Over the last century, archaeological research in the Soran district by outside researchers and investigators was limited to a handful of expeditions, constrained by the geopolitical situation and the area’s isolation behind the imposing Rowanduz Gorge. Despite the small number of archaeological projects and the complete absence of large-scale stratigraphic multi-period excavations, local and foreign researchers established a foundation of knowledge regarding the archaeological and historical past of the district. Early travelers like Jacques de Morgan (de Morgan and Scheil 1893) and Ferdinand Friedrich Carl Lehmann-Haupt (1893, 1926) documented visible historical features during their journeys. Later, in the mid to late 20th century, archaeological teams led by Ralph Solecki (1973; 1979), Patty Jo Watson (Braidwood and Howe 1960; Braidwood et al. 1983), and Rainer Michael Boehmer (1973; Boehmer and Fenner 1973) briefly investigated Paleolithic, Neolithic, and Iron Age sites, respectively. Even when foreign research ceased, archaeologists from the Iraqi national government, like Fuad Safar (1950), and Kurdish archaeologists from Soran, including Dlsahd Marf (2014), continued investigating and documenting the material history of the region. The contributions by all three categories of people helped provide the groundwork for understanding the area’s history.
In the 2010s, a loosening of restrictions led to a new wave of research projects that attempted to fill in gaps in the archaeological record at new sites and with new methodologies. The first project to begin work in the Soran district was the Rowanduz Archaeological Project (RAP) in 2013. RAP’s original and primary objective was to excavate the multi-period mound site of Gird-i Dasht, on the center of the Diana Plain, to establish the missing complete chronological sequence of the Soran district. In 2014, a team from the University of Halle, led by Claudia Beuger (Beuger et al. 2015; 2018), initiated a survey and excavation project covering the Khalifan subdistrict of Soran, located to the west of the Rowanduz Gorge. The following season, in 2015, a team from the University of Cambridge resumed excavations at Shanidar Cave, initially excavated by Solecki (Reynolds et al. 2016; Pomeroy et al. 2020). This trio of modern projects, with more surely to follow, are beginning to add more detail to the corpus of archaeological knowledge of the Soran district and the northern Zagros Mountains.
Previous Archaeology
The earliest archaeological records of the Soran district come not from archaeologists but early modern travelers. The accounts of these travelers through Soran and Sidekan told through letters, memoirs, and official reports supplement the archaeological record, serving as windows into the pre-industrialized landscape and documenting cultural traditions. Several of the travelers’ accounts record interactions with archaeological remains. Despite the limited research by foreign scholars, the local antiquities department continued documentation and excavation throughout the decades of isolation during Saddam Hussein’s reign, serving as an invaluable record to present studies.
The earliest foreign research involved travelers documenting archaeological remains as part of longer accounts of their journeys. The Kelishin Stele is a feature in many of the early travelers' accounts in the area (de Morgan and Scheil 1893; Lehmann-Haupt 1893; Lehmann-Haupt 1926). During Lehmann-Haupt’s travels through the area in the late 19th century, he located the Topzawa Stele. Given its findspot, however, Lehmann-Haupt concluded that a small nearby hill, called Schenke, was the location of ancient Muṣaṣir (1917; Belck and Virchow 1899). These early archaeologists were joined in their discoveries by a handful of travelers, including missionaries traveling from Mosul to Urmia through Rowanduz, documenting the people and landscape of the Kurdish Mountains.
Archibald Hamilton, an engineer working on behalf of the British government, published an extensive account of his road construction project through the Zagros, most notably through the Rowanduz Gorge. His memoir provides information not only on the contemporary situation of the Kurds and the state of the landscape but details on a handful of ancient locations. From an archaeological perspective, he records the first moment he saw the mound of Gird-i Dasht where the Rowanduz Gorge debouches onto the Diana Plain (Hamilton 2004, 74–83). Late during his posting in the Kurdish mountains, he adventures into caves cut into the Baradost Mountain with the hope of finding a lost Assyrian treasure. Despite his adventurous account, neither he nor his local travel companions found any archaeological evidence (Hamilton 2004, 155–58).
The first surge of foreign archaeological excavations in the area occurred during the 1950s, with projects focusing on prehistoric periods. In 1951, Ralph Solecki excavated Shanidar Cave, a sizeable Neanderthal site, with Proto-Neolithic and some Iron Age material. Located alongside a small pass in the Baradost Mountain, about 325 m above a small tributary of the Upper Zab River, the cave is approximately 25 x 40 m in size, with an opening about 8m high (Solecki 1979, 318). Some distance from the study’s primary area of focus is the small river that is one of the only passages through the Baradost Mountain and further into the Zagros. Over ten seasons, the main excavation trench reached a depth of 14 m, with eight Neanderthal skeletons recovered in the lowest phase (Layer D). Excavators recovered flower pollen from the area around the Neanderthal burials in this phase, which Solecki postulated in his early work as signifying a high-level understanding of death and burial (Solecki 1971, 5–11). Further examinations of the archaeological material and excavations suggest rodents likely carried pollen into the excavation pit during the field seasons (Sommer 1999, 127–29). Despite this changed interpretation, the Shanidar Neanderthals remain famous across the archaeological literature, as this collection of Neanderthal burials remains significant.
Along with the Neanderthal burials, Solecki uncovered an extensive collection of Proto-Neolithic burials in Layer B, dating to the eleventh millennium BCE. The size of the cemetery and burial goods indicate Shanidar Cave’s importance in the period. By the end of the 1960 field season, the excavators uncovered a total of thirty-five individuals, but the cessation of excavations after 1961 prevented a complete exploration of the extent of the cemetery. The burials are roughly contemporaneous with the Late Natufian phase in the Mediterranean, but the Zagros mountain version of this Proto-Neolithic phase is named Baradostian, eponymously after Shanidar’s location in that mountain (Solecki 2004, 1–9). Of the thirty-five burials, half contained grave goods, such as personal ornaments and bone tools. Most burials were of children and infants, and several of the bodies were arranged in clustered graves, along with a few cases of later internments disturbing earlier burials (Solecki 2004, 27–28). Shanidar Cave was vital in establishing the characteristics of Proto-Neolithic occupation in the Zagros Mountains and neighboring areas. Solecki’s ethnographic documentation of the nomads inhabiting the caves seasonally during the 1950s also shed light on nomadic practices not only in the modern period but throughout history (Solecki 1979). Recently, a team from Cambridge reopened excavations at Shanidar Cave (Pomeroy et al. 2020).
