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Image Title calendar2024-05-26

The publication of archaeological and educational education by the excavation team in Ashkawta Rash

The publication of archaeological and educational education by the excavation team in Ashkawta Rash After about two seasons of work in the black cave (Alla Quli) located on the border of the same village in the town of Bardaqaraman. The team، consisting of the British University of Liverpool and the Sulaymaniyah Directorate of Archaeology and Heritage, represented by the archaeologist Amanj Hama Amin Rahim,

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 calendar2024-01-11

Darband-i Rania Archaeological Project, with an area in excess of 70 ha a special interest in the first millennium BC

Darband-i Rania Archaeological Project the Darband-i Rania Archaeological Project was a project directed by Dr. John MacGinnis of the British Museum, carried out in co-operation with the General Director of Antiquities of Kurdistan, the Directorate of Antiquities and Heritage of Raparin and the Directorate of Antiquities and Heritage of Slemani.

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

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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. The first excavations carried out in the 1960s and 1970s revealed the crucial importance of the region for the prehistoric periods. Many important sites, such as Shanidar (Solecki 1963), Jarmo (Braidwood et at 1983) and Shemshara (Mortensen 1970) were discovered and excavated. Although for several decades this territory has been con-sidered a peripheral area, it is, undoubtedly, a region that is fundamental for the understanding of the first Mesopotamian cultures. In fact, this area spawned the emergence, develop-ment and spread of major cultural entities, from the Neanderthal hunter-gatherers to the first complex societies characterised by the very large villages of the Late Chalcolithic period.