In the century and a half since Assyriologists first translated cuneiform texts and began unraveling the mysteries of Mesopotamia’s past, archaeologists have embarked on relentless hunts to link the toponyms of historical texts to the region’s built environment. Although anthropological archaeologists supplanted the swashbuckling explorers of generations and investigated theoretical questions like transhumanism, occupation patterns, migratory dynamics, among many others, Near Eastern archaeology’s continuing utilization of detailed cuneiform records for synchronizations between texts and archaeological sites provides a multi-angled perspective in the analysis of behaviors associated with the material record. Specifically, the amalgamation of material and epigraphic research offers insights into the organizational structures of political entities and how they yielded power. This project’s quest to find Muṣaṣir, a mountainous, religious cult center assailed and revered by Urartu and Assyria, the major empires of the Middle Iron Age (1050-550 BCE), led to broader research questions exploring the factors driving a region’s chronologically limited sedentary occupation and the impact coopting a religious system has on the local polity and its appropriators. New archaeological evidence from the Sidekan subdistrict of northeastern Iraqi Kurdistan explicated in this dissertation underpins the investigation of the settlement determinants inducing marginal borderland growth and how Muṣaṣir’s cult center affected the trajectory of its settlement development.
Muṣaṣir, the political entity at the heart of this study, was home to the main temple of the god Ḫaldi, the head of the Urartian pantheon (Lehmann-Haupt 1917; Boehmer and Fenner 1973; Boehmer 1997; Radner 2012). In 714 BCE, the Neo-Assyrian king Sargon II memorialized a campaign against the Urartian king Rusa in a uniquely long literary Letter to Aššurthat concludes in the sack of Musair’s Ḫaldi temple (Thureau-Dangin 1912; Zimansky 1990; Frame 2020, 271-275). At Sargon II’s palace of Khorsabad, a series of detailed wall reliefs commemorated this accomplishment, illustrating the Assyrian forces carrying away enormous quantities of fine goods as booty (Botta 1849, pl. 141; Albenda 1986, pl. 133). However, Sargon II’s lengthy itinerary did not divulge the kingdom’s exact location. Simultaneous with the rise of the Neo-Assyrian empire, Urartian kings erected monumental stone inscriptions dedicated to Ḫaldi, their royal god, and emphasized the importance of Muṣaṣir (Urartian Ardini). Two of those stone inscriptions, the Kelishin and Topzawa stelae, were placed in the Sidekan subdistrict of Iraq, containing references of monarchs traveling to Muṣaṣir. Guided by the reference to the polity in the inscriptions, Rainer Michael Boehmer (1973; Boehmer and Fenner 1973) traveled to the village of Mudjesir in Sidekan in 1971 and 1973 to conduct a brief survey during a short break in political upheaval in Iraq. The Urartian characteristics of the observed archaeological material and linguistic similarities led him to postulate Mudjesir as the core of Muṣaṣir. Subsequent reconstructions of Muṣaṣir’s location generally agree with the Sidekan area and believe Mudjesir is a likely candidate as the urban core of the polity (Radner 2012, 253).
In 2013, the Kurdish Regional Government’s (KRG) General Directorate of Antiquities granted the Rowanduz Archaeological Program (RAP) a five-year permit for excavation of the mounded site of Gird-i Dasht on the Diana Plain and survey in Sidekan, Diana, and Rowanduz subdistricts of the Erbil province in Iraq. The project was headed by Director Dr. Michael D. Danti, with Assistant Director Richard L. Zettler and significant assistance from the Director of Soran’s Directorate of Antiquities, Abdulwahab Suleiman. Among the research objectives were expanding the information regarding the chronological sequence of this understudied portion of the Zagros Mountains, understanding the development of the region’s agricultural processes, and further research into Muṣaṣir’s exact location. In 2013, due to the exposure of at-risk archaeological sites in Sidekan, the scope of excavation expanded to include the sites of Gund-i Topzawa, Ghaberstan-i Topzawa, Sidekan Bank, and Mudjesir. A large construction project for a road widening operation revealed Gund-i Topzawa, a series of burnt structures parallel to the road a few kilometers east of the Topzawa Stele findspot. Concurrent with the excavations, I headed a survey project of Sidekan in 2013, 2014, and 2016. Ceramics from the Mudjesir and Gund-i Topzawa excavations, along with results from the survey, further reinforce Boehmer’s conclusion that Mudjesir was the home of Ḫaldi’s temple in Muṣaṣir.
