to 1800 BC which contradicts with Mythology which is believed in India

Reference

Ancient Indian City Found Deep Under Sea – The Dwarka

Why You Should Know About Archeological Excavation of Dwarka

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Delos

9 – Delos 5000 BC

Discovered – 1873

Archaeologist – French School of Archaeology

Region – Mykonos, Greece, 37°23′36″N 25°16′16″E

Area – 3.43 km2 (1.32 sq mi)

Abandoned – 69 BC

Amazing Facts

• Apollo and Artemis, the two most important gods of the Greek Pantheon were born there.
• Delos was attacked and looted twice in 88 BC, the King of Pontus, the enemies of the Romans, and later, in 69 BC, a colleague of mithanlates, by pirates of Athendoras, later in 69 B.C. Since then the island has been gradually dropped and rapidly fell into decline.
• Delos as an independent port, all commercial activity of the Eastern Mediterranean was gathered on the Isle.
• Rich businessmen, bankers, and ship-owners from around the world have settled there, attracting many builders, artists, and craftsmen.

Reference

Once a Wealthy City Now a Home of Only 14 People. The Delos Island

Mohenjo-Daro

8 – Mohenjo-Daro 3300 BC

Discovered – 1920

Archaeologist – R. D. Banerji, Kashinath Narayan Dikshit, and John Marshall

Region – Larkana, Sindh, Pakistan, 27°19′45″N 68°08′20″E

Area – 250 ha (620 acres)

Abandoned- 1900 BC

Reference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohenjo-daro

Amazing Facts

• The city’s original name is unknown. Based on his analysis of a Mohenjo-Daro seal, Iravatham Mahadevan speculates that the city’s ancient name could have been Kukkutarma
• It was one of the largest cities of the ancient Indus Valley Civilization
  With the excavations done so far, over 700 wells are present at Mohenjo-Daro
• It is one of the most famous archeological sites in the world
• The Oxford Handbook of Cities in World History offers a “weak” estimate of a peak population of around 40,000

Akrotiri, Santorini

7 – Akrotiri 4500 BC-3000 BC

Discovered – 1967

Archaeologist – Spyridon Marinatos

Region – Santorini, Greece, 36°21′05″N 25°24′13″E

Area – Few Hundred Meters

Abandoned – 1500 BC

Amazing Facts

• The city had a perfect water supply and drainage system in place
• The city had Multi-floor buildings
• The town was destroyed and abandoned in 1500 B.C. as a result of an earthquake
• Hundreds of wall paintings and artifacts in good condition found during excavation.

Reference

https://www.tathastuu.com/2019/08/a-bronze-age-site-buried-under-ash.html

Badarian culture

6 – Badarian culture 5000 BC – 4000 BC

Discovered – 1922

Archaeologist – Guy Brunton and Gertrude Caton-Thompson

Region – 30 km

Area – Egypt, 27° 0′ 0″ N, 31° 25′ 0″ E

Abandoned –

Reference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badarian_culture

https://egyptsitesblog.wordpress.com/tag/el-badari/

Amazing Facts

• The Badarian culture provides the earliest direct evidence of agriculture in Upper Egypt
• The Badari culture is primarily known from cemeteries in the low desert.
• Badari culture planted wheat and barley, and kept cattle, sheep, and goats
• Badari sites were most likely traded up the river.

Tepe Sialk

5 – Tepe Sialk 6000 BC-5500 BC

Discovered – 1933

Archaeologist – Roman Ghirshman, Tania Ghirshman

Region- Isfahan Province, Iran, 33°58′08″N 51°24′17″E

Area

Abandoned

Reference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tepe_Sialk

Amazing Facts

• Artifacts consisted of some very fine painted potteries.
• Tepe Sialk was an important metal production center in central Iran
• At the beginning of the third millennium, this site went abandoned.
• After the abandonment of more than a millennium, the Sialk site is reoccupied in the second half of the second millennium.

Mehrgarh

4 – Mehrgarh 7000 BC

Discovered – 1974

Archaeologist – French archaeologists Jean-François Jarrige and Catherine Jarrige

Region -Dhadar, Balochistan, Pakistan, South Asia, 29°23′N 67°37′E

Area – 495-acre (2.00 km2)

Abandoned – Between 2600 BCE and 2000 BCE

Reference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehrgarh

http://indianhistoryfordummies.blogspot.com/2013/04/red-1-mehrgarh-civilization-currently.html

Amazing Facts

• Early phases of farming, pottery, other archaeological artifacts, some domesticated plants and herd animals.
  Cultivated six-row barley, einkorn and emmer wheat, jujubes, and dates
• In April 2006, it was announced in the scientific journal Nature that the oldest (and first early Neolithic) evidence for the drilling of human teeth in vivo (i.e. in a living person) was found in Mehrgarh.
• The first button seals were produced from terracotta and bone
• Somewhere between 2600 BCE and 2000 BCE, the city seems to have been largely abandoned in favor of the larger and fortified town Nausharo five miles away
  Early Mehrgarh residents lived in mud-brick houses, stored their grain in granaries

Çatalhöyük

3 – Çatalhöyük 7500 BC

Discovered – 1958

Archaeologist – James Mellaart

Region – Küçükköy, Konya Province, Turkey, 37°40′00″N 32°49′41″E, Anatolia

Area – Few Hundred Meters

Abandoned – 5700 BC

Reference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%87atalh%C3%B6y%C3%BCk

Amazing Facts

• The Çatalhöyük was composed entirely of domestic buildings, with no obvious public buildings.
• The average population of between 5,000 and 7,000 is a reasonable estimate
• No footpaths or streets were used between the dwellings, which were clustered in a honeycomb-like maze.
• The Çatalhöyük has strong evidence of an egalitarian society, as no houses with distinctive features have been found so far.

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Göbekli Tepe

2 – Göbekli Tepe 10000 BC

Discovered – 1963

Archaeologist – Klaus Schmidt

Region – Örencik, Şanlıurfa Province, Turkey, 37°13′23″N 38°55′21″E

Area – Height of 15 m (49 ft.) and is about 300 m (980 ft.) in diameter [~12 Football Fields]

Abandoned – 8000 BC

Reference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6bekli_Tepe

Amazing Facts

• Massive T-shaped stone pillars – the world’s oldest known megaliths.
• Claimed as the world’s first temple.
• The complex was not simply abandoned and forgotten to be gradually destroyed by the elements. Instead, each enclosure was buried quite deliberately under as much as 300 to 500 cubic meters (390 to 650 cu yd.) of refuse, creating a tell consisting mainly of small limestone fragments, stone vessels, and stone tools. Why the enclosures were buried is unknown, but it preserved them for posterity.

Ganj Dareh

1 – Ganj Dareh 10000 BC

Discovered – 1965

Archaeologist – Canadian archaeologist, Philip Smith

Region – Gamas-Ab Valley, Kermanshah Province, Iran, 34.2721 N 47.4758 E

Area

Reference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganj_Dareh

https://www.persee.fr/doc/paleo_0153-9345_1974_num_2_1_4186

https://ugp.rug.nl/Palaeohistoria/article/view/24857/22305

Amazing Facts

• The Oldest settlement remains on the site date back to ca. 10,000 years ago
• The earliest evidence for goat domestication in the world
• Evidence for domesticated crops of two-row barley

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Above archeological sites, I find out by my research from the data which is present on the internet. I have personally visited only Akrotiri and Delos from the above sites.

I hope these old archaeological sites gave you a good read. Share your views in the comments section below.

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