2024-07-25

Memorandum of Understanding Between Slemani antiquities and heritage Directorate and Kurdistan Geological Society Slemani Branch

Slemani antiquties and heritage Directorate signed a memorandum of understanding between our directorate as a government entity and Kurdistan Geologists Association Slemani Branch to further coordinate and serve these two fields in Kurdistan in general and Sulaimani in particular.

2024-01-28

Shakar Tapa on the Sharazor plain 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.

2025-01-17

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.

10,000 years ago one of the earliest villages on the Shahrizor Plain was built and lived in at the nearby settlement mound of Bestansur

Early Settled Communities

10,000 years ago one of the earliest villages on the Shahrizor Plain was built and lived in at the nearby settlement mound of Bestansur. At that time communities were developing new ways of living that form the foundation of our lives today. Communities were changing from mobile hunter-gathering ways of life to larger communities living in well-built mud brick houses supported by early agriculture, growing crops and managing and domesticating animals, while continuing to use a wide range of wild plant and animal resources.

The site was first surveyed by the Iraqi Directorate of Antiquities and Heritage in 1943. From 2012 large scale archaeological excavations have been conducted by a joint team from Slemani Directorate of Antiquities and Heritage, and the University of Reading, UK.

Abundant Water and Biodiverse Environments

The large spring here is fed by clear underground waters from the mountains. These plentiful waters and the fertile soils and hills have provided bio diverse environments for people, plants, and animals for many thousands of years.

This area attracted the earliest farmers here 10,000 years ago. They fished, hunted wild boar and harvested reeds in the marshes and river. They grew crops, herded goat and gathered wild plants and snails on the plain and hilly slopes.

Today only 4% of the total mammal biomass on the planet is wild. To preserve these rich water-supplies, farmlands and wildlife, we need to protect them from climate change, pollution and other threats.

Daily Life in the Neolithic

The people who first lived here made their houses from mud bricks and built clay ovens to cook their food and keep warm. They used large pestles and mortars to grind plants, nuts, and grain, and they shaped tools and knives from chert and obsidian (volcanic glass). People harvested reeds from the river to make baskets and mats. They used bone needles to sew materials such as animal skins, often using their teeth as a ‘third hand’.

People were connected 10,000 years ago through networks of communities who exchanged materials, technologies, and ideas. The Neolithic villagers of Bestansur used locally available materials for everyday life and resources from hundreds of kilometers away. At Bestansur we find stones such as obsidian and carnelian from Türkiye and Iran, and shells from the Red Sea.

People in the Neolithic village used natural materials for their daily life and repaired objects when they broke. Such practices were more sustainable and better for the environment than the plastics that we use today and then throw away.