Chalcolithic Era

5000 BCE – 3000 BCE · 13 sites

The Chalcolithic (Copper Age) is uneven: some regions adopt copper while neighbouring ones stay Neolithic in toolkit. Use site dossiers for mines, mace-heads, and cemetery evidence rather than a single global “metal revolution” date.

All sites in this period

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

Country Record

Oldest Settlement in Palestine

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.

322

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.

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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.

421

ChalcolithicBronze AgeIron Age

Excavated Neolithic buildings at Çayönü Tepesi on the Ergani plain, Diyarbakır

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Country Record

Oldest Settlement in Turkey

Çayönü Tepesi

9100 BCE – 5500 BCE

A Pre-Pottery Neolithic settlement on the Ergani plain near Diyarbakır, famous for its grill-plan and cell-plan houses, a skull building, and some of the earliest copper and malachite working in Southwest Asia. In 2026 excavators uncovered a 5 m² workshop dated 6900-6800 BCE.

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NeolithicChalcolithic

Eroded mudbrick ruins of Mehrgarh on the Kachi plain, Balochistan

Country Record

Oldest Settlement in Pakistan

Mehrgarh

7000 BCE – 2500 BCE

A Neolithic and Chalcolithic mound on the Kachi plain of Balochistan, Pakistan, with aceramic farming, mudbrick houses, and early cotton and dental evidence that precedes the Indus cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro.

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NeolithicChalcolithicBronze 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

Painted rock shelter 8 at Bhimbetka, Madhya Pradesh

New

Continent Record

Longest Recorded History in Asia

Bhimbetka Rock Shelters

100000 BCE – 1000 CE

A sandstone hill of painted rock shelters in the Vindhyas of Madhya Pradesh, with occupation from the Lower Palaeolithic through historic centuries, inscribed by UNESCO in 2003.

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PaleolithicMesolithicChalcolithic

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

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

Megalithic stone facade and trilithon entrance portal of the Ġgantija Temples in Xagħra, Gozo, Malta

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Country Record

Oldest Sanctuary in Malta

Ġgantija

3600 BCE – 2500 BCE

Megalithic temple complex on the island of Gozo constructed between 3600 and 3200 BCE, recognized as one of the world’s oldest free-standing stone religious structures. Its colossal coralline limestone perimeter walls predate both Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids by over a millennium.

211

NeolithicChalcolithic

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

Continent Record

Oldest Settlement 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

Concave megalithic façade of Ħaġar Qim temple, Malta

World Record

Oldest Temple in the World

Ħaġar Qim

3600 BCE – 2500 BCE

A free-standing megalithic temple complex on Malta’s south coast, built of soft Globigerina limestone around 3600–3200 BCE, with concave façades, oracle holes, and the “Fat Lady” statues now in Valletta. Part of the UNESCO Megalithic Temples of Malta.

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NeolithicChalcolithic