Significant Bronze Age city discovered in Northern Iraq

Science Daily ^ | 11/7/2016 | University of Tübingen

[JimSEA]

Archeologists from the Institute for Ancient Near Eastern Studies (IANES) at the University of Tübingen have uncovered a large Bronze Age city not far from the town of Dohuk in northern Iraq. The excavation work has demonstrated that the settlement, which is now home to the small Kurdish village of Bassetki in the Autonomous Region of Kurdistan, was established in about 3000 BC and was able to flourish for more than 1200 years. The archeologists also discovered settlement layers dating from the Akkadian Empire period (2340-2200 BC), which is regarded as the first world empire in human history.

Scientists headed by Professor Peter Pfälzner from the University of Tübingen and Dr. Hasan Qasim from the Directorate of Antiquities in Dohuk conducted the excavation work in Bassetki between August and October 2016. The former significance of the settlement can be seen from the finds discovered during the excavation work. The city already had a wall running around the upper part of the town from approx. 2700 BC onwards in order to protect its residents from invaders. Large stone structures were erected there in about 1800 BC. The researchers also found fragments of Assyrian cuneiform tablets dating from about 1300 BC, which suggested the existence of a temple dedicated to the Mesopotamian weather god Adad on this site. There was a lower town about one kilometer long outside the city center. Using geomagnetic resistance measurements, the archeologists discovered indications of an extensive road network, various residential districts, grand houses and a kind of palatial building dating from the Bronze Age. The residents buried their dead at a cemetery outside the city. The settlement was connected to the neighboring regions of Mesopotamia and Anatolia via an overland roadway dating from about 1800 BC.

[JimSEA]

The sweep of history shows little today to remind us of the empires of the past. They may have been violent and oppressive but they also advanced civilization. Today, we have ISIS and and other cult which seem to be nothing but destructive and negative in their domination of every life.

[sevinufnine]

If they can, ISIS will destroy it.

[StormEye]

How can any archeologist do an scientific work in Iraq
with the homicidal, 7th Century ISIS kooks running loose?

[bgill]

Significant Bronze Age city as opposed to an insignificant Bronze Age city.

Quick, pull the grant money and shut down the project. It’s simply not significant.

[RitchieAprile]

this is Kurdistan therefore there are few if any
“homicidal 7th Century ISIS kooks running loose”..

[Verginius Rufus]

They found fragments of cuneiform tablets--not clear how much of value can be gleaned from them. When archives are found (as at Ebla) sometimes a lot can be learned.

It would be interesting if they could manage to extract human DNA from any of the bones (not clear how much they found of human remains) and see how the population compares to present-day populations of the area. That would be before Indo-European speakers arrived (Kurdish is an Indo-European language) except perhaps the latest periods of habitation.

[jjotto]

Not sure what you’re asking exactly, but the earliest ‘civilization’ in that region was probably Semitic, or possibly Indo-European. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard of other alternatives.

[JimSEA]

The article goes into that. Apparently in the Kurds area, a few miles make all the difference. The archaeologists consider this Kurdish location safe.

[Verginius Rufus]

The Akkadians spoke a Semitic language. Not sure what the local language would have been before the Kurds arrived. The Kurds seem to be in the area by 400 B.C. when Xenophon describes the march of the Ten Thousand through what is now northern Iraq and eastern Turkey -- he calls them Kardouchoi (not to be confused with Kardashians).

There were probably a number of languages which disappeared without ever being recorded in writing.

[SunkenCiv]