Archaeologists from the United States, while conducting excavations in northern Iraq, discovered cuneiform tablets, a gaming board and traces of a large structure dating back to approximately 1800 BC.
Tiffany Earley-Spadoni, University of Central Florida
Cuneiform tablets dating back to around 1800 BC were first discovered in northern Iraq.
About the discovery, citing a statement from the University of California, Central Florida. writes Journal of Archaeology. Excavations were carried out on the territory of ancient Mesopotamia, modern Kurdish Kaburstan, in the area of the city of Erbil.
The cuneiform tablets were the first such artifacts from that time period to be discovered in the region, according to lead study author Tiffany Earley-Spadoni.
Their decoding is already fraught with intrigue. The fact is that the ancient texts of other states mention the city of Kabra, which was once the regional capital. However, archaeologists have not yet been able to find it. Based on some indirect evidence, it is assumed that Kabra could be located in Kurdish Kaburstan.
“We hope to find even more historical records that will help us uncover the history of this city from the perspective of its own people, rather than relying solely on accounts written by its enemies,” Earley-Spadoni said.
We know a lot about the development of writing in southern Iraq, but we know much less about literacy in the northern cities of Mesopotamia, especially around Erbil, where Kurdish Kaburstan is located.”
Either way, the discovery will shed new light on the rich but understudied history of Mesopotamia, an ancient civilization that flourished across several modern states. Not many written Bronze Age artifacts have been found in northern Iraq, making its history difficult to study.
Excavations in Erbil started in 2022. The archaeological team worked in two main areas and discovered an ancient administrative complex in the north-west, where residential areas are now located.
It dates from around 1800 BC and is identified as the palace of the lower city. It was found thanks to the use of advanced remote sensing technologies. Archaeologists have used magnetometry, which allows them to literally look through the ground and identify architectural structures.
“The focus of our research is the organization of ancient cities,” Erli-Spadoni continues. “You may have heard about King Hammurabi, who created the famous code of laws. So, the city we are studying dates back to about the same time, it existed for almost 4000 years back”.
Excavations at the palace have revealed monumental architecture and evidence of destruction, with human remains found among the ruins. This suggests some important historical event – perhaps the palace was destroyed by an earthquake or military invasion.
On the territory of the northwestern residential areas, archaeologists also excavated external courtyards and clay drainpipes, as well as numerous fragments of household ceramics: bowls, plates, bowls and jugs.
Some of the pottery turned out to be surprisingly well decorated and troweled, Earley-Spadoni notes. The discovered remains of garbage and animal bones made it possible to establish that the diet of local residents was very diverse.
This somewhat surprised the scientists. If the excavated city was not “elite”, its inhabitants should have eaten worse than the inhabitants of the largest and richest cities in Mesopotamia. In this case, the discovery challenges the popular theory about the sharp contrast between elite and non-elite lifestyles in ancient cities.
But the historical significance of the excavated city may be reconsidered if, thanks to the cuneiform tablets found, it can be identified as Kabra. After all, Qabra was a major regional center mentioned in important ancient Babylonian sources.
“There are already many clues to support the theory that Kurdish Kaburstan was the prominent city of Qabra, which is mentioned in texts on Babylonian stelae and ancient monumental tablets,” Early-Spadoni concludes.
Source: rodina-history.ru
