Italian Archaeological Expedition in Tulul al Baqarat of the Centro Scavi di Torino

By Carlo Lippolis

Italy has a long and distinguished tradition of work in Mesopotamia. Centro Scavi Torino began research and excavations in Iraq in 1964 with excavations at the Greek city of Seleucia on the Tigris, about 30 kilometers south of Baghdad. Scientific collaboration with the Department of Antiquities of Iraq (then the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage) and the Iraqi Museum has never stopped in the following years. Italian expertise in conserving and restoring monuments, the product of centuries of experience at home in Italy, has been an especially important contribution to Iraq, and has been applied to sites including Nimrud, Hatra, and Babylon. In recent years the Centre has also carried out restoration and renovation projects in the ground floor galleries of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad (specifically, the Assyrian and Islamic galleries).

Unfortunately, fieldwork was impossible in Iraq for a number of years. But in 2012, despite the still unstable conditions in some areas of the country – and in agreement with the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities of Iraq and the Italian Embassy in Baghdad – a site about 25 kilometers southwest of the town of Kut was chosen for a new excavation project. The project is funded by the Centro Scavi Torino, the University of Torino, and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In November 2013, the Italian archaeological expedition of the Centro Ricerche Archeologiche e Scavi di Torino started its first season of work at Tulul al Baqarat (province of Kut, Iraq). This site has enormous potential for filling in a troubling gap in the settlement map of southern Mesopotamia and for understanding another of one of the oldest urban landscapes in the world.

The place name ‘Tulul al Baqarat’ indicates a series of tells of different size and chronology scattered on an area around 3 kilometres wide. Apart from the nearby Iraqi excavations at Tell al-Wilaya (located about 7 kilometers to the southwest) the area is still little known from the archaeological point of view. Our site of Baqarat is located (but not reported) on the far northeast edge of the survey maps drawn up by Robert McC. Adams in his seminal 1981 report Heartland of Cities.

The main tell of the Baqarat area (TB1: around 300 meters in diameter and 10–11 meters high) was partially excavated by the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage in 2008–2010, in order to stop illicit excavations that seriously damaged the site. The results of these excavations, unfortunately still unpublished, were significant and revealed the presence of a religious complex on the top of the hill, dated to the Neo-Babylonian period (626–539 BC) in its latest phase but with levels that reach the Early Dynastic period (ca. 2900–2300 BC).

Since the area is mostly unexplored, the first Italian mission has set the goal of a preliminary survey to define the cultural horizons present at the tells that make up Tulul al Baqarat. During our first brief stay on the site, we conducted a preliminary survey on some of the mounds and opened three small soundings. The presence of widespread illicit excavations also allowed us to observe earlier cultural materials dug up from the deep layers that otherwise would have been hidden.

As usually happens in these parts of the southern Mesopotamia, the limits of the tells are not easily identifiable on the surface. Thousands of years of alluvial mud spread across the landscape have gradually raised the ground level and slowly covered the edges of sites, even as modern cultivation have cut away parts of them. It is therefore likely that originally some of our sites were not as isolated as they appear today. The maps we draw on the basis of surveys are also therefore incomplete. The ancient sites of Tulul al Baraqat were part of a larger system of politics and economic relations that we cannot yet understand. Only additional excavation and survey and techniques such as remote sensing will fill in the map to give a true representation of the extent of ancient settlement.

At present any observations are subject to further reassessment, since extensive excavation and systematic surveys have yet to begin. However, our preliminary works identified two almost flat areas, south of the main tell (TB1), with late fourth (?) and early third millennium material scattered on the surface. Immediately west of the main tell, some fragments of baked bricks have been observed inside of a recently cleaned canal. They carry the stamp of the Sumerian king Shulgi (ca. 2094–2047 BC): “The divine Shulgi, powerful male, king of Ur, king of the four parts of the world.” Similar bricks are known from Tell al Wilaya. The surrounding flat area displays, on the surface, pottery of the Ur III/Isin-Larsa period (ca. 2025–1887 BC.) More to the north, other tells can be dated to the Parthian-Sasanian (ca. 224 BC– AD 651) and Islamic periods (AD 651–1258).

With the exception of the main tell, whose cultural sequence is long and continuous, it is worth mentioning that the other mounds in the area seem to be characterized by shorter occupations. Study of these surrounding sites will reveal how communities grew and shrank around a dominant main site across time.

Our future fieldwork will be the systematic survey of the entire area of Baqarat, study of the ancient landscape, the opening of trenches for a better definition of the chronological sequence in the main mounds and, then, the opening of extensive excavations. Tulul al Baraqat thus has excellent prospects of revealing the settlement history of an important part of southern Mesopotamia across several millennia.

Carlo Lippolis is an assistant professor in ancient Near Eastern Archaeology at the University of Torino. He is the head of the Centro Ricerche Archeologiche e Scavi di Torino per il Medio Oriente e l’Asia.

~~~

All content provided on this blog is for informational purposes only. The American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) makes no representations as to the accuracy or completeness of any information on this blog or found by following any link on this blog. ASOR will not be liable for any errors or omissions in this information. ASOR will not be liable for any losses, injuries, or damages from the display or use of this information. The opinions expressed by Bloggers and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not reflect the opinions of ASOR or any employee thereof.