Discoveries are coming thick and fast in Iraqi Kurdistan

23 May 2018

Since the middle of the 2000s, archaeologists, flushed out of southern Iraq and Syria by war, have focused their attention on Iraqi Kurdistan. In this once little explored region one discovery follows fast on the heels of another. Consequently, researchers at the University of Tübingen (Germany) have brought to light the ancient city of Mardaman (or Mardama), whose history spans more than a thousand years.

In 2013, an Iraqi-German archaeological mission started excavating the site at Bassetki, in the province of Dohuk, in Iraqi Kurdistan, not far from the Syrian-Turkish border. It is in this zone that a fragment of a statue of King Naram Sin of Akkad (2254–2218 BCE) was found in the mid-1970s. Recent excavations have revealed that the city was founded at the beginning of the third millennium BCE. In the summer of 2017, while unearthing a monumental structure, the archaeologists discovered 92 cuneiform tablets intentionally concealed in a clay vessel. A reading of the texts, which date from the thirteenth century BCE, revealed the ancient name of the site: Mardaman.

This city is known through cuneiform sources that cover a period spanning a thousand years, between 2250 BCE and 1200 BCE. Following its destruction by Naram Sin of Akkad, the city is mentioned in texts dating from the Third Dynasty of Ur (twenty-first century BCE). At that time, it was an important commercial centre located at the junction of roads linking Mesopotamia, Anatolia and Syria. Attested to by the name Mardaman in sources dating from the beginning of the second millennium, the city was conquered in 1786 BCE by Shamshi-Adad I, and subsequently incorporated into the kingdom of North Mesopotamia. A few years later, the city once again won its independence, led by the Hurrian king Tish-Ulme, and was then captured and destroyed by the Turukkeens, a mountain people of Zagros. The discovery of the cuneiform tablets at the site in 2017 revealed that in the thirteenth century BCE Mardaman was the administrative seat of a Middle Assyrian province which was previously unknown. The texts describe the activities of the local governor, Aššur-nazir, between 1250 and 1200 BCE. The reading of these texts (which are in a poor state of preservation) should make it possible to identify the role played by the province of Mardaman in the Middle Assyrian Kingdom.

In the last few years, some other ancient cities in Iraqi Kurdistan have also been identified thanks to the cuneiform texts which have been excavated there. An international team, which at the beginning of the 2010s investigated a tell close to the village of Satu Qala, in the province of Erbil, resulted in the discovery of the ancient town of Idu, identified thanks to an inscription discovered by the villagers. Under the yoke of the Middle Assyrian Kingdom in the thirteenth century BCE, the city subsequently became the capital of an independent state that prospered for nearly one and a half centuries, under the authority of King Edima and his son Ba’auri, before falling back into the hands of the Assyrians. King Ashurnazirpal II (883–859 BCE) constructed a palace at Idu. The discovery of a cylinder seal revealed that the city still existed in the sixth century BCE.

Finally, some cuneiform tablets discovered at other sites have made it possible to reconstruct the history of this region at the end of the third millennium BCE, which remains a poorly understood period. This is the case, among others, as regards the site at Kunara, in the Sulaymaniyah region, on the right bank of the Tanjaro river, which has been undergoing excavation by a French team since 2012. Between 2015 and 2017, 120 cuneiform tablets have been discovered in the rooms of an administrative building dedicated to artisanal activities. The tablets provide details on the operation of a flour agency at the end of the third millennium BCE and show that the city, located in a rich cereal producing region, then formed part of Lullubum, annexed by King Shulgi of Ur in the middle of the twenty-first century BCE. Hopefully, these tablets will make it possible to discover the ancient name of the city of Kunara.