The oldest remains at Tureng Tepe reach back to the Neolithic period, though those deepest layers are assumed to lie below the current water table and remain largely unexplored. Pottery sherds resembling Djeitun-culture wares have been found incorporated into bricks from later periods, tantalizing evidence of the site's earliest inhabitants. The Chalcolithic layers sit above, followed by a substantial Bronze Age settlement that dates from approximately 3100 to 1900 BC. The archaeological strata synchronize with those at nearby Tepe Hissar, providing a chronological framework for understanding settlement patterns across the entire Gorgan Plain during prehistory.

Between roughly 2600 and 2100 BC, the inhabitants of Tureng Tepe constructed something remarkable: an enormous mudbrick terrace in the center of their settlement. Radiocarbon dating places its construction between 2550 and 2185 BC, and it may represent the earliest example of monumental architecture in this region. The terrace rises from the central mound, which itself stands 35 meters high, a flattened cone 110 meters across at the base and 40 meters at the top. Wind has heavily eroded its western slope, exposing the layers within. Ruins of a nineteenth-century residence sit at its peak, a relatively modern footnote atop millennia of accumulated construction.

The stone figurines found at Tureng Tepe share clear similarities with those from nearby sites like Shah Tepe, Tepe Hissar, and Gohar Tappeh. But the terracotta figurines tell a different story. These baked clay figures have no parallels at neighboring sites. Instead, their closest relatives appear in Turkmenistan and the Indus Valley, hundreds of kilometers to the east. Some scholars have suggested connections reaching as far as Mesopotamia. These small objects hint at trade networks or cultural exchanges that stretched across vast distances during the Bronze Age, linking the Gorgan Plain to civilizations most people associate with entirely different parts of the ancient world.

Frederick Wulsin conducted the first modern excavation in 1931, sponsored by the Atkins Museum of Fine Arts. He dug a pit 17 meters deep into the top of the central mound and tunneled into its northern and eastern sides. On Mound C, he uncovered 75 Bronze Age graves with associated architectural remains. Grey burnished ware, red ware, painted ceramics, and coarse ware emerged from the earth. Many finds ended up at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia. Later French excavations expanded the work, but publication was interrupted by the Iranian Revolution and the deaths of key researchers. The full record of what Tureng Tepe contains is still being assembled, decades after the digging stopped. The Hill of the Pheasants keeps its secrets patiently.