Archaeologists found five round stone towers at Tell Qaramel! The most impressive is a 7.5m diameter structure with walls 2.25m thick, built using unshaped stones up to 80cm long set in red clay. Three towers date to 12,890-11,670 years ago, with the monumental one built slightly later. One tower shows fire damage in antiquity. Researchers suggest these may have been defensive towers or part of an early fortification system. Absolutely stunning engineering for this period.
Five round stone towers discovered at Tell Qaramel, including monumental 7.5m structure
SyriaExcavation
Site mentioned
Key facts
- Five round stone tower structures identified
- Three towers date to H1 (12,890-11,670 years ago)
- Most monumental tower built in H2 (12,670-11,250 years ago)
- Tower has diameter of 7.5m with walls 2.25m thick
- Outer and inner wall faces built using unshaped stones up to 80cm in length
- Walls filled with smaller stones set in red clay
- Tower damaged by fire in antiquity
- Speculated to be defensive tower or part of fortification line
- Fourth tower built in H3 over ruins of large H2 tower
Sources
Chronology of the Early Pre-Pottery Neolithic Settlement Tell ...architexturez.net
Excavations brought the discovery of 5 circular towers. Some 57 charcoal samples were collected during the excavations and dated in the GADAM Centre in Gliwice, ...
Tell Qaramel - Centrum Archeologii Śródziemnomorskiejpcma.uw.edu.pl
During 13 seasons of excavations five circular stone towers were radiocarbon-dated to the period from the middle of the 11th millennium BC ...
Tell Qaramel - Archaeological site north of Aleppo, Syria - Around Usaroundus.com
Tell Qaramel is an archaeological site in Aleppo Governorate, Syria, featuring several stone towers and structures that span a fertile river ...
Tell Qaramel - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
The settlement has several circular stone towers dating back to the period between 10,650-9,650 BCE, making them the oldest such structures in the world.
Tell Qaramel (Syria), 2006 - Centrum Archeologii Śródziemnomorskiejpcma.uw.edu.pl
The round towers of Qaramel have now been confirmed by 14C dating as the oldest such structures anywhere in the world. At c. 10,650 BC after calibration, ...
Was this story useful?
Keep exploring
Every site on this page sits on the globe, and the people who research them are on the Discord.
3D Globe · Sites by country · Story Archive · Research Library · Weekly Journal · Search
AI-generated text · images from the original sources · always verify with the sources.