Tells are primarily found in the Near East and Middle East and have been confirmed in Europe only in the Balkans, as in the north of the Lower Danube, and westward into Hungry.
Formation of the tells results from very particular conditions in which the process of erosion has been superseded by the 'fossilization' of human activity. It is an area where human occupation had been thickly and consistently settled on the same site over long periods, sometimes many millennium. It is also necessary that the climate be dry enough to deter erosion of the earthen architecture of which the settlements were often constructed.