Chalcolithic Era

5000 BCE – 3000 BCE · 7 sites

All sites in this period

The Stone Tower of Jericho (Tell es-Sultan), c. 8500 BCE — among the world's earliest stone monuments

Continent Record

Earliest Known Site in Asia

Jericho

9600 BCE – 700 CE

The world's oldest continuously inhabited city — a Neolithic settlement in the Jordan Valley where humans first built permanent stone structures and cultivated crops around 9600 BCE. The Tower of Jericho, erected by an early Neolithic community around 8500 BCE, is one of the earliest stone monuments on Earth, predating Stonehenge by more than 5,000 years and the Egyptian pyramids by more than 6,000.

NeolithicChalcolithicBronze Age

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Country Record

Longest Continuously Occupied Site in Iraq

Ur

3800 BCE – 500 BCE

Ur, a major Sumerian city-state in southern Mesopotamia, flourished from 3800 BCE to 500 BCE, renowned for its massive ziggurat, opulent royal tombs, and as the traditional birthplace of Abraham.

ChalcolithicBronze AgeIron Age

The Loftus mound at Uruk (Warka), southern Iraq, site of the world's first city

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Country Record

Oldest City in Iraq

Uruk

5000 BCE – 200 BCE

The world's first city — a 6-kilometre urban complex on the Euphrates in southern Mesopotamia that pioneered writing, monumental public architecture, cylinder seals, and civic organization around 3200 BCE, and whose legendary king Gilgamesh inspired the oldest surviving work of literature.

ChalcolithicBronze Age

Archaeological remains of the granary and great hall at Harappa, Pakistan

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Country Record

Known by the Most Names in Pakistan

Harappa

2600 BCE – 1900 BCE

The city that gave the Indus Valley Civilisation its name — a planned Bronze Age metropolis in what is now Pakistan that housed up to 50,000 people, featured the ancient world's most sophisticated sanitation system, and remained virtually unknown until its rediscovery in 1921.

ChalcolithicBronze Age

Country Record

Longest Continuously Occupied Site in Iran

Susa

4200 BCE – 1218 CE

Ancient Susa, among the world's oldest cities, flourished from 4200 BCE as the Elamite lowland capital and later a ceremonial Achaemenid center, yielding treasures like the Code of Hammurabi stele.

ChalcolithicBronze AgeIron Age

The multi-tiered ruins and rock-cut reservoir at Dholavira, Gujarat, India

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Country Record

Oldest City in India

Dholavira

2650 BCE – 1450 BCE

The best-preserved and most sophisticated city of the Indus Valley Civilisation — a planned Bronze Age metropolis on a remote Gujarat island whose multi-tiered layout, massive reservoirs, and unique signboard inscription make it one of the most revealing archaeological sites in Asia.

ChalcolithicBronze Age

Tell es-Sultan, ancient Jericho — the 10-metre occupation mound in the Jordan Valley, Palestine

Continent Record

Longest Continuously Occupied Site in Asia

Tell es-Sultan

10500 BCE – 600 CE

The world's oldest walled settlement — a 10-metre earthen mound in the Jordan Valley preserving over 10,000 years of continuous occupation, including a Pre-Pottery Neolithic stone tower built around 8300 BCE that is the oldest known free-standing stone structure, and the Natufian base camp that may represent the world's first permanent village.

PrehistoricNeolithicChalcolithic