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Development
 Tells
do not “pop up” over night but develop over time through
repeated occupation of one place. Think of a tell as if it was a
layer cake. The first level of occupation is like one layer of
cake. Then the next level is the like the icing, then a third
level is another layer of cake, then more icing, and so on.
These layers build upon one another eventually making the site
into a small hill (or a really tall cake!!).
 Each
layer of a tell does not necessarily represent human occupation.
Often, inhabitants abandoned a site and then resettled it again
many years later. [
Photo]
During the time of desertion, wind-blown soil and/or soil
created by the natural decay of plant builds upon the site and
become a stratum in itself. A site may go through several phases
of occupation/desertion during its existence, with each phase
becoming its own stratum. The archaeologist has to distinguish
each of these layers in order to determine the history of the
tell.
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