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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 calendar2024-01-11

Banea 2024 Archaeological Conference at the University of Glasgow

On 3-4-5 January 2024, the University of Glasgow in Scotland hosted the International Archaeological Conference entitled "Archaeological Heritage Practice in Southwest Asia: Towards Equitable Futures".

Image Title calendar2024-01-28

Shakar Tapa on the Sharazor plain 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.

MAGNETIC INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SHAHRIZOR PLAIN, IRAQI KURDISTAN

Article Name

Archaeological features, such as architecture etc. can be traced by high resolution and large-scale magnetometer prospecting. Moreover, soil magnetic data deliver additional information about the alteration of the ancient landscape. In combination with an archaeological survey, the geophysical results can provide information to reconstruct the spatial organization within these settlements as well as an epoch-spanning analysis of settlements and their role in urbanization processes and within settlement hierarchies.

Our case study is focusing on the area along the Wadi Shamlu, situated within the Shahrizor plain (i g. 1) in northeastern Iraq, where more than 30 ancient settlements were documented and surveyed; the project is funded by Gerda Henkel Stiftung. The area consists of a few multi-period settlements (Gird-i Shamlu, Tell Begum) and of a multitude of single phase settlements or farmsteads. The sites, dating from the Neolithic to Islamic period, are archaeologically surveyed and verii ed by pottery i ndings. The i rst magnetometer surveys in the Shahrizor plain were already undertaken in 2014. They revealed structures of settlements and traces of a Parthian temple at four sites (i g. 1). In spring and autumn 2017, we investigated l at ancient settlements during two geophysical campaigns.

These sites are visible on the surface by a slight elevation and grey soil color. The survey brought to light distinct archaeological features such as remains of buildings, which contain rows of rooms including installations such as ovens or kilns. Furthermore, geoarchaeological features such as ancient river beds and irrigation canals were detected in proximity of these sites. Such features are often covered by sediments and rarely attested by remote sensing methods in this region.