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En Ku Ar

Image Title calendar2024-01-28

NEW INVESTIGATIONS IN THE ENVIRONMENT, HISTORY, AND ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE IRAQI HILLY FLANKS: SHAHRIZOR SURVEY PROJECT 2009–2011

Recent palaeoenvironmental, historical, and archaeological investigations, primarily consisting of site reconnaissance, in the Shahrizor region within the province of Sulaymaniyah in Iraqi Kurdistan are bringing to light new information on the region’s social and socio-ecological development.

Image Title calendar2024-12-29

The Rabana-Merquly Archaeological Project

Rabana and Merquly

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.

Archäologisch-geophysikalische Prospektion am Rande des Zagrosgebirges in Kurdistan

Article Name

Im Rahmen eines Forschungsprojektes begab sich ein bayerisches Prospekti onsteam im Oktober des vergangenen Jahres auf eine Forschungsexpedition in den Nordostirak, enauer in die süd kurdischen Provinzen Sulaymaniyah und Halabjah. Hier in der Shahrizor Ebene, nahe der irakisch-iranischen Grenze, sollten an drei Fundorten Un
tersuchungen durchgeführt werden. 

Das Projekt fand in Kooperation zwischen dem Antikendienst Sulaymani yah, dem Bayerischen Landesamt für Denkmalpl ege sowie den Instituten für Vorderasiatische Archäologie und dem Department für Geowissenschaften der Ludwig-Maximilians Universität München stat . Bereits im Jahre 2000/01 konnten Mitarbeiter dieses Teams im Süden des Landes große Bereiche der legendären Stadt Uruk vermessen – mit spektakulären Forschungsergebnissen (DI 122, 2002). Auch hier war es Ziel gewesen, die Möglichkeiten der Pros pektionstechniken auf mehrphasigen Siedlungshügeln, also im schwierigen Gelände, durch Magnetometer-Messun gen zu erproben, weiterzuentwickeln und anhand dieser Messungen archäo logische Pläne zu erstellen.