With abundant archaeological data and historical synchronizations, the dissertation research embarked on a multi-scalar and multi-millennia overview of Sidekan’s history, with a particular focus on confirming the proposed location of Muṣaṣir at Mudjesir. The process of investigating the history of Sidekan predating and succeeding Muṣaṣir, searching for the names of this minor geographic region, yielded few relevant toponyms. Parallel analysis of the archaeological material and survey resulted in an analogous situation, with Muṣaṣir’s material culture disproportionately represented. This project's first major research goal is to confirm the validity of Muṣaṣir’s apparent chronological climax and determine the possible factors behind this phenomenon.
A related research question is why settlements arose in this difficult, marginal mountainous area. Regardless of the longevity of Sidekan’s major occupation, at Muṣaṣir’s height, it was an influential kingdom worthy of reverence and militaristic assaults. On initial examination, the Sidekan valley system has favorable conditions for settlements, like ample rainfall and numerous perennial waterways. However, the mountainous character of the environment severely curtails the amount of arable land for agriculture and restricts movement through the steep valleys. To the Sidekan’s east, the highest peaks of the Zagros Mountain, chaine magistrale, form imposing barriers to the vast agricultural basin surrounding Lake Urmia.
The Sidekan subdistrict’s dual favorable and difficult environmental conditions lead to the question of defining marginality. While often used in discussions of archaeological populations and settlements, the term is often used as a “fuzzy catchall” for a multitude of ecological, political, economic, and social factors, serving as a signifier of a challenging habitation environment (Mills and Coles 1998, vii). Its complexity and interrelationship have led many to push back against the use of the terminology without fully explicating the “idea in relation to a particular economic and social system” (Brown et al. 1998, 14; Turner and Young 2007). However, despite the complexity inherent in discussions using the terminology, three concepts of marginality interact with each other. As defined by Blaikie and Brookfield (1987, 19-23), the three concepts of marginality are economic, ecological, and political-economic. Economic marginality defines a marginal “unit” as “that last unit which when brought into use yields exactly its own cost and no more.” Ecological marginality is where a unit of land will “just permit” the plant or animal to survive, but when accounting for environmental variability is defined as a unit where there is an “expected killing stress, but over which a plant can expand when that stress is absent.” While political-economic marginality is less well defined, it can either refer to a spatial marginality, where the concentration of labor and capital in central zones leads to stagnation or contraction of the supplying areas, or societal marginality, referring to people outside the dominant political system or class.
Despite the delineation of the three concepts of marginality, rarely does one force act independently on the development of settlement and civilization. For example, Blaikie and Brookfield (1987, 23) present the example of where a dominant class causes a weaker, politically-economically marginalized class to utilize less fertile ground, forcing usage of more economically marginal land. As the population uses the land more intensively, it causes the land to degrade to the point of ecological marginality. Further, the example demonstrates that marginality is a dynamic characteristic, changing over time. The complex interrelationship of marginal factors leads archaeologists like Turner and Young (2007) to advocate for a specific and contextually determined use and definition of marginality. Despite the ecologically difficult conditions of the highlands of the Sidekan subdistrict, this study primarily focuses on moderately productive rain-fed valleys around the modern town of Sidekan and uses the economic definition of marginality. Ecological marginality is used as a comparative concept to the ecological systems of neighboring regions. Further, while this area’s geographic isolation often placed it at the spatial limits of political systems, its isolation is viewed as an economic measure, where travel is the primary cost for a marginal unit. With that context, the second objective of this dissertation is determining the reasons for settlement in this valley system and how occupants chose to utilize the environment, drawing on the theoretical framework of settlement ecology first coined by Glenn Stone (1996).
