Ancient site · City
Altyn-Depe
Also known as Altyn Tepe, Altyndepe
A Bronze Age town on the edge of the Kopet Dag near the Iran border in Turkmenistan. By the late third millennium BCE it covered about 25 hectares inside a mudbrick wall, with craftsmen's quarters, rich houses and a stepped, tower-like temple platform often compared to a ziggurat.
Finds include Harappan-style seals and ivory, evidence of contact with the Indus cities. It was abandoned around 2000 BCE as settlement shifted east to the Murghab delta and the BMAC towns.
- Dates
- c. 3200–2000 BCE; urban c. 2400–2000 BCE
- Still standing
- No, or only traces
- Location
- 36.86° N, 60.43° E
How we know
No writing existed; dated by Soviet and later excavations since 1965 and radiocarbon dates.
Nearby sites
- Merv city c. 550 BCE–18th century CE
- Gonur Depe c. 2400–1600 BCE
- Jeitun c. 6000 BCE, for a few centuries
- Tillya Tepe graves c. 1st century BCE–1st century CE
- Sarazm c. 3500–2000 BCE (radiocarbon range 3900–2100 BCE)
- Ai-Khanoum c. 290–145 BCE