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En Ku Ar

Image Title calendar2024-12-29

The Rabana-Merquly Archaeological Project

Rabana and Merquly

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 calendar2024-01-28

Archäologisch-geophysikalische Prospektion am Rande des Zagrosgebirges in Kurdistan

Im Rahmen eines Forschungsprojektes begab sich ein bayerisches Prospekti onsteam im Oktober des vergangenen Jahres auf eine Forschungsexpedition in den Nordostirak, genauer 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.

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.

                                               Drone photography of the church complex in Grdi-Kazhaw.