The fortuitous connection of historical, pictorial, and archaeological data concerning Muṣaṣir and Ḫaldi’s cult center enables investigations into the origin of a local religious system and its complicated symbiotic relationship to its hegemonic protectors. Urartu’s early history and questions of its ruling ideology remain obfuscated by a dearth of excavated material from the empire’s formative years and a textual record that only begins during the expansionary phase of development (Kroll et al. 2012). Ḫaldi’s exaltation by the Urartians and the Neo-Assyrian respect for the religious cult demonstrate the importance of the small kingdom’s deity in the machinations of Iron Age politics. While understanding the local perspective of how a regional god grew into a transnational symbol could answer broader questions concerning other religions’ development, this study does not delve into the complicated cross-cultural theological comparative studies. The final objective of this project studies the historical and archaeological evidence of the Ḫaldi temple in a search for the origin of the god and his impact on the political and ideological development of Urartu.
The following structure of the dissertation investigates these three research questions. Chapters 1, 2, and 3 provide the geographical, historical, and existing archaeological context for studying new data from Sidekan. Chapter 4 reports the new RAP excavations in Sidekan, including the full site report of unpublished Gund-i Topzawa excavations and the associated pottery typology (Appendix A contains the complete documentation of ceramic types). Chapter 5 details the unpublished survey data of Sidekan, as well as referencing RAP’s limited excavations of Mudjesir. Chapter 6 focuses on the landscape of Sidekan, using the theoretical positioning of settlement ecology to model possible factors leading to the area’s initial sedentism and analyze the land use patterns associated with excavations. Chapter 7 concludes by synthesizing the aggregated data to provide possible interpretations of the religious architecture in Muṣaṣir and how Ḫaldi’s worship transformed the trajectory of Sidekan’s occupation.
Geographical Background
The geography and topography of the Soran district of northeastern Iraq, sandwiched between the highlands of the Iranian and Turkish borders to the east and north and the rolling hills of the Erbil plains to the west, is the defining feature in any study of Sidekan’s history and archaeology. Its rough topography limited scholars’ access to the area for centuries, contributing to its relative mystery in the academic record. The surrounding mountains were also crucial factors in the civilizations and settlements that arose there, without massive mounded cities like those that define the neighboring societies. Isolation from neighbors is the main thread that connects millennia of occupation in this area; a handful of steep and narrow passes present the only routes in and out of the region. The historical and archaeological background of the Soran district, including Sidekan, Choman, and Mergasur, is incomplete without a complete understanding of the geographic and topographical context.
Defining the clear western edge of the Soran district is the largely impregnable Baradost Mountain. Less of a single peak than a long continuous mountain range, the mountain runs roughly 40 km NW-SE, with only two or three small passes. While not wholly impassable, the steep western slopes of the Baradost prevented the movement of large military forces in antiquity, limiting treks over its peak to the most adventurous mountaineers. The most formidable of these passes is the Rowanduz Gorge, a vast gorge containing the Rowanduz River that cuts as deep as 600m in parts. The Balakyian, Handrin, and Rowanduz Rivers merge and cut through the soft stone of the Baradost Mountain to create the main stretch of the Rowanduz Gorge. Millennia of travelers wrote awestruck tales of the gorge, taken aback by its size and the difficulty of crossing the ravine. Until the early 20th century, passage involved narrow trails along the gorge’s base, accessible only in dry seasons when the river was at its lowest. Alternatively, travelers could depart from the town of Khalifan, ascending the steep sides of the Rowanduz Gorge, walking (or carefully accompanying a pack animal) along narrow paths, before crossing a “deeply cut ravine” to reach Rowanduz (John Murray (Firm) and Wilson 1895, 321–22).
