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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 calendar2024-01-11

10,000 years ago one of the earliest villages on the Shahrizor Plain was built and lived in at the nearby settlement mound of Bestansur

10,000 years ago one of the earliest villages on the Shahrizor Plain was built and lived in at the nearby settlement mound of Bestansur.

Image Title calendar2024-01-29

Late Prehistoric Investigations at Shakar Tepe, the Shahrizor Plain, Iraqi Kurdistan: Preliminary Results of the First Season (2019)

Grdi-Shakar Tapa on the Sharazor plain in Iraq's Kurdistan Region 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. The Darband-i Khan Dam Lake is adjacent to the north of the site and its water occasionally reaches the skirt of the mound, causing crucial erosion of the northern edge of the mound. Many archaeological materials were collected on the surface of Shakar Tapa in the past. Although most of them can be dated to the historical ages, such as the Early-to-Middle Bronze Age, the Iron Age, and the Parthian-Sasanian Period, some artefacts were certainly dated to the prehistoric period. In 2019 a Japanese archaeological team (directed by Takahiro Odaka, Kanazawa University) started the excavations of Shakar Tapa to investigate its late prehistoric occupation. The first operation of a step trench was set at the northwestern skirt of the high mound and yielded the Ubaid deposit and the Late Neolithic stratigraphic sequence covering ca. 6400-6000 BC. Virgin soil was reached at the northwestern end of the trench about 5 m below the highest level of this trench. The second season carried out in 2023 revealed the younger Late Chalcolithic deposit at the area near the trench in 2019. In addition, a few low satellite mounds were identified west of the main mound and another late prehistoric deposit was uncovered at one of them.

The Iraqi Kurdistan Region has discovered a new Sassanid settlement located on Grdi-Kazhaw

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The Iraqi Kurdistan Region has discovered a new Sassanid settlement located on Grdi-Kazhaw


Gird-î Kazhaw is located at the eastern perimeter of the large spring near Bestansur. The site consists of two mounds extending across an area of 4 ha. Mound A is only 2–3 m in height and of oval shape while Mound B reaches up to 10 m in height. 
In the center of Mound a remains of a large building with limestone-pillars were exposed. The pottery found in situ and in the rubbish layers above the floor indicate a late Sasanian date. Building comparisons suggest that the excavated part represent the central nave of a church, which was integrated into a monastery. 
On the hilltop of Mound B remains of a small fortification were uncovered in two trenches. The main wall of the small fortress is in parts preserved to a height of almost 4 m. In a zone of about 50 m around the fortress, smaller structures, probably dwellings, are visible on the magnetics. Finds of glass directly above virgin soil, give proof, that the whole area around the fortification was exclusively settled in the Sasanian period. 
The archaeological discovery will be carried out jointly by the Slemani Archaeological and Heritage Directorates, along with two universities (University of Erlangen and University of Frankfurt), in Gridi-Kazhaw and Qalrgh. It will continue for years.