Before and alongside the excavations at Shanidar Cave, Ralph Solecki surveyed the caves in the Baradost Mountain to determine locations with the most archaeological potential. His ethnographic record of the movements of the locals at Shanidar Cave and the surrounding areas, in addition to their subsistence methods, provides a rare account of traditional subsistence practices in the area (Solecki 1998). Local Kurdish populations during Solecki’s observations used the surveyed caves primarily in the winter. Surveys in 1951 and 1953 resulted in a rich database of cave sites. Fifteen sites are in the valleys around the Baradost Mountain, high above Shanidar Cave and far downstream (Solecki 1998). In addition, Solecki surveyed several caves in the Rowanduz area with assistance from locals, including the local mudir of Sidekan (Solecki 1952). One lay far to the north of Sidekan, on the border between Iraq and Turkey. This provides an interesting connection to the Nestorian tale of the cave of Beth Bgash. Solecki documented an additional 15 caves as part of his survey, mostly along the Rowanduz River. Artifacts at the documented caves were limited and not useful in dating; Kospyspe Cave contained some sherds at its entrance, and the cave of Shakft Galala also had sherds near its entrance. Galala Cave, near Choman, contained a possible petroglyph but no associated artifacts (Solecki 1998, 27). Most caves inspected by Solecki had remains of contemporary Kurdish occupation, such as temporary shelters and burning on roofs from fires, along with a handful of sherds with unknown dates (Solecki 1998).
Concurrent with Solecki’s survey of caves, Henry Field, along with Iraqi archaeologist Fuad Safar, recorded the Bestoon and Diyan (a.k.a Hawdian) caves. The pair of caves are on the Baradost Mountain, a twenty-minute walk from each other, high above the modern village of Hawdian on a small pass (Field 1951). Over ten days in 1950, the expedition from the Harvard-Peabody Museum excavated four soundings, two in each of the caves. The excavators expected to find Paleolithic occupation, like that in Shanidar, but they recovered no Paleolithic artifacts or burial, even at bedrock level. Overall, the pottery at the site dates to the Hassuna, Ubaid, and Uruk periods, with a collection of ceramics from Bestoon possibly dating to the Early Dynastic Period (Safar 1950). In general, the ceramic assemblages from both caves are similar. Given the brief excavation season, these results are primarily useful in establishing typical assemblages of pottery in this area. Fuad Safar published a representative collection of the pottery from these caves, used as comparanda for RAP’s current survey and excavation (Safar 1950). The geology of the Bestoon and Hawdian caves, along with Solekci’s cave survey, suggests numerous caves are in Mount Baradost, caused by the limestone formation that quickly erodes and causes large abscesses (Solecki 1998, 26). This propensity for erosion explains not only the presence of the Rowanduz Gorge, with its substantial collection of caves, but the preponderance of cave sites around other sections of the mountain. The relative absence of caves in other sections of the district, away from the Baradost Mountain, is thus explained by the different geologic signatures.
Shortly after the beginning of the Shanidar Cave excavations, Patty Jo Watson, as a part of Robert Braidwood’s Iraq-Jarmo Project, led a team in excavating the Halafian site of Gird-i Banahilk, located on the edges of the Diana Plain (Braidwood and Howe 1960, 33). The site of Gird-i Banahilk, excavated over ten days in 1954, measures 100m x 160m x 4m. During the British Mandate period, Assyrian levies, mentioned by Hamilton, used the mound and its neighboring hill for a gun emplacement and a landing strip. A documentary includes brief footage of the British RAF base located there during the Mandate Period (Case 1996). Watson and her team opened four main operations (A-D), along with two small ones that were almost immediately abandoned due to a lack of material (Braidwood et al. 1983, 545). In total, their team exposed 70 m2, although they dug only about half of the excavation area to a significant depth (Braidwood and Howe 1960). Architecture at the site was minimal, with simple structures and poor preservation. Most of the occupation dates to the Halaf period, with a few traces of Middle Bronze Age, Early Iron Age, and Hellenistic occupation in the uppermost levels of the excavation. Extensive collections of Halaf style pottery connect Gird-i Banahilk with other sites sharing this ceramic tradition around Mesopotamia, like Arcpachiyah, Tell Halaf, and Chagar Bazar. Specifically, the Halaf assemblage relates to the “Eastern Halaf” type (Braidwood et al. 1983, 549). The Halafian pottery accompanied a collection of pendants, seals, ground obsidian blades, and obsidian flakes, further evidence of the typical Halaf assemblage (Braidwood et al. 1983, 545–54). The radiocarbon dates for the main Halaf phase are in the range of 4900 to 3400 BCE (Braidwood et al. 1983, 579). As a whole, Halaf material largely conformed to the predicted assemblage, with the single deviation a lack of typical female figurines (Braidwood et al. 1983, 549).
The non-Halaf assemblage was limited to a total of 567 total sherds in three trenches, plus the small test trench (TT). Tentative dating assigned a selection of the ceramics to the second-millennium BCE, Iron Age, and early Hellenistic periods (Braidwood et al. 1983, 567). Much of the non-Halaf pottery came from Operation A, surrounding a stone wall. The operation overall only reached a depth of 1.25m, uncovering the top of the wall. Overall the pottery is mixed with Halaf and non-Halaf material, although the preponderance originates next to the wall (Braidwood et al. 1983, figs. 195, 204). The small assemblage of non-Halaf material, despite the lack of precise dating, helps further establish the ceramic characteristics of the region. Despite the short season, the excavation was important for establishing the nature of Chalcolithic settlement in the Zagros Mountains piedmont, the features of the local Halaf assemblage, and for researching a typical low-lying multi-period site.
After a lapse of more than two decades in archaeological research in the area, German archaeologist Michael Rainer Boehmer conducted a reconnaissance of the area in 1971. Led to this area in part by the known existence of the Kelishin and Topzawa Steles, the discovery of two human-shaped statues in 1951 provided a further incentive to investigate this area (al-Amin 1952, 224). In 1971, Boehmer identified and traced stone walls along the Sidekan River that he identified as part of a city wall. Associated pottery dated to the early Iron Age, roughly the 8th-7th centuries BCE (Boehmer 1973, 35). Boehmer and his architect, Fenner, returned in 1973 for a brief week-long survey of the area. In addition to recording additional features at Mudjesir, the team located the sites of Old Sidekan, Schkenne, Tell Bain al-Nahrein, Tell Schasiman, and Huwela (Boehmer and Fenner 1973). Boehmer investigated the small mound of Schkenne in part because of Lehmann-Haupt’s supposition that the site was the location of Muṣaṣir’s Ḫaldi temple (Boehmer 1973, 31–32). Boehmer recovered a handful of diagnostic sherds, and while four of the five are in characteristic Urartian shapes, one glazed sherd dates nearly to nearly a millennia later, roughly the 9th-10th century CE (Boehmer and Fenner 1973, 481–86). Given the paucity of material and the seemingly preferential site of Mudjesir, Boehmer did not agree with Lehmann-Haupt’s identification. The remainder of the sites were absent of any significant characteristics. Tell Bain al-Nahrein had merely a few fragments of a wall on the surface, Tell Schasiamn was a small mound with no archaeological remains, Old Sidekan contained the ruins of possibly a Nestorian village, and Huwela was a small dolmen without diagnostic pottery.
