By John MacGinnis and Sebastien Rey

 

Few countries have suffered as much damage to their archaeological heritage as Iraq. The Iraq Emergency Heritage Management Training Scheme is a programme funded by the UK government and delivered through the British Museum under the direction of Jonathan Tubb, Keeper of the British Museum. The Iraq Scheme aims to offer training to archaeologists from across the whole of Iraq in order to help prepare for the challenges ahead.

The training runs in cycles consisting of two parts, 8-10 weeks theoretical and technical training in London followed by 8 weeks field training on site in Iraq. The UK based part of the training is designed to give a very wide introduction to modern archaeological methodology. An overview of cultural heritage management evaluates philosophy and practice on the preservation, restoration and curation of archaeological sites and historic monuments, drawing on case studies drawn from the UK, the Middle East and other parts of the world. The modules on methodology deal with a range of technical subjects such as project management, GIS systems, use of satellite imagery, surveying, geophysical remote sensing, data management, object recording, photography, digitisation, environmental sciences, material sciences, conservation and first aid.

Drone training. All figures courtesy of the British Museum Iraq Scheme.

 

Pottery training.

 

Field equipment training.

 

Conservation survey.

 

Photogrammetry training.

 

In the fieldwork part of the programme participants implement the practical parts of their UK Training with the hands-on skills of archaeological fieldwork: surveying, photography, excavation, drawing of plans and sections, finds processing, use of databases and report writing. The training for the fieldwork component of the course takes place at two excavation projects: in the south of Iraq, at Tello, and in the north in the Darband-i Rania pass in Iraqi Kurdistan. Fieldwork at both sites commenced in the autumn of 2016 and is expected to continue until 2019.

 

The Tello Ancient Girsu Project

Tello, the ancient Sumerian Girsu, is one of the earliest known cities of the world, revered in the 3rd millennium BCE as the sanctuary of the Sumerian heroic god Ningirsu. The site was extensively investigated between 1877 and 1933. This brought to light some of the most important monuments of Sumerian art and architecture, including both statuary of the Ur III king Gudea and a bridge built of baked brick – the oldest bridge discovered in the world to date. The size and complexity of the site make Tello an ideal location for delivering practical fieldwork training.

The focus of the new excavations is on the sacred district of Girsu at Tell A, the Mound of the Palace. Declassified 1960s Corona spy satellite images and modern drones are used to create digital elevation models of the temple site. This helped us to identify and then unearth extensive mudbrick walls, some ornamented with pilasters and inscribed magical cones, belonging to the four-thousand-year-old temple dedicated to Ningirsu. This temple was considered one of the most important sacred places of Mesopotamia, praised for its magnificence in many contemporary literary compositions.

Tello Aerial view of Tell A and the Sacred City of Girsu.

 

Tello Excavating inscribed in situ cones.

 

Tello Archaic cultic platforms under Eninnu temple.

 

Tello Wall reconstruction trial.

 

More than fifteen inscribed cones were found in situ in the walls of the temple. The recording of the exact location of each cone reveals that they were laid in a complex pattern; we are currently analysing this pattern to establish whether it encodes information of magical/religious significance.

Among the unique finds was a foundation box inserted below one of the principal gates of the Eninnu sacred complex that still contained a white stone ritual tablet belonging to the ruler Gudea. Excavations under the temple also led to the discovery of two superimposed monumental platforms, the oldest of which, made of red mudbricks and built in two steps, may be dated to the beginning of the third millennium BCE. This is an important discovery since this proto-ziggurat, a precursor to the legendary Tower of Babel, would therefore predate the earliest-known Mesopotamian stepped-terrace by a few hundred years.

In the autumn 2017 season conservation work was initiated on the Bridge of Girsu, first excavated in the 1920s, as part of the training for our Iraqi colleagues. Excavations to establish the condition and stability of this unique monument of Sumerian architecture led to the discovery of exceptionally well-preserved deposits of the prehistoric Ubaid period, including painted pottery and uninscribed cones, which will yield new information on the origins of Girsu and the birth of urban centres in Mesopotamia.

The finds from these excavations will go on display in museums in Iraq. The foundation tablet, cylinder-seals, inscribed cones, and other important objects will be displayed in the Iraq Museum in Baghdad, while a column base from the Ningirsu temple will be displayed in the nearby local museum of Nasiriya.

 

The Darband-i Rania Archaeological Project

The Darband-i Rania is a pass in the western Zagros Mountains lying approximately 100 km east of Erbil, at the point where, though now subsumed into Lake Dokan, the Lower Zab River flows from the Peshdar into the Rania Plain. This location now corresponds to the northeast corner of Lake Dokan, the reservoir formed following the construction of the Dokan Dam in the late 1950s. The pass commands a historic route from Mesopotamia to Iran. It is the route through which the last Achaemenid Persian king Darius III fled after being defeated by Alexander the Great at the battle of Gaugamela, fought north of Erbil, in 331 BCE.

The Darband-i Rania was selected as the site for the northern of the two training projects conducted by the Iraq Scheme as the sites involved are under threat from multiple factors – farming, gravel extraction, road building and erosion by the waters of Lake Dokan – and at the same time offer an opportunity to cast light on phases of history which have hardly been explored in the region.

Darband-i Rania, view through the pass.

 

Darband-i Rania, Statue of naked male.

 

Darband-i Rania, roof tiles and antefix.

 

Fieldwork at Qalatga Darband started with topographic mapping and a survey of surface ceramics, analysis of which indicates that the site was primarily occupied in the early Parthian period (second-first centuries BCE). This has been followed up by excavation in multiple areas. Ground-truthing of a square feature appearing in a Corona satellite image, combined with analysis of crop marks in an aerial survey, has confirmed the presence of a large fortified building in the northern part of the site. In other areas, two different buildings have yielded evidence for the adoption of elements from Graeco-Roman architectural practice, particularly the use of terracotta roof tiles. Another major find has come with investigation of a huge stone mound at the southern end of the site. This is uncovering remains of a monumental building which, based on the presence of the smashed remains of Hellenistic statues, would appear to be a temple for the worships of Graeco-Roman deities.

Operations at the nearby site of Usu Aska, located actually in the Darband-i Rania, have confirmed the existence of a fort dated to the Assyrian period. With walls 6m thick and still standing 5 m high, it must have been a formidable installation for controlling movement through the pass. A later grave cut into the Assyrian remains contained a coin dating to the Parthian king Orodes II (c.57-38 BCE). Inscribed “King of kings, beneficent, the just, the manifest, friend of the Greeks”, this is the king in whose reign a Roman army led by Crassus was destroyed by the Parthians at the Battle of Carrhae in 54/53 BCE. With their famous tactic of mounted archers raining arrows down on the enemy, the Parthians annihilated the Roman legions and captured their standards. Nevertheless, the incident must have sent shock-waves through the Parthian empire, and a wall across the western approach to the pass may well have been instigated as a direct reaction to the rising threat from Rome.

After nearly two centuries archaeology in Iraq continues to produce new data and surprises. The Iraq Emergency Heritage Management Scheme will help ensure that Iraqi archaeologists remain at the forefront of discovery.

 

John MacGinnis and Sebastien Rey are Lead Archaeologists of the Iraq Heritage Management Training Scheme. For more on the Iraq Scheme and the two field projects, click here.