Aerial view of the excavations at Kemune with Bronze Age architecture partly submerged in the lake
Posted on 06/04/2022 8:14:35 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
A team of German and Kurdish archaeologists have uncovered a 3400-year-old Mittani Empire-era city once located on the Tigris River. The settlement emerged from the waters of the Mosul reservoir early this year as water levels fell rapidly due to extreme drought in Iraq. The extensive city with a palace and several large buildings could be ancient Zakhiku – believed to have been an important center in the Mittani Empire (ca. 1550-1350 BC).
...The south of the country in particular has been suffering from extreme drought for months. To prevent crops from drying out, large amounts of water have been drawn down from the Mosul reservoir – Iraq's most important water storage – since December. This led to the reappearance of a Bronze Age city that had been submerged decades ago without any prior archaeological investigations. It is located at Kemune in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
This unforeseen event put archaeologists under sudden pressure to excavate and document at least parts of this large, important city as quickly as possible before it was resubmerged. The Kurdish archaeologist Dr. Hasan Ahmed Qasim, chairman of the Kurdistan Archaeology Organization, and the German archaeologists Jun.-Prof. Dr. Ivana Puljiz (University of Freiburg) and Prof. Dr. Peter Pfälzner (University of Tübingen) spontaneously decided to undertake joint rescue excavations at Kemune. These took place in January and February 2022 in collaboration with the Directorate of Antiquities and Heritage in Duhok (Kurdistan Region of Iraq).
A team for the rescue excavations was put together within days. Funding for the work was obtained at short notice from the Fritz Thyssen Foundation through the University of Freiburg. The German-Kurdish archaeological team was under immense time pressure because it was not clear when the water in the reservoir would rise again.
(Excerpt) Read more at uni-tuebingen.de ...
Very cool. Such rich ancient history in that region.
I always wanted to see the library at Nineveh.
Did they get 8 years ?
The Archaeologica news page seems to do updates for the week all at once, loads of nice stuff coming this week.
The other GGG topics added since the previous digest ping, with some possible duplicates, chrono sort:
Good morning Professor.
Mittani Empire
Did they precede the Caldeans? Or the Persians?
My Delorean is broke. Flux capacitor.
Thanks.
5.56mm
Seven years of drought and famine.
Now where have I heard of that before?
Broke a mirror?
The Chaldean language is a type of Aramaic; it used to be called Syriac, which figures, because Aramaic takes its name from Aram (Syria).
Due to some old biases, Mitanni was conjured up, but is really an anachronistic echo of the Medes. They first show up in Assyrian records from the 9th c BC, and in classical Greece, the term Medes was used interchangeably with Persians.
The Medes were more or less allied with the Babylonians, and the Scythians with the Assyrians. At some point the Scythians were persuaded to switch sides, and the three powers stormed Nineveh and brought an end to the Assyrian Empire, although there were minor Assyrian rulers thereafter, and they still exist as an ethnic group in the Middle East.
https://www.varchive.org/tac/end.htm
https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/4065042/posts?page=30#30
“Global warming” is not necessarily a bad thing.
Thanks for this!
‘Face
;o]
Yeah, I edited out their obligatory BS about how Iraq was one of the “countries” disproportionately impacted by that. Hey, I was about 17 words too long in the excerpt...
(from the earlier FR link)
https://www.varchive.org/ce/theses.htm (189, 190)
http://www.varchive.org/tac/hararch.htm
http://www.varchive.org/dag/trowar.htm
http://www.varchive.org/tac/dakhamun.htm
http://www.varchive.org/ce/baalbek/carchemish.htm
http://www.varchive.org/ce/baalbek/baw.htm
Apparently, that area was suffering from extreme drought when they thought it a good idea to build there to begin with.
Thank you.
5.56mm
Wait. You’re saying the Mitanni were Medes? I thought they were related to the Hittites
Actually I was thinking of the times of Joseph in Egypt, building the granaries.
Not sure that the date references work out.
Well, since Iraq is essentially a desert country, droughts are common. This one is just a little longer than others, but it’s producing amazing things. The author is more concerned about taxing the global warming than looking for benefits in it. After all — we’re only stewards of the earth in the first place.
Atlantis?
... was conjured up
—
That, sadly, seems to pervade science these days.
The Hittltes weren't a single people, the their archive in the old capital showed two major languages were widely spoken. Also, the name is bogus, saddled on to make the "Forgotten Empire" fit with the OT. And their era is similarly out of joint.
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