Boehmer and Fenner’s survey of Mudjesir located further walls on the surface, large quantities of diagnostic Urartian pottery, and mapped the fortress site of Qalat Mudjesir. He traced the line of the stone masonry wall, exposed along the river, finding the possible existence of a doorway or gate in the southern wall (Boehmer and Fenner 1973, 489). Boehmer identified two possible building phases in these walls: an older phase constructed with large field stones and a newer phase built with slate stones in a grid-like alternating pattern. The wall continued west for a few meters until it was no longer visible on the surface, and without a corner, Boehmer could not define the precise limits of his so-called “Lower Town.” While Boehmer postulated a western, southwestern, and southeastern limit of the city wall, he was unable to locate any of the wall segments on the surface. Large quantities of pottery near the wall dated to the early Iron Age, 8th-7th century, corroborating Boehmer’s earlier survey of Mudjesir (Boehmer and Fenner 1973, fig. 29). Two wall segments were cut by a road cut in the south of the area, perpendicular to the roadway’s E/W direction. These two walls were founded on bedrock and each about 2 m wide (Boehmer and Fenner 1973, fig. 19).
To the south, slightly up a hill, between two elevated promontories, in an area Boehmer called the “Upper Town,” were a number of wall remnants in the slope of the hillside, also perpendicular to the hill (Boehmer and Fenner 1973, 491). In addition, Boehmer and his architect Fenner drew up a detailed plan of the Qalat (Kale) Mudjesir site, located on a hill above the village of Mudjesir. The site is just under a hectare in area and overlooks the surrounding region from its high promontory. Walls on the surface laid out a plan of three tiers: a large fortification wall mirroring the topography of the peak, a smaller wall around the higher point of the hill, and a narrow, rectangular building with distinctive Urartian buttressing. Similar fortress plans in Urartu, along with the pottery below the site near the river, suggest an Urartian date for the fortress (Boehmer and Fenner 1973, 508–15).
Boehmer investigated the small mound of Schkenne in part because of Lehmann-Haupt’s supposition that the site was the location of Muṣaṣir’s Ḫaldi temple (Boehmer and Fenner 1973, 489). His survey only recovered a handful of diagnostic sherds, and while four of the five are in characteristic Urartian shapes, one glazed sherd dates nearly to nearly a millennia later, roughly the 9th-10th century CE (Boehmer and Fenner 1973, 481–86). Given the paucity of material and the seemingly preferential site of Mudjesir, Boehmer did not agree with Lehmann-Haupt’s identification. The modern village of Sidekan is the same settlement Boehmer visited during his travels, but the original, older Sidekan that Lehmann-Haupt visited and recorded as a Nestorian site is located some distance away, to the west of Mudjesir (Boehmer and Fenner 1973, 519–20). Boehmer’s survey around the village of Sidekan, located east of Mudjesir on an open expanse next to the Sidekan River, yielded a large quantity of pottery. Although some later glazed Islamic wares were mixed in, the pottery mostly dated to the Iron Age, like that at Mudjesir.
Boehmer recorded two tell sites near Sidekan and an apparent tomb structure further west. Tell Bayin do Rubar and Tell Schasimann shared the typical topographic character of archaeological sites in the region, but Boehmer was only able to collect a handful of fairly undiagnostic sherds that neither confirm nor deny the site’s antiquity. In addition, he recorded the dolmen site of Huwela in the hills south of Mudjesir. Relying on the early Iron Age dating of the pottery at Mudjesir, the large column bases littering Mudjesir’s fields, the location of the Topzawa Stele on the pass down from Kelishin, and the linguistic similarity between the name Mudjesir and Muṣaṣir, Boehmer proposed Mudjesir as the location of ancient Muṣaṣir (Boehmer and Fenner 1973, 514; Boehmer 1978). Boehmer’s survey and publication of archaeological material in the area formed a foundational pillar for the Sidekan area survey. More recent archaeological fieldwork by Dlshad Zamua Marf collected material that continues to support that hypothesis (Marf 2014; 2015).
Modern Archaeology
From roughly 2012 through 2017, archaeological projects under the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) expanded significantly, with dozens of European and North American teams starting new excavations and surveys. In 2012, the KRG administration began granting archaeological permits to foreign projects in large numbers for the first time. Archaeology in Iraq proper had languished for decades under Saddam Hussein’s regime and the subsequent violence during the post-invasion insurgency following Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. Many of these permits were granted without the authority of the Iraqi central government, solely by the authority of the KRG. Because of a significantly improved security situation and a marginally more straightforward process to obtain permits, the KRG experienced a surge of archaeological prospection, with at least 45 international projects as of 2015 (Bonacossi et al. 2015). The research for this dissertation ceased after 2016, primarily due to complications in the security situation. Fortunately, four seasons of active archaeological research resulted in a drastic increase in the amount of excavated and surveyed material in the region.
Despite the lapse in foreign archaeological research for decades, local Kurdish authorities and archaeologists continued to record and excavate at-risk sites. After the First Gulf War, in 1992, Coalition forces secured the Kurds' relative autonomy in the north (O’Leary, McGarry, and Ṣāliḥ 2005, 24). Residents constructed new bureaucratic entities with this newfound authority, including tourism and archaeological administrations. The KRG created the General-Directorate of Antiquities under the Ministry of Tourism, itself under the Ministry of Municipalities. In 2012, the central KRG administration created a new Directorate of Antiquities division, located in Soran, focusing on the archaeology in Soran, far from the capital in Erbil. Since then, the Directorate, under the auspices of Abdulwahab Suleiman, conducted many investigatory and rescue excavations in the face of Soran’s rapid development. The Soran Antiquities Department excavated and surveyed at least 35 sites in the course of these investigations, with locations all around the Soran district and from periods ranging over thousands of years (Kaercher 2014).