Figure 1.1 not yet available
Figure 1.1 not yet available
In 1929, A.M. Hamilton, an engineer working on behalf of the British Administration, constructed a road through the gorge, making the passage of cars and other large vehicles possible for the first time in recorded history (Hamilton 1937). Before the road’s construction, many travelers traveled over the Bejan Pass, a slightly less steep part of the Baradost Mountain, south of the Rowanduz Gorge, and near the peak of Korek. Snaking up the western slope of the Baradost, one would pass over Bejan and descend steeply down the eastern side, arriving south of the city of Rowanduz (Lyon 2002, 123; Division 2014, 105). This route, from 18th-century accounts, was apparently the most common path over the mountain. A British handbook of routes in the region notes not only the Bejan path but an alternative to the south. The guide records that during an earlier Kurdish rebellion against the Ottoman rulers, a small detachment of soldiers headed to Rowanduz by an alternative route. This path involved traveling northwards from Rania along the Serkupkan River, over a small pass near Betirkhen Mountain, and along the Handrin Dagh (Division 1917). Travelers’ accounts and academic publications rarely document this north-south connection, but this path would have been a vital transportation route for travel to the Rania Plain, as the alternatives involve detours that at least double the length and time of the journey. For a journey from the Iraqi plains into the Sidekan highlands, however, this north-south route was far less practical.
For centuries, Rowanduz was the most noteworthy city in the Soran district, renown today and in the past for its breathtaking location wedged on a high cliffside overlooking the eponymous Rowanduz River, running down from the high peaks of the Zagros Mountains to the east, and from the Handrin River to the south. Today, the sprawling city of Soran is far larger than Rowanduz, driven by an influx of Kurdish refugees in the 1990s and economic development in the early 2000s. In 2018, Soran’s developed area was approximately 15 km2, while Rowanduz was less than 1.5 km2 (Hamad 2020). Despite this, Rowanduz remains a prominent location, physically and in terms of cultural importance. At Rowanduz, the Handrin and Rowanduz Rivers combine, flowing west, as they merge with the Balakyian River coming from the north, as more water springs from the raging Bekhal waterfall in the mountain. The waters continue through the gorge until they combine with the Alana Su River, which flows westerly from Khalifan into the canyon. At this confluence, near the famous Gali Ali Beg waterfall, the rivers join and head north, winding along the western edge of the Rowanduz Gorge and eventually becoming the Upper Zab River (Levine 1973, 7–10).
Rowanduz’s position perched on the high cliffs above the river not only bestowed the town sweeping vistas of the surrounding area and notoriety, but its location granted the town control over much of the travel in the region. To the north of Rowanduz is the Diana Plain, an area of about 6 x 12 km that makes up the only broad and somewhat continuous agricultural plain in the Soran district, framed on each side by major topographic features. The Rowanduz River and Handrin Mountain form the southern boundary. To the west is the Baradost Mountain, with the Balikian River running alongside the range’s eastern slopes before cutting northwest into the mountains. To the east and north are the Hassan Beg Mountain and the rising peaks of the Zagros behind it, constraining the plain. Recent construction around the sprawling city of Soran destroyed much of the unused land while maintaining much of the farmland in the center of the plain (Hamad 2020). A major transportation artery and catalyst for growth is the Soran-Sidekan Road, which runs roughly north-south on the eastern side of the plain. As the population of Soran grows, the new construction follows this road northwards. Most of the remaining land reserved for agriculture and pastoralism is on the plain to the west, along the Balikian River.
The combined administrative district of Soran contains the Sidekan, Khalifan, Rowanduz, and Diana subdistricts, with a total population of over 200,000 in 2015, primarily centered around the city of Soran. Subsumed in this quasi metropolis is the far older settlement of Diana, the namesake of the plain, the subdistrict, and the home of Christian and Jewish population for centuries (Hamilton 1937, 64; Zaken 2007, 168–69). Today, Diana is effectively a part of Soran, as the city’s limits and growth extend past Diana’s limits. Surrounding the core of the Diana Plain and Rowanduz are three primary regions: the districts of Mergasur and Choman, to the northwest and east, respectively, and the Sorani subdistrict of Sidekan to the northeast.
