Tell
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[[Image:Telmarelias.jpg|thumb|300px|[[Tell Mar Elias]], North [[Jordan]] in 2005]]
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{{dablink|This article is about a type of archaeological site. For other uses of the words Tel and Tell, see [[Tell (disambiguation)]].}}
'''Tell''' or '''tall''' ({{lang-ar|تلّ}}, ''tall'', and {{lang-he-n|תֵּל}}, ''tel''), meaning "hill" or "mound", is a type of [[archaeology|archaeological]] site in the form of an [[earthen mound]] that results from the accumulation and subsequent [[erosion]] of material deposited by [[human]] occupation over long periods of time. A tell mostly consists of [[architecture|architectural]] building materials containing a high proportion of stone, [[mudbrick]] or [[loam]] as well as (to a minor extent) domestic refuse. The distribution of this phenomenon spans from the [[Indus valley]] in the east to [[Central Europe]] in the west. There are about 50,000 visible tells in the Middle East, a testament to the long settlement of the area.
The word is commonly used as a general term in archeology, particularly in [[Near Eastern archaeology]]. It is also sometimes used in a [[toponym]], that is, as part of a town or city name, the best known example being the city of [[Tel Aviv]] (Hebrew, "Hill of [the season] Spring"), although Tel Aviv doesn't actually rest on a tell. A modern city is often located next to an ancient mound with a similar ''tell'' name, for example the city of [[Arad, Israel|Arad]], [[Israel]], is a few kilometers away from an ancient mound called [[Tel Arad]]. A proper use is in the case of the Tell of Akka, a hillock on which the actual city of Akka is situated.
Occasionally the word "tell" is misapplied to a site whose form does not warrant the designation. The site of [[Amarna]] in middle [[Egypt]], frequently misnamed "Tell el-Amarna", is the best example of such an error; or the [[Tell Atlas]] ({{lang-ar|الاطلس التلي}}) mountains in the [[Maghreb]], whose naming is unrelated to the word "Tell".
The [[Turkish language|Turkish]] word for tell is '''''höyük''''', as in [[Çatalhöyük]], or '''''tepe'''''.<ref>[http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=tepe Dictionary.com - Tepe]</ref><ref>[http://starling.rinet.ru/cgi-bin/response.cgi?root=config&morpho=0&basename=\data\alt\turcet&first=1836 Starling.ru Turkic Etymology - Tepö]</ref> Toponyms indicating settlement mounds in the [[Balkans]] are often translated as "[[Grave (burial)|grave]]": '''''magoula''''' or '''''toumba''''' (because small tells can be confused with [[tumulus|burial mounds]]) in [[Thessaly]] and [[Macedonia (region)|Macedonia]]. The word '''''mogila''''' is used in [[Bulgaria]], '''''gomila''''' in [[Slovenia]], and '''''magura''''' in [[Romania]].
==References==
{{Reflist}}
[[Category:Arabic words and phrases]]
[[Category:Hebrew words and phrases]]
[[Category:Monument types]]
[[Category:Ancient Near East]]
[[Category:Archaeological sites]]
[[Category:Landfill]]
[[cs:Tel]]
[[de:Tell (Archäologie)]]
[[es:Tell]]
[[fr:Tel (archéologie)]]
[[it:Tell (archeologia)]]
[[he:תל]]
[[nl:Tell (archeologie)]]
[[pl:Osada tellowa]]
[[ru:Тепе]]
[[sk:Tell]]
[[fi:Tell]]
[[sv:Tell]]