In 2014, Kaercher, a RAP team member, analyzed the pottery in the possession of the Directorate and was able to determine dates for many of these sites. Unfortunately, many of these sites lack a clear geographic location (i.e., rely on relative landmarks to guide archaeological survey), or RAP did not have access to the more exact GPS locations. Despite this, Kaercher published the most accurate version of the locations in her article, providing a relative overview of the occupation periods observed through these sites. Interestingly, only 3 of the 35 sites date to the Bronze Age or earlier, while the vast majority are from the Iron Age (Assyrian – Parthian), with a spike in Islamic material. Both the original collection of pottery by the Antiquities Department and Kaercher’s analysis of the material are invaluable in adding to the range of ceramic types in the region. The connection between sites’ sherds and applicable excavated sites will be discussed in subsequent sections. This relative distribution mirrors the pottery collected from survey, which corroborates this general distribution, given that much of the departmental pottery originated from excavated contexts.
While RAP was the first foreign archaeological project to begin work in the Soran Directorate of Antiquities, we were soon followed by two other projects. First, a team from the University of Cambridge resumed excavations at Shanidar Cave in 2015 (Pomeroy et al. 2020). Their goal is to provide context to the original excavation of the Neanderthal skeletons by Ralph Solecki with new excavations, methodologies, and technologies. Through excavations in 2015-2019, their team unexpectedly found part of a Neanderthal skeleton that relates to Solecki’s Shanidar 5, leading to a new goal of providing a more exact terminus ante quem for Solecki’s excavation, dating the material 55,000 to 45,000 years ago (Reynolds et al. 2016; Pomeroy et al. 2020). In addition, they discovered a new Neanderthal skeleton adjacent to the infamous Shanidar 4 “flower burial” of Solecki’s excavations. This body seems to corroborate Solecki’s interpretation of a deliberate burial (Pomeroy et al. 2020, 23). As of the writing of this dissertation, their team had solely excavated Neanderthal material and has not published any findings from the later phases.
Along with the excavations at Shanidar, a team from the University of Halle, led by Claudia Beuger, began survey and limited exploratory soundings in Khalifan as part of a survey project. Their concession is the Khalifan area, the westernmost part of the Soran Directorate’s authority. The area stretches roughly to the Upper Zab River in the north, the Baradost mountains in the east, the southern extent of the Alana Su, and the border of the Harir District in the west (Beuger et al. 2015). From 2014 to 2017, the survey team, led by Claudia Beuger, surveyed 85 sites as part of their project (Beuger et al. 2018). Many of the sites share similar characteristics as sites that RAP surveyed, particularly around the Diana Plain.
Khalifan, much like Soran, lacks any large mounds (apart from Gird-i Dasht). The most common sites are fortresses, often visible on satellite imagery, with exposed architectural features. These sites, in general, do not have significant quantities of sherds, and many are modified by fortifications from the occupation of Saddam Hussein (Beuger et al. 2018, 62). Locating fortress sites through satellite imagery, as groundthruthing by the Khalifan survey and RAP’s resurvey of Boehmer’s Qalaat Mudjesir demonstrated, is often made impossible by the modern modifications that provide false positives and can hide the less visible ancient traces. At a few of the fortress sites (Hsarok, Gor Qal’at, Gird Zikhy Swasnan, for example), the wall architecture consists of “cyclopean” stone walls that the team associates with Iron Age or specifically Urartian style construction (Beuger et al. 2015; 2018). The ceramic finds do not necessarily confirm this interpretation, as a handful may be Assyrian type, but most collected fortress sherds seem to be Islamic or Ottoman. The surveyors may over-index on the architectural style and construction as a dating technique in some instances. For example, Gor Qal’at’s architecture and large stone blocks are compared to Iron Age II, despite the excavators stating the only recovered pottery dates to the Late Ottoman Period (Beuger et al. 2018, 65). While the site may have origins in the Iron Age, without sufficient ceramic indicators, one should be skeptical of such an interpretation.
The Khalifan area survey also located several cave sites, mostly around the Baradost Mountain. Interestingly, RAP did not locate any new cave sites, as the survey spent little time next to the Baradost, itself seemingly full of caves. A minimal resurvey of the Bestoon cave by their team identified an example of a typical Urartian red-burnished Palace Ware (Beuger et al. 2015, 151). The Khalifan survey also resurveyed two sites surveyed by Ralph Solecki (Shakft Garan and Shakft Au Zen) (Beuger et al. 2015, 139). In addition to the cave and fortress sites, the Khalifan survey also located sites along the river basins. At many of these sites were distinctive gravestones that date to the Ottoman period but also paralleled the human-shaped gravestone statues at Mudjesir (Boehmer and Fenner 1973, Pl. 11-14). At one of these lowland sites, Pir Wali, gravel removal had already created extensive damage to large parts of the site, so the German team laid down a few soundings to investigate the extent and chronology of the remainder of the site.
The team laid down three soundings, all in the southern extent of the site, and cleaned sections on the exposed parts of the site’s edges. None of the soundings showed any significant burning, although profile D contained a “fire-hardened” pit or kiln (Beuger et al. 2018, 71). While none of these soundings showed a large fortification wall, profile D contained a relatively well-constructed wall built into a wall construction pit. Excavators reached alluvial soil at the base of the excavation and established two main phases visible in each of the soundings. The top material is a combination of Islamic and probable Assyrian ware, possibly disturbed from earlier levels. The bottom phase, containing the architecture, was full of diagnostic sherds of Middle and Neo Assyrian types, suggesting this location was an Assyrian outpost, possibly in the province of Kirruri (Beuger et al. 2018, 73–80). A notable characteristic of the Iron Age pottery excavated at Pir Wali is the ware’s distinctive orange color (Beuger et al. 2018, 76). While the team only flagged this as a somewhat unique peculiarity, RAP’s excavations in Sidekan recovered many sherds with this distinct orange ware.
A related project in 2016, led by Tobias Helms and Tim Kerig, conducted more extensive excavations at one of the sites located as part of the Khalifan survey, Jafrakani Kon. The excavators began work at the site in part because of encroaching construction that posed a threat to the site as well as its imposing physical characteristics with its large size and terraced walls (Kerig and Helms 2018, 419–20). The site is above a small tributary that connects to the Khalan Su River, a river in the north of Khalifan that flows into the Upper Zab River. While the excavators knew from conversations with locals that the site had been used in the modern period, before abandonment in 1963 in the first Iraqi-Kurdish War, they intended to investigate lower levels to determine if earlier occupation existed, possibly in the Iron Age. With the limited 14 days of fieldwork at the site, the excavators only opened two operations, both of which defined the width and depth of retaining walls that are part of the terraces. Operation A, the more extensive area, consists of three phases, an original construction and occupation phase, a fire event that destroyed walls, and a top layer of wall collapse and with some modern squatter traces (Kerig and Helms 2018, 425–26). The bulk of the pottery is handmade and appears to be Late Islamic or Ottoman, similar to sherds Boehmer collected at Sidekan and Schkenne, in addition to two tobacco pipes (Boehmer and Fenner 1973, 483–84). Overall, the site appears to be relatively recent, although with a single Late Sasanian lid on the surface.
