Altyndepe

Altyndepe (Turkmen for 'Golden Hill') is a Bronze Age archaeological site of the BMAC near Aşgabat in Turkmenistan. It was inhabited from c. 3200 to 2400 BCE and from c. 2400 to 2000 BCE, as a full urban site; in the late Chalcolithic it had grown into a centre of 25 hectares surrounded by an adobe wall with rectangular watch towers. Its remains include a monumental religious complex with a four-level tower of the Mesopotamian ziggurat type, and Indus Valley finds such as ivory objects and Harappan-type stamp seals. Models of two-wheeled carts from c. 3000 BCE found there are the earliest complete evidence of wheeled transport in Central Asia. Large-scale excavations began in 1965.