The Mergasur District is, topographically, the most accessible from Rowanduz and Soran and, unlike Sidekan and Choman, has independent connections to the Iraqi plains by northern passes. Despite its accessibility from the Diana Plain, the area traditionally formed stronger connections to the Mesopotamian Plains than its Sorani neighbor, due in large part to a pass through the Baradost along the Shanidar River and another passage farther north along the Rukuchuk Gorge, which divides the Baradost from Shirin Mountain to the northwest (Solecki 1979; Division 2014). The main route from Soran to Mergasur is the eponymous Mergasur Valley, which winds along the headwater of the Balikian River, ranging from .5 km to 1 km wide along the river. This route is one of the only easily accessible paths north from Soran into the mountains around Barzan and the Turkish border.
The small eponymous town of Mergasur is roughly 30 km to the northwest of Rowanduz, in the center of the valley. Southeast of the town is the Shanidar Pass, one of the only other passes through the Baradost Mountains. Its use as a route into and out of the mountains is demonstrated not only by modern roads but the existence of Neanderthal occupation at the famous Shanidar Cave, located on the western slopes of the pass (Chapter 3). The northern extent of Mergasur is roughly where the Upper Zab River turns 90-degrees and becomes the Rukuchuk Gorge, near the modern town of Barzan. Further upstream are the headwaters of the Upper Zab River and the border between modern Iraq and Turkey. The Rukuchuk River runs northeast towards the Turkish border, combining with the Shakiv, Kwakura, and Rubar Haji Beg Rivers, forming the modern border between Turkey and Iraq.
Another of the districts surrounding Soran is Choman, located east between the Diana Plain and the Iranian border. Choman is a notably mountainous region, with the main occupation areas surrounding the Berserini River, a tributary of the Rowanduz River. Following this river east through the twists and turns of the mountain in the Berserini Gorge leads one to the high peaks of the Zagros Mountains and the Gawra Shinke Pass, located on the border between Iraq and Iran. At the border crossing is the modern town of Hajji Omran, which sees the flow of a large percentage of the goods that move between Iran and Iraqi Kurdistan. The main road from the pass runs along the river before ending up near Soran and combining into the major road that goes through the Rowanduz Gorge. Choman’s mountains are high and filled with caves, many of which contain archaeological remains, like the Iron Age storage cave of Bokadera (Chapter 3). To the south, the vast Qandil Mountains divide the Soran area from the Rania Plain. The Qandil Mountains are effectively inaccessible – only small passes without arterial roads connect these two regions.
The Sidekan subdistrict is in the northeastern corner of Soran district, with Turkey to the north and Iran to the east. The northern and eastern borders of the subdistrict lie along harsh mountain ranges, containing only a handful of small passes, and the southern connection to Soran, with similarly difficult passes. These mountainous borders isolate the Sidekan area and are the most crucial feature of Sidekan’s geography. The Shaikh Kiran (1750 m above sea level (a.s.l.)), Hassan Beg (2500 m a.s.l.), and Halgurd (3500 m a.s.l.) mountains are the highest peaks in a range that runs east-west and divides Sidekan from Soran to the south. To the east are the high peaks of the Zagros Mountains, the so-called chaine magistrale, the highest point in the range that delineates not just Iraq and Iran but the two country’s watersheds. These peaks are largely over 3000m a.s.l. and contain only a few passes between Iraq and Iran, the most accessible of which is the Kelishin Pass. On the other side of the Zagros Mountains is Lake Urmia and the vast flat and fertile plains surrounding the lake. To the north of Sidekan, the border between Iraq and Turkey is even more impassable. Much of the southern border of Turkey contains the Taurus Mountains, as impregnable as the Zagros Mountains. In the southeast of Turkey, the Taurus Mountains crash into the Zagros range, creating a vast expanse of steep and dangerous mountains. Sidekan’s northern border is roughly aligned with this point of the Taurus Mountains, making passage north all but impossible. Adding further difficulty, the headwaters of the Upper Zab River form a small gorge, running east-west across much of the subdistrict.