After the Jafrakani Kon excavations, Helms and Kerig led a small project that lightly surveyed the area around the RAP site of Gird-i Dasht and excavated a cave site, Ashkawta Rash, in the cliffs along the Balkikyan River (Kerig et al. 2019). Their report examining Gird-i Dasht corresponds with RAP’s excavated results, discussed below. Ashkawta Rash had been noted by the Soran Directorate of Antiquities, but no one had excavated the site before the team’s work there. Their excavation laid down one test trench in the center of the cave. Its upper layers contained handmade pottery and a tobacco pipe comparable to the material at Jafrakani Kon. A lower level (units 1-4) contained handmade pottery, charred material, small pits, and carbon samples. The dating of this layer ranges from the 14th-17th century CE (610 ± 30 BP, 380 ± 30 BP) (Kerig et al. 2019, 237). The lowest series of units had more burning, loose clay, handmade pottery, quartz ceramics, and a carbon sample that returned a date between 780-400 BCE (2460 ± 30), the Iron Age (Kerig et al. 2019, 238). The cave seems to have been a location for transhumant populations to take refuge but did not serve as a major storage site, like the cave of Bokadera.
While the main focus of this dissertation is on excavations and surveys in the Sidekan subdistrict, RAP also conducted a survey and excavations in the Soran district. This material, while not directly contributing to the Sidekan area’s research questions, is vital in presenting the overall archaeological and geographic situation, as well as connections between Muṣaṣir and its neighbors in the Late Bronze and Iron Ages. As described in the geography section, while the Sidekan subdistrict forms a discrete geographic region, Soran also forms a distinct unit because of the mountainous barriers on all sides. Travel between Soran and Sidekan would have been difficult in antiquity but far easier than passing over the Baradost Mountain or through the Rowanduz Gorge. While today Soran exerts political pressure over the Sidekan area, that may not have been the case in antiquity. Given the two area’s close connection, the overall RAP excavations and survey form vital links for reconstructing the chronology and characteristics of the region.
RAP Excavations & Survey
RAP excavated seven distinct sites over four seasons, three outside of the Sidekan area: Gird-i Dasht, Qalaat Lokhan, and Banahilk. Of these, Gird-i Dasht, a high mounded site in the center of the Diana Plain, is the most important for establishing the ceramic chronology in this region, given its sequence of stratified occupation. One of the original research goals of RAP was to fully excavate and uncover the ceramic sequence at Gird-i Dasht, as it is one of the only tall mounded sites for hundreds of square miles. In the west is Tell Haftun, on the Harir Plain, and to the east, Hasanlu is the most notable excavated mound, although nearby sites, Dinkha Tepe and Agrab Tepe, also help form the ceramic sequence in the region (Dyson 1959; 1960; 1965; Muscarella 1968; 1973) RAP excavated Gird-i Dasht in its inaugural season in 2013, as well as in 2014 and 2016. A full report on excavations at Gird-i Dasht is forthcoming. Topographically, Gird-i Dasht is a high oval mound approximately 180 m long northeast to southwest, and approximately 90m east to west, rising 20m above the surrounding countryside, with a low “apron” of occupation forming a lower mound to the north, west, and south. This lower town is called by the locals Gird-e Meer, although it is not technically distinct from the higher mound (Marf 2016; Kerig et al. 2019). Its total area is less than two hectares. Currently, berms of 1-2m surround the upper edges of the mound, presumably created as emplacements during the military occupation that placed an anti-aircraft gun during the 1980s.
On the mound’s eastern edge is a ramp cut into its side, running up to the mound’s top. Locals told conflicting stories about the ramp’s creation. One tale dates its construction to the 19th century, during Ottoman rule, as a path to reach an agricultural bazaar on Gird-i Dasht’s flattened top. Others date it to the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988), when the Iraqi Army set up an anti-aircraft emplacement on the site’s summit and needed access for their vehicles. Analysis of CORONA spy satellite imagery from the late 1960s and early 1970s does not clearly show a ramp, although specific visual characteristics may indicate a less defined road. The dating of the ramp is thus uncertain, but like many tales, both dates have their foundation of factual elements. Excavations at the top of the mound indicate an Iraqi military encampment and evidence of some Ottoman structure. Brief excavations at the ramp’s base (Operation 5) failed to uncover any primary archaeological occupation, indicating a relatively recent construction. Both stories may be simultaneously true, with a ramp built for Ottoman occupants, but expanded and widened in the 1980s to enable military vehicles’ travel.
RAP’s excavations consisted of five operations. Excavations at Operation 5, mentioned above, lasted only three days. Two operations, Operations 1 and 3, are on the mound’s top, while Operations 2 and 4 are on the mound’s side and lower apron, respectively. Excavations occurred in Operations 1 and 2 during the 2013 and 2014 seasons, while the 2016 season exclusively excavated Operations 3 and 4. Difficulties with digging through the thick trash layers near the mound’s edges with Operations 1 and 2 necessitated abandoning those sections for more accessible areas of the site. Operation 3’s already leveled space in the center of the mound, and Operation 4, along the low sloping gradient at the base of the mound, provided more convenient surfaces. Overall, excavations revealed considerable later material at the top of the mound, including Iran-Iraq War, Ottoman, Late Islamic, Middle Islamic, and Early Islamic remains. Excavations at the mound’s base were less conclusive, complicated by unclear stratigraphy caused by the wash from the top of the mound. A large quantity of the overall pottery excavated is similar to the non-Halaf pottery recovered in the original excavations at Gird-i Banahilk in 1952 (Previous Excavations).
First opened in 2013, Operation 1 is located at the edge of the mound, cutting through berms. The intended goal of the operation was a step trench along the sides of the mound, which would quickly reveal earlier occupation layers, but complications prevented that. One, the mound’s steep slope, made accessing the steps difficult and dangerous, and two, the mound’s exterior consisted of a series of retaining walls, apparently filled with earlier recycled material, precluding dating the walls with any accuracy. Instead, the operation expanded to 3 meters (north/south) by 4 meters (east/west), with the eastern side at the mound’s edge. Operation 1’s top phase dates to the Iran-Iraq war, with a broken concrete squatting pan toilet, traces of concrete construction, and a large collection of razor blades, many in their original packaging, manufactured in the former country of Czechoslovakia.
