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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].

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 calendar2024-01-29

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.

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

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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(Prof. Eleni Asouti & Prof. Douglas Barid) and the Sulaymaniyah Directorate of Archaeology and Heritage, represented by the archaeologist Amanj Hama Amin Rahim, planned with the village managers and teachers that within the framework of their contract with the Kurdistan Regional Government (The Archaeological Foundation in the Region), they would distribute cultural, archaeological and educational work in the villages near the archaeological site by showing their work and introducing students to the archaeological remains so that they could For this purpose, they presented a seminar worthy of all students, administrators and teachers of the school and then went to the black cave. In the end, the team of Archaeological Directorate and the University of Liverpool are prepared to present special gifts to students with a special catalog of the project.