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En Ku Ar

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.

Image Title calendar2024-01-28

Archaeological work in the region is concentrated in Slemani

Directorate of Antiquities and Heritage of Slemani, currently has many contracts and partnerships with several foreign universities and institutes for (surveying, excavation, reconstruction and maintenance….. etc) in Slemani province.

Image Title calendar2024-01-28

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.

Zarzi was used by groups of hunter-gatherers between 18,000 and 14,000 years ago.

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The cave here at Zarzi was used by groups of hunter-gatherers between 18,000 and 14,000 years ago.


Early Communities


The cave here at Zarzi was used by groups of hunter-gatherers between 18,000 and 14,000 years ago. Zarzi Cave was excavated by Dorothy Garrod in 1928 and by Iraqi archaeologist Ghanim Wahida in 1971. 
After the cave was abandoned at the end of the last Ice Age, communities in this valley built stone buildings at Zawi Chemi Razan and used large grinding stones used for preparing food. The site was discovered during a survey in 2013 and excavated from 2022 by the University of Reading in collaboration with Sulaimani Directorate of Antiquities and Heritage. 
The people who sheltered inside Zarzi Cave ate wild sheep, goat, gazelle, tortoise and fish. As today, the valley is rich in plant and animal wildlife, attracted by the abundant fresh water of the Chemi Razan River.
To preserve these rich water supplies, farmlands and wildlife, we need to protect them from climate change, pollution and other threats.