Traveling north from Soran to Sidekan is treacherous because of the steep mountains dividing the areas. Modern technology facilitated the construction of a more direct paved route, produced using powerful construction equipment to cut wide pathways and switchbacks along the side of the mountain. The contemporary road from Soran heads north along the eastern edge of the Diana Plain and turns northeast into the mountains at the northern end of the plain. From there, at the village of Shaikhan (750m a.s.l), the road begins switchbacking along the southern slope of the mountain range, quickly rising over one of the lowest points in the range at 1450m a.s.l. At this point, the road divides. One route heads further up the mountain range to the peak of Hassan Beg, over a thousand meters above, while the other begins the descent downwards into the Sidekan basin. The northern slope of the high range dividing Sidekan and Soran consists of undulating hills, providing a far gentler descent over the roughly five hundred meters to Sidekan than the opposite side’s ascent. Modern construction equipment aided in creating a mostly straight path towards the town, but evidence of earlier paths indicates the pre-modern road followed the general direction.
Before the construction of the new road originating from Shaikhan, transportation into Sidekan was far more difficult. Accounts by Jewish residents in Diana suggest that even before modern road construction, travelers took this route and walked on narrow pathways, dangerously perched high above the valley floor (Zaken 2007). Another road, more commonly utilized in the past, followed the Barusk River to reach Sidekan. The “so-called” Old Sidekan Road, used by the archaeologist Boehmer in the 1970s to access Sidekan, remains a single-lane dirt path (Boehmer and Fenner 1973). Access to this path begins north of the Diana Plain and Balakiyan River, along the road to Mergasur. This road eventually heads north to Turkey but passes Shaikh Kiran Mountain on its route north. At the bend of the Barusk River is a village situated at a ford (Discussed in Survey - RAP45). The Old Road begins here and winds along the river until reaching the Sidekan Basin. In addition to Boehmer’s account of traveling along this road, the sides of the route are heavily mined from the Iran-Iraq War, denoting its continuing importance as late as the 1980s.
Following either road, one reaches the Sidekan Basin, roughly described as the wide valley east of the town of Sidekan, bounded by high mountains on all sides. In the recent past, specifically during the British Occupation, the Sidekan River and the Sidekan Basin were known as the Dubor River and the Dubor Basin (Kenneth 1919). At approximately 1000m a.s.l. (compared to Soran’s elevation of 600 a.s.l.), one reaches modern Sidekan. The town today consists of two parts, the original section to the east and the newer section to the west, called Mohammad Barusk, laid out on a grid. Given the location of the administrative offices of Sidekan in Mohammad Barusk, these sister cities are considered the town of Sidekan.
The Sidekan River is nearby the town of the same name, at the junction of Topzawa Çay and Bora Çay Rivers. As the Sidekan River flows west, it picks up water flow from the Zanah River, becoming the Barusuk River. After its western journey, the river cuts dramatically to the south, winding through the steep mountains before debouching onto the Diana Plain. This turn is the origination point of the Old Sidekan Road and the ford. Many smaller rivers and streams flow down from the surrounding mountains to increase the flow of the Barusk River, creating a deep cut through the mountains of Shaikh Kiran to the west and Hassan Beg range to the east.