Excavating through the modern remains revealed a crude pavement and poorly preserved footings of a room, with corresponding ceramics dating to the Middle or Late Islamic Periods (1000-1400 CE or 1400-1800 CE). At the trench’s western side was an accumulation of stone, three courses high, laying against an outer facing, forming a likely retaining wall as part of a terrace over past remains. Excavating below the wall revealed a corresponding floor, approximately 1.6 m below the mound’s surface. Charcoal from the surface dates from 985-1154 CE (two-sigma range), placing the occupation either within the Uqaylid (990-1096 CE) or the Seljk/early Zinjid Periods (1016-1153 CE). The outer retaining wall, set out in a herringbone pattern, did not continue into the southern balk and only continued approximately 2m to the north. Removing some of the stones revealed stones placed in a sloping fashion, apparently to support the upper retaining wall. Locating a lower course of the wall became dangerous with the mound’s steep slope. Excavations to the south and west of the trench, conducted in 2014, uncovered a room roughly two square meters in size, with a small hearth in the middle. The room may have been used as part of a complex to watch over the approach to the mound. One object, a “Poppy head” pipe bowl found in the room’s upper fill, compares to a similar one found at Khirbet Deir Situn, near Mosul, and said to date to the 18th century CE. Overall, this trench suggested extensive modifications to the outer edge of the mound, with occupations in the Iran-Iraq war and the Ottoman period and traces pointing to an earlier occupation.
To investigate these later phases without the difficulty of the altered stratigraphy caused by exterior mound modifications, we opened Operation 3, in 2016, at another section of the mound’s top. Measuring 5 x 5 m, the excavations in Operation 3 reached almost 4 m below the mound’s surface at points, with access made possible by a wheelbarrow ramp constructed in the northwestern corner. The earliest phase contains a curving stone wall with three courses exposed ca. 3.5 m below the surface and a small tannur abutting its inner face. A small amount of associated pottery suggests dates either in the late Early Islamic (800-1000 CE) or early Middle Islamic Periods. Above this phase was a floor constructed of pebbles with a wall built on top of it, located in the northwest corner. While the balk made uncovering the extent of the wall impossible in 2016, a layer of flat stone lay roughly at the height of the wall, possibly indicating an earlier pavement. Pottery associated with the wall and pebble floor indicates a Middle Islamic date.
The latest architectural remains consist of two buildings, Building 1 in the southwestern portion of the excavation and Building 2 in the southeast. Building 2’s wall was preserved only one course high, providing little material for analysis. Building 1 was the northeastern corner of a room, with a wall 70 cm thick and 7-8 courses high. The interior space of Building 1 consisted of two phases of floors, with a small stone feature abutting the eastern wall, measuring roughly 60 cm x 60 cm. Stone walls formed a box, postulated as a grain bin. The later floor in the room’s interior was made of a white gypsum surface. A well-constructed stone pavement abutted Building 1’s northern exterior wall. The pavement sloped sharply downwards to the west and was cut away about halfway through the trench. In the fill of the cut that removed the pavement was a filling of a homogenous light brown soil containing almost no pottery. Large pits from later occupation pocketed the pavement and other nearby features. The western portion of the trench contained a thick band of homogenous clay like that at the trench’s eastern edge, laid upon a reddish-brown plaster layer and the white gypsum plaster described above. Associated pottery with this phase supports an Ottoman date. Much like Operation 1, the upper phase of the trench contained detritus from soldiers fighting in the Iran-Iraq War. The stratigraphy indicates a trash pit running east-west with wires running north to south through the excavation. Excavations revealed large quantities of trash, including a wrapper of a chicken imported from Brazil, dated to 1985, providing the upper phase an extremely secure dating.
Given the concentration of later Islamic material on the top of the mound, we deemed it necessary to excavate the site’s sides to reveal the full span of occupation. Unfortunately, the middle of the occupation, between the lowest levels of Operation 3 and the highest levels of Operation 2, on the mound’s slope, is still unknown. Operation 2 was opened in 2013 as a small 2x2 m test trench on the mound’s northwest edge, positioned along the mound’s contours, postulated as an early fortification wall. Limited excavation in 2013 revealed a hard, brick-like platform not far below the mound’s surface. Further expanding the trench in 2014 uncovered a more complex relationship, with a foundation trench filled with rounded river pebbles to the east of the bricky platform. The brick platform is similar to the clay around Gird-i Dasht, as evidenced in Operation 4 to the south. Its consistency suggests an original foundation with a melted wall on top, wholly disarticulated over millennia of rain and erosion. Painted and plain Khabur ware was plentiful on top of this platform, providing a post-date of the wall in the Middle Bronze Age (Oguchi 1997; Oguchi et al. 2006). Additional miscellaneous sherds in secondary context are of the “Painted Orange Ware” type, characteristic of the Early Bronze Age in the 3rd millennium BCE (Danti, Voigt, and Dyson 2004). The wall and platform may date to the Early Bronze Age or before, but excavations in that area did not reveal conclusive evidence.
As an attempt to understand the early phases at the site, the team laid down a fourth trench, Operation 4, in 2016, on the low “apron” of the mound to the south. Measuring 5x5 m, the trench reached sterile soil approximately 2m below the surface. The plow zone extends 40cm below the surface, under which are two main occupation phases. The earlier phase consisted of pits dug into the sterile soil, filled in mainly with ceramics from the Early and Middle Islamic Periods, notably with a nearly complete black on a white glazed bowl, comparable to an example at Nishapur (The Metropolitan Museum of Art 2018). The pit also included some earlier pottery, like the Painted Orange Ware in Operation 2. A layer of rocks sealed the pits. The second, later, occupation phase consisted mainly of a series of five tannurs and ashy deposits, post-dating the earlier pits. Ceramics from this phase consisted of the Early and Middle Islamic types, as well as Ottoman pottery and pipe stems, glass bracelets, and iron nails. Despite the original hypothesis that this portion of the lower mound contained part of a larger, lower town, the excavation suggests this area was outside of the city. Jorg Fassbinder and his team from Bayerisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege, Munich, conducted geomagnetic surveys on the mound’s eastern apron over the modern road to the top of the site. Large quantities of metal made the geomagnetic survey difficult and added noise to the results. The conclusions of the geomagnetic survey in this area and other sections of the small nearby hillock were inconclusive, although they indicated possible structures and roads between the magnetic signatures. A large lower town is still possible, and while further excavations are needed to support that conclusion, the excavations in Operation 4 make the existence of substantial occupation unlikely.
