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En Ku Ar

Image Title calendar2024-01-28

Complex local settlement in Zagros Mountains before the Assyrians expanded into this region

About 5 km south of the district town of Qaladze, in the Peshdar Plain on the eastern bank of the Little Zab, lie the two archaeological sites of Qalat-i Dinka and Gird-i Bazar.

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 calendar2024-03-28

PRELIMINARY REPORT OF THE CHARMO (JARMO) PREHISTORIC INVESTIGATIONS, 2022

The archaeological mission from the University of Tsukuba began to investigate the Neolithic sites in the Iraqi-Kurdistan region in 2014. The purpose of our investigations was to reconsider the issue of Neolithization in Iraqi-Kurdistan, where research began in the 1940s and 50s and was stalled by political issues starting in the 1960s. With the full support of the Directorate General of Cultural Heritage of the Ministry of Culture of the Kurdistan Regional Government and the Slemani Department of Cultural Heritage, we first began our research at the Qalat Said Ahmadan site, located in the Pshdar Plain. We were able to identify the cultural deposits of the end of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period, those of the Hassuna, Samarra, Halaf, Ubaid, and Iron Age, and have clarified the nature of the Neolithic site located at the edge of the fan deposits [Tsuneki et al. 2015, 2016, 2019].

Archaeological work in the region is concentrated in Slemani

Article Name

The international university and institute that currently have agreement to work and excavation in Slemani Province 

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.
All contracts are approved by the General Directorate of Antiquities and Heritage in the Kurdistan Region and its ministry in the government.
The content of the contracts will be drafted in the Directorate of Antiquities and Heritage of Slemani and reviewed by the section of (archaeologist and heritage) and legal section of the General Directorate of Antiquities and Heritage.
The content of the contracts are based on law no.(5) of 2021 on the management and protection of Antiquities and heritage of the Kurdistan Region.
Some of the points of all contracts are derived from the law and fixed, while other points vary according to the type of archaeological sites, periods, type of works whether surveying ,excavation  or restoration…. etc.


1. University of Reading, UK. (Grdi-Bestanswr) and (Chami Zawi)
2. University of Munich, Germany and New York, America. (Grdi-Rostam)
3. University of Chubu, Japan. (Grdi-Yasin Tapa)
4. University of Tsukuba, Japan. (Gudi Charmo)
5. Institute of Liberal Art and Science, Kanazawa University, Japan. (Grdi-Shakr Tapa and Shekh Maeruf)
6. Institute for Western Asian Archaeologies, Frei Universität Berlin, Germany. (Grdi-Begum)
7. Universität Frankfurt am Main, Germany. (Grdi-Kazhaw and Qlerkh)
8. Universidad de Coimbra, Portuguese. (Grdi-Kani Shai)
9. Sapienza - Università di Roma, Italian. (Grdi-Yasen Tapa)
10. National museum of ASIAN ART, Smithsonian, America. (Grdi-Ban Qala)
11. University Paris I, French. (Grdi-Kunara)
12. CNRS, Paris I, French, (Ashkawti Sarsyan, Rostam Akha).
13. University Heidelberg, Germany, (Mirquli and Rabana project)
14. University of Liverpool UK, (Ashkawta Rash and Pala Gawra)
15. University of Lion, French (Grdi-Qala and Logrdan)
16. CNRS, French (Grdi-Kunara)
17. University of Munster, German (Grdi-Bazar & Qalat Dinka)
18. Archaios, French (Survey)