East of Sidekan lies the Kelishin Pass, the only navigable pass across the Zagros Mountains in this area and a landmark for any traveler through the area. Throughout history, the Kelishin Pass appeared as a central location for control of passage through the Zagros Mountains. The following historical background section repeatedly returns to the pass’s role in much of the history of the area. There are two main routes to reach the pass from Sidekan: north and then east following the Zanah River or east and then northeast following the Topzawa Çay. Although the Zanah River permits passage to the pass, the route following the Topzawa Çay contains a modern road to the pass, recently paved and widened, and explorers’ past accounts describe utilizing the original, narrow road. After about 20 km following the Topzawa Valley, the route cuts up into the mountains, following the somewhat rolling hillsides of the Zagros Mountains piedmont to the heights of the pass.
The valleys that make up the Sidekan Basin, as well as the Topzawa and Bora Valleys, are all relatively narrow, a maximum of 1 km across, with the only moderately sized flat expanse at the town of Sidekan and a much smaller area directly to the west at Mudjesir, a small village downstream from Sidekan. The sides of the Bora and Topzawa valleys are relatively steep and hundreds of meters high. The floors of the valleys are full of lush vegetation, while the slopes of the hills are comparatively bare, despite the heavy fall and winter rains. This dendritic system of valleys and rivers flow down from the high peaks of the Zagros Mountains.
Soran receives ca. 500-650 mm of rainfall annually, and Sidekan over 650-800 mm, providing more than adequate water for extensive agriculture (Noori, Pradhan, and Ajaj 2019). In the winter, snow is common in the town of Sidekan, and the surrounding peaks are topped by snow until at least April, though often still in May. Springs in Sidekan also add to the substantial watershed. This large amount of water in the region contributes to lush vegetation and productive agriculture. North of Sidekan and Mudjesir is a massive expanse, near the so-called Kani Resh area, unsurveyed and untraveled, that makes up more than half of the area of the Sidekan Sub-district (Rawlinson 1840, 26). While Kani Resh is largely uninhabited today, home to only a handful of small villages, early modern travelers’ references to the area suggest a slightly more substantial occupation in the past. Due to the presence of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in the area, the security situation has prevented travel there. Maps and satellite imagery attest, however, to a series of rolling hills, sparsely populated, with few farms or evidence for productive agriculture. Traveling from the town of Sidekan north, through this area, to the Turkish border is arduous and dangerous, even with modern technology. The journey, in antiquity, would have taken longer and come with more risks. In addition, this area contains no broad agricultural plains like that around Sidekan town or Mudjesir.
In the Sidekan area, the usable land is limited. Along the Sidekan River and its tributaries, the glacial plateau provides a limited amount of fertile agricultural land for locals’ sustenance. Most of the riversides are narrow strips of relatively flat land before quickly sloping up into steep hills and mountains. A few locations, like at the settlements of Sidekan and Mudjesir, further down the river, lie on relatively broad flat plains that allow for agriculture and moderately sized towns. Towards the high mountains, in the area of Kani Resh, traditional agricultural land is limited. The name Kani Resh suggests an inhospitable region, as the Kurdish name translates to “black fountain” (Rawlinson 1840, 26). Compared to the area around Sidekan, upstream to its east as well as downstream to its west, the hills around Kani Resh seem devoid of any large villages or concentrated agriculture. In Rawlinson’s travels through the area, however, he mentions that while this area is now the domain of the “Beradust” [Baradost] tribe and is home to only a few hundred families, in the past, the Sumai and Terkur tribes lived there with a much larger population (Rawlinson 1840, 26). The town of Kani Resh is now deserted, with only traces of the past architecture visible on satellite imagery, although a moderately sized town exists only a few kilometers away. This abandonment provides a reminder that the currently observed settlement patterns may not reflect the past occupation, and the dataset is biased with satellite imagery. Specifically, modern and pre-modern conflict can force migration from villages, giving the often incorrect impression these areas were unoccupied. To the north, these mountains increase in size, with small passes, until one reaches the Turkish border with even more impenetrable mountains. As a whole, the Sidekan area’s isolation defined its historical and present position and understanding the ways people adapted to this environment in the past informs the future.