Along with excavations at Gird-i Dasht, I surveyed the immediate surroundings of the mound, collecting pottery in order to add chronological range to the occupation and to determine if there was an off-site occupation. During 2013, I collected ~350 sherds from the direct environs of Gird-i Dasht. Combined with 73 sherds the Directorate collected, this collection of ceramics revealed a long period of occupation (Kaercher 2014). Some of the latest sherds date to the 13th-14th century CE, a buff fabric with a green glaze, the so-called Geruz Ware, aligning well with the date of the excavated material above (Danti 2004). Eight sherds are a lightly tempered white fabric, with two handles and one fragmentary spouted sherd. These are comparable to Sassanian Period wares and shapes (700-1000 CE). About thirty sherds dated to the Iron Age, and twelve handles with incised designs mirror the sherds the Directorate excavated at the nearby cave of Bokadera, providing evidence for Iron Age occupation at both sites. Twenty-two pieces have wavy and straight-lined combed impressions, comparable to the material at Khirbet Qasrij (Curtis 1989, pl. 42, No. 229). In addition, five sherds resemble a Gray Ware typical to Hasanlu, on the other side of the Zagros Mountains in northwestern Iran (Danti 2013, 187–205). Originating from an earlier period, we collected four sherds of the distinctive Khabur Ware. It is a buff ware, usually with reddish or reddish-brown paint in geometric designs, on a reddish ware background, highly diagnostic for the Middle Bronze Age (2000-1700 BCE) (Oguchi et al. 2006). Three chaff-faced buff ware sherds, dating to an earlier period, have incised lines with comparanda in EPAS, dating to the Early Bronze Age. These sherds help form the ceramic sequence in the area and connect to the full analysis of survey pottery (Chapter 5). The German survey team visited Gird-i Dasht in October 2018 and collected additional pottery during their survey. Their pottery largely corresponds with our original dating: Bronze Age, Iron Age, Sassanian, and Islamic Period pottery (Kerig et al. 2019, 236)
Regarding the distribution of pottery around the site, much of the collection had poor spatial control, but the sherds’ general locations help add to the understanding of Gird-i Dasht’s place on the landscape. Most of the pottery collected came directly from the sides of the mound or immediately adjacent to it. Topographically, Gird-i Dasht’s steep sides quickly even out to a low-sloped apron visible only from certain angles and in mapping data. An early theory proposed that this lower apron was an old lower town around the central higher mound. As the excavations in Operation 4 revealed, the apron consists mainly of wash from the high mound and limited Islamic occupation. The unique characteristics of Khabur Ware aid in connecting the excavation and surveyed material. The Khabur Ware in Operation 2, mentioned above, connects stratigraphically to the modern surface of the apron wrapped around the mound. At least one of the Khabur Ware sherds was recovered from the opposite side of the mound, showing that the Bronze Age occupation at least spanned the entirety of the mound. Pottery off the apron quickly tapered off to near nothing, but there is one nearby off-site feature of note. To the southwest of the mound is a small hillock with a spring flowing. Today, this is a central gathering point for local agriculturalists and animals alike. Limited conversations with some of the older visitors of the spring recounted a tale of an ancient tablet at the spring’s outlet and of a long aqueduct that brought the water from miles away. While the spring did contain multiple stones constructed together, creating a square box, none of these had any markings that would imply an ancient tablet. Further, looking into the spring did not suggest it continued a far distance through an aqueduct, although that idea was raised by local informants. Despite this, surveying the small hillock above the spring located a large cluster of pottery, mostly dating to the later Islamic periods. This pottery bunch could imply the earlier existence of some structure. Apart from the spring, the area around Gird-i Dasht did not reveal any notable features.
Other excavations by RAP revealed the archaeological background of Soran during the Ottoman and Sorani Emirate periods. As part of excavations of an at-risk site, requested by the qaimaqam of Rowanduz, RAP excavated the small fort site of Qalaat Lokhan near Rowanduz. The beginning construction phases of a new museum on the site uncovered and damaged part of the building, leading to an archaeological assessment. Located to the north of Rowanduz, overlooking the small village of Kaw Lokhan, the fort is on a rocky spur guarding the ascent into Rowanduz from the intersection of the three nearby rivers. Today, the modern Rowanduz road winds up the hillside, with Qalaat Lokhan nestled between two sections of that road. Two recently reconstructed watchtowers are to the east and west of the surrounding gorge. The Sorani Emirate castle of Eichqalaat/Qalaat Pasha Kor is to the north and clearly visible from Qalaat Lokhan. When visiting the area, Masters (1954, 13) described the fortresses and the surroundings: “a ruined fortress of this leader [Mir Mohammad] is to be seen a short distance north of the town, and his descendants, the House of Ismail Beg, still own much of its property.” A viewshed analysis in ArcGIS showed clear sightlines to monitor the northern advances into Rowanduz, from the hills around Soran and the Rowanduz River, in addition to obvious and unobstructed views of Qalaat Pasha Kor.
The site of Qalaat Lokhan is primarily a single building, 0.1 hectare in area and about 2.5 m tall. Small linear features around the site may correspond to degraded mudbrick walls. The excavation produced a topographic plan and excavated three small soundings. Operations 1-2 were on an exposed masonry corner of the building in an attempt to understand the architecture, date the structure, and determine the building’s function, in addition to assessing any damage. The operations exposed the southeast corner of the building, constructed with roughly dressed and locally obtained limestone. Excavations also revealed a small section of the interior, including less than a meter of the floor. Glazed ceramics and pipes in one phase indicate a date from the Safavid to the early Sorani Emirate/Ottoman Period (1501-1736). The latest occupation extends to the late Ottoman period, with an excavated coin dating to 1840 CE. Enough evidence arose in the excavations to confirm its function as a fort and guard post.
To test the extent and historical depth of the site, RAP placed Operation 3 on the lower section of the site, some distance away. This 2 x 2 m test trench recovered mainly Late Islamic and Ottoman material in trash midden combined faunal remains in an ashy matrix. Bedrock is 55-75 cm below the surface, delimiting the chronological extent of the site. In addition, the lack of architectural features relatively close to the main building’s standing walls indicates the limited horizontal extent of the site. Much of the diagnostic pottery from this rescue excavation is comparable to that at the excavation of Jafrakani Kon (Kerig and Helms 2018). While both sites have tobacco pipes, the quality of the pipe at Qalaat Lokhan, as well as the number of fine goods and its proximity to Muhammad Kor’s capital, suggest more elite usage of this site. Jafrakani Kon is a far more elaborate site, with multiple terraces, while Qalaat Lokhan was clearly intended mainly as a defensive position (Kerig and Helms 2018, 429). The excavation at Qalaat Lokhan established its probable role as part of a complex system of control and monitoring of the area during the height of the Sorani Emirate.
A third excavation in Soran involved returning to Patty Jo Watson and the Jarmo Project’s excavations at Gird-i Banahilk in 2014. The impetus for the return was salvage excavations precipitated by home construction at the hill’s top. Abudulwahab Soleiman, Director of Soran Department of Antiquities, requested RAP’s assistance in identifying the impact of recent construction and determining the extent of remaining archaeological deposits. Unfortunately, development in the past decades obscured the original topographic characteristics of the mound, forcing us to guess the exact positioning of the original trenches. A major arterial road encircles the northern portion of the hill, and construction, assisted by bulldozers and other heavy equipment, flattened the top of the mound. Currently, only the mound’s eastern slope remains, and the exact position of the overall mound is uncertain (Kaercher and Sharp 2018).
