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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 calendar2024-03-07

HUMAN OCCUPATION ALONG THE FOOTHILLS OF NORTHWESTERN ZAGROS DURING THE LATE PLEISTOCENE AND THE HOLOCENE IN THE RANIA AND PESHDAR PLAINS

The south-western foothills of the Zagros range, in Iraqi Kurdistan, have long been largely unexplored because it has been impossible for archaeologists to carry out fieldwork research in this area for more than half a century.

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].

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]