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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 calendar2024-01-28

In the land of the highlanders: from the kingdom of Simurrum to Mazamua in the Shahrizor

In the late third and early second millennium bc, the large plain known today as the Shahrizor and its surrounding region, located in the province of Suleymaniyah in Iraqi Kurdistan, likely formed an important region of the kingdom of Simurrum (Fig. 31.1; Altaweel et al. 2012). For much of the remaining second millennium bc and into the irst two centuries of the irst millennium bc, the region was a contested border zone between northern and southern Mesopotamian kingdoms or became splintered into small kingdoms.

Image Title calendar2024-01-28

Grdi Kani Shaie, excavations provided the first stratigraphic sequence for this previously unexplored region

Kani Shaie is a site located in the Bazian Valley that has been excavated by the University of Coimbra, with many collaborations since 2013. This 60m diameter mound revealed continuous occupation from the Ubaid period in the 5th millennium BCE to the Early Bronze Age in the 3rd millennium BCE

Gird-î Qalrakh: a small mound in the North-eastern Shahrazor Plain

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Gird-î Qalrakh: a small mound in the North-eastern Shahrazor Plain 


The site of Gird-î Qalrakh is a small but steep settlement place in the North-eastern Shahrazor-Plain. It was excavated in three seasons (2016, 2017 and 2019), the fourth season 2023 has just started. 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.
The excavations have produced rather unexpected archaeological results, dating in particular to the Parthian-Hellenistic and Sasanian periods. Most unusual is the evidence for textile production at Qalrakh in association with finds of elaborate sealing at the top of the mound. The lower top levels have revealed some solid occupation in pre-Sasanian times, which is currently under investigation. Current research focusses on the Sasanian phase, in particular on the overall Sasanian-period settlement system in the Shahrazor Plain and in relationship to places in North-western Iran. 

Seal impression B-1158-2682b with jumping goat-fish.