language
En Ku Ar

Image Title calendar2024-01-29

Late Prehistoric Investigations at Shakar Tepe, the Shahrizor Plain, Iraqi Kurdistan: Preliminary Results of the First Season (2019)

Grdi-Shakar Tapa on the Sharazor plain in Iraq's Kurdistan Region has revealed a new episode of the Neolithic discovery Shakar Tapa has been known as a conspicuous archaeological site in the south of the Shahrazor Plain since the mid-20th century. It has an oval plan consisting of a low northeastern mound and a high conical southwestern mound with a flat top. The Darband-i Khan Dam Lake is adjacent to the north of the site and its water occasionally reaches the skirt of the mound, causing crucial erosion of the northern edge of the mound. Many archaeological materials were collected on the surface of Shakar Tapa in the past. Although most of them can be dated to the historical ages, such as the Early-to-Middle Bronze Age, the Iron Age, and the Parthian-Sasanian Period, some artefacts were certainly dated to the prehistoric period. In 2019 a Japanese archaeological team (directed by Takahiro Odaka, Kanazawa University) started the excavations of Shakar Tapa to investigate its late prehistoric occupation. The first operation of a step trench was set at the northwestern skirt of the high mound and yielded the Ubaid deposit and the Late Neolithic stratigraphic sequence covering ca. 6400-6000 BC. Virgin soil was reached at the northwestern end of the trench about 5 m below the highest level of this trench. The second season carried out in 2023 revealed the younger Late Chalcolithic deposit at the area near the trench in 2019. In addition, a few low satellite mounds were identified west of the main mound and another late prehistoric deposit was uncovered at one of them.

Image Title calendar2024-01-28

MAGNETIC INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SHAHRIZOR PLAIN, IRAQI KURDISTAN

Archaeological features, such as architecture etc. can be traced by high resolution and large-scale magnetometer prospecting. Moreover, soil magnetic data deliver additional information about the alteration of the ancient landscape. In combination with an archaeological survey, the geophysical results can provide information to reconstruct the spatial organization within these settlements as well as an epoch-spanning analysis of settlements and their role in urbanization processes and within settlement hierarchies.

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.

Slemani Antiquities and Heritage Directorate

Article Name

Slemani Antiquities and Heritage Directorate 

It's one of the Kurdistan archaeological institutions in Kurdistan and Slemani, Administratively, it is affiliated with the General Directorate of Antiquities and Heritage in the Kurdistan Region in the structure of the Ministry of Municipalities and Tourism.

The museum was established on July, 14 1961 in a small house in the locality of Shorsh formerly, but currently its name is Aqari locality. The first director of the Slemani Museum was the late (Rafiq Fathullah).

Obviously, this directorate develops its annual plan and strategy within the framework of the work of Kurdistan Regional Government in several directions and objectives, as follows:-

Protecting cultural and archaeological sites and continuing its scientific works (surveying excavation, restoration of cultural houses, archaeological mosques, castles, etc...), in order to write the correct facts and correct history for Kurdistan. It has organized its work in two lines:

(The first line is surveying, archaeological and cultural work.-the second line is museum), so that 

A-local teams have excavated in dozens sites, Slemani has become a ball of archaeological work for Kurdistan and even Iraq, and so for this they want to bring their theoretical and practical work to every street and center in the world.

B- According to UNESCO, Slemani museum is the first largest museum in Kurdistan and the second museum in Iraq after the national museum of Baghdad in terms of building area and the presence of many rare unique objects. Every year, the museum is enriched with archaeological artifacts and pieces, new galleries, new showcases and exhibitions of new pieces due to the work of local and foreign teams.

It is worth to mention that the directorate currently consists of the following departments:-

- Administration section.

- ⁠Museum.

- ⁠Accounting.

- ⁠Department of Law. 

- ⁠Excavation and Heritage.

- ⁠Engineers section.

- ⁠Audit section.

- ⁠Mech workshop.

- ⁠The library.

- ⁠Storage.

 

Email : [email protected]