Under the Old Neighborhood: In Iraq, an Archaeologist's Paradise

ERBIL, Iraq - If a neighborhood is defined as a place where human beings move in and never leave, then the world's oldest could be here at the Citadel, an ancient and teeming city within a city girded by stone walls.

Resting on a layer cake of civilizations that have come and gone for an estimated 7,000 to 10,000 years, the Citadel looms over the apartment blocks of this otherwise rather gray metropolis in Iraqi Kurdistan.

The settlement rivals Jericho and a handful of other famous towns for the title of the oldest continuously inhabited site in the world. The difference is that few people have heard of the Citadel outside Iraq. And political turmoil has prevented a full study of its archaeological treasures.

While there may be confirmed traces of more ancient settlements in Iraq, said McGuire Gibson, a Mesopotamian archaeologist at the University of Chicago, the people have all vanished from those places.

"The thing about Erbil is that it is, in fact, a living town," Dr. Gibson said. "It goes back at least to 5,000 B.C.," he said. "It might go back further."

Among the peoples that have lived in this neighborhood are the Hassuna, Akkadians, Sumerians, Assyrians, Medes, Persians, Greeks, Parthians and Abbasids.

In 1964, when Kanaan Rashad Mufti and his prominent family were part of the neighborhood, a floor in his father's house, near the mosque, collapsed during some renovations.

Underneath was a whole series of rooms from some previous civilization, possibly the Abbasids, said Mr. Mufti, who is now director of antiquities in western Kurdistan. There is nothing that Iraqi archaeologists would like more than to begin systematic digs through those layers, said Donny George, director of the Baghdad Museum.

"I have so much in mind," Dr. George said, expressing scientific eagerness "to make..."

Here's the URL of a timeline of of northern Iraq and Erbil.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2005/08/22/science/erbil.large.jpg

Georg Gensler (1973)/Photo Researchers, Inc.
The Citadel, a city within a city in Erbil, Iraq, is girded by stone walls and is arguably among the world's oldest neighborhoods.

Max Becherer/Polaris, for The New York Times
The 3,000 residents of the Citadel, mostly Kurdish, are the latest in a line of peoples living on what was probably an agricultural village up to 10,000 years ago.

Max Becherer/Polaris, for The New York Times
Historians hope to excavate parts of the Citadel to find artifacts much older than this statue of the 12th-century historian Mabarek Ahmed Sharafaddin.

Max Becherer/Polaris, for The New York Times
The 100-foot-high Citadel at the center of Erbil was formed as ancient civilizations built on top of previous ones.

Max Becherer/Polaris, for The New York Times
Women walk through the Citadel, a city built on top of itself for thousands of years.

Max Becherer/Polaris, for The New York Times
An aerial view of the Citadel.

Max Becherer/Polaris, for The New York Times
The Kurdish Textile Museum is located just outside the city's walls.

Max Becherer/Polaris, for The New York Times
Residents of the Citadel carry home gas tanks for cooking.

Max Becherer/Polaris, for The New York Times
A Kurdish man participates in Friday prayers at a mosque in the center of the Citadel.

Max Becherer/Polaris, for The New York Times
Much of Erbil's history is not known, but it can be traced back to at least 5,000 B.C. Excavation will uncover more of its rich history.

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