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Image Title calendar2024-01-11

The testing trench is located on the Bnawasuta-Penjwen project

The Directorate of Archeology and Culture of Sulaimani continued their work and activities by conducting a test trench excavation in an area of 17 dunams in front of Bashmakh international gate, approximately 600 meters away.

Image Title calendar2024-01-29

Excavations at Shaikh Marif, Iraqi Kurdistan Preliminary Report of the First Season (2022)

Grdi-Shaikh Marif The archaeological site of Shaikh Marif, located in the Shahrizor Plain ca. 500 m south of Gird Shamlu along the Wadi Shamlu, was registered by the Iraq Museum in 1943. In November 2012, the Shahrizor Survey Project additionally identified several new artificial mounds near Shaikh Marif. Among them, a cluster of two tiny mounds is called, together with Shaikh Marif itself, “Se Tapanسێ تەپان ” by the local people, and thus all three mounds were designated “Shaikh Marif”: Shaikh Marif I (the original northern mound), Shaikh Marif II (a western mound also called “Ash Shaikh Marif” by the locals), and Shaikh Marif III (an eastern mound). The land is seasonally cultivated today, and the water of the Darband-i Khan Dam Lake occasionally covers almost entire areas of the mounds. Owing to modern cultivation and the erosion by flowing water, a large amount of archaeological materials were easily observed on the surface. While no prehistoric material was identified at Shaikh Marif III, numerous Late Neolithic potsherds were scattered across the other two mounds as well as the materials dated to the younger periods. The date of these Late Neolithic sherds was estimated to be ca. 6400 6000 BC. A Japanese archaeological team (directed by Takahiro Odaka, Kanazawa University) excavated Shaikh Marif II in 2022 and revealed the Late Neolithic layers, which directly accumulated on the virgin soil. Most of the finds were dated to ca. 6100-6000 BC, although a small amount of the artefacts from the historical periods indicate human activities in the middle Medieval and the Ottoman Periods.

Image Title calendar2025-01-17

Halaf and Late Chalcolithic occupations at Shakar Tepe in the Shahrizor Plain, Iraqi Kurdistan: Preliminary report of the 2023 excavations

The Shahrizor Plain is one of the ideal fields for tracking the transition from Neolithic village life in the Fertile Crescent to Urbanisation which occurred in Mesopotamia because of its geographical location connecting the mountainside valleys along the Zagros and the downstream Diyala River that flows into the Tigris. Our field project aims to obtain archaeological materials to unveil this process. Following the first excavations at Shakar Tepe conducted in 2019, we excavated two additional areas at this site in 2023, including one of the three satellite mounds that were newly identified around the main mound. The cultural remains of the Late Halaf settlement uncovered from Operation B at Shakar Tepe II date back to approximately 5600–5400 calBC. On the other hand, Operation C at Shakar Tepe I yielded a thick deposit of the Late Chalcolithic occupations dated to ca. 3800–3600 calBC. The recovered materials fill the time ranges in the late prehistoric chronology of the site and will contribute to our understanding of the historical role of this region in the transition from Neolithisation to Urbanisation.

Surveying Dukan Lake

Article Name

 The latest archaeological activity is the survey of some of the archaeological Sites in Dukan Lake.  It is a joint work between the Archeology and heritage Directorates (Slemani, Raperin and Pisa University) of Italy.

The decrease in the water level of Dukan Lake provided an important opportunity to survey some of the archaeological sites in the lake (Ranya - Chawarqurna - Bangird - Khdran) that some of them had not been visited since the 1950s  Despite the difficulties, distance and dangers, the work was done very scientifically, with about 13 archaeological hills recorded.

Changes in the deterioration of the archaeological sites due to lake water, visitors and fishermen, but some new periods, archaeological objects and important clay fragments were recovered and re-recorded.  The use of drones, cameras and GPS points was another task of the project, in order to recreate new maps, determine their archaeological periods and provide new information about the hills.

 The recorded archaeological hills are:

(Grdi-Pres  - Grdi-Bayaz Agha - Grdi-Qurala - Krosk Hill -Grdi- Khazem  - Grdi-Rash  - Grdi-Musa 1 - Grdi- Musa  2 - Grdi-Musa  3 - Grdi-Khoeris  - Grdi-Kamam  - Grdi- Qurashina  - Grdi-Kundu).