RAP placed a single 3 x 4 m sounding on the northeastern edge of the mound, some distance away from the most recent construction and parallel to a cement-block wall encircling a nearby orchard. The trench reached a depth of three meters, with the lowest consisting of a compacted Halaf Period living surface. The only architectural feature was a collection of small stones, aligned in a rectangle, associated with ceramics, animal bones, and stone tools, located on the floor of the lowest phase. The occupation consists of three phases. Phase 1, the earliest, is on the original sterile soil surface and is defined by a layer of compact reddish clay, possibly containing degraded original tauf construction. The ceramics in this phase are completely Halaf, except for two Hassuna sherds.
Phase 2 is a series of compact soil floors, suggesting living surfaces. A series of stone footings with compacted mud above it may indicate a wall, but the degradation makes a conclusive identification impossible. This phase’s assemblage also consisted predominantly of Halaf sherds, with a notable concentration of lithics and bones lower in the phase. Phase 3 is the highest occupation phase, consisting of topsoil and a lower brown soil with artifacts. Like the original 1954 excavations in Trench A, this top phase contained later non-Halaf pottery from the Bronze and Iron Age, mixed with a small quantity of Halaf pottery. The reasons for this ceramic mixture are still uncertain and would require further horizontal expansion of the excavation. Overall, compared to Watson’s original excavation, the 2014 Gird-i Banahilk excavation largely confirmed the initial results, working with a much smaller excavated area.
Concurrently with RAP’s excavations, I surveyed an area of Soran. The dissertation focuses specifically on the Sidekan subdistrict, but I recorded additional sites in the Rowanduz district and Diana subdistrict of Soran. Since the time of the survey, the Rowanduz district was separated from the Soran district, and the exact division of those sites is not clear from my data. Sixteen sites in the survey are in the Diana subdistrict and Rowanduz district, with one additional site on the border with the Mergasur district. The Soran Department of Antiquities and the Atlas of Archaeological Sites of Iraq (a.k.a. “Atlas of Iraq”) served as the foundation of knowledge regarding existing sites in the region (Salman 1976). Twenty-one sites from the Atlas of Iraq fall within RAP’s survey boundaries, twelve of which were provided names. Of the sites in the Atlas of Iraq, RAP either excavated or surveyed Gird-i Dbora, Gird-i Dasht, and Gird-i Banahilk. Another site, Malayan, is located nearby Gird-i Dasht on the Diana Plain, but a fence prevented pedestrian survey of the site, although Zettler and Danti briefly surveyed the small mound in 2012. An additional three sites to the south of Rowanduz, Gird-i Raza, Ashoot Kelee Kharand, and Kharob Beth Horab, were nearby sites surveyed by RAP and may possibly be associated with our RAP designations.
Two of the named sites, Hawdian and Diana caves, were excavated by Fuad Safar, described in the preceding Previous Archaeology section. Another cave site, Koyespi Cave, was mentioned in passing by Hamilton in his discourse of the road’s construction along the Dergala Gorge towards Iran. Two other named sites, Qalat Barda Biana and Gird-i Lakotan, are located on the western and eastern edges of the Diana Plain, respectively, but we did not locate their modern positions. The remaining unnamed sites were not located. A brief survey of Gird-i Dbora in 2016 by myself and Abdulwahab Suleiman recovered 18 sherds, with three diagnostic sherds. This limited dataset, combined with three sherds from the Antiquities Department's previous collection, may suggest a Late Bronze, Iron Age, or Islamic date, but the paucity of diagnostic sherds cannot provide any confirmation of that fact. Compared to other regions, the Archaeological Atlas of Iraq presented little information about this region’s occupation, with the few mapped sites largely centered around the Diana Plain or caves nearby the Rowanduz River. Unfortunately, the sites on the Diana Plain, and the Soran district overall, are threatened or already destroyed by the encroaching development around Soran and Rowanduz.
Overall, the recorded sites in Soran with pottery sufficient for dating skew later, to the Islamic and Ottoman periods. Interestingly, pottery comparable to that in the excavations in Operation 2 at Gird-i Dasht does not appear apart from collections in its immediate environs gathered during survey. The earliest occupation of these sites is at Gird-i Khiwet, tentatively indicated by handmade ceramics with chaff temper, along with a stone pestle (Kaercher 2014, 74). Apart from the excavated Halaf style pottery at Gird-i Banahilk and Bronze Age ceramics at Gird-i Dasht, the next earliest material dates to the Iron Age, from the Department’s rescue excavations and survey around Gird-i Dasht. Later Islamic pottery spans across the surveyed and excavated areas of Soran.
Survey sites recorded by RAP are either located through a more intensive pedestrian survey or located with the assistance of local authorities and guides. Pedestrian excursions from our dig house in 2013 located eight sites in the Handrin Valley, south of Rowanduz town, an inventory of which is included in the Survey Gazetteer in Appendix B. A near-complete lack of accompanying ceramics does not provide a date for these sites, but a limited collection indicates late occupation, most likely Ottoman. One site, Qalaat Zerr (RAP09), is perched on a stone promontory, overlooking the southern route from the Rania Plain; it contained a series of stone walls, preserved more than a half meter high in places. Its name derives from the locals’ belief that Saddam Hussein buried his gold on its peak. Its use as a military fortification during Saddam’s era is confirmed by military detritus, though buried gold is unlikely given the height of the bedrock there. The remainder of the sites in the area are similar, with less topographically intriguing locations. Sites in the Handrin valley were limited to small standing walls, their antiquity questionable, and one site uncovered by construction, revealing a small wall. Outside of the Handrin valley, local authorities or informants led to the remainder of the sites. Only one, Gund-i Hawdian (RAP38), was located without previous intelligence. Located on the road near Hawdian in a relatively old road cut, the site consists of 15m of occupation, with a decent collection of pottery. We collected ten sherds with a notable lid and decorated body indicating an Islamic date.
Locating sites is useful not only for dating the area but also for understanding the utilization and adaptation of the landscape’s topography. One site, Qalaat Kani Sukkar (RAP39), is located on the border with the Mergasur subdistrict. Conversations with nearby villagers directed the team to an old fortress high on the nearby mountain. Its dating is unknown since it only provided a handful of generic body sherds and brick fragments. At the peak of the mountain, 300 m above our starting point in the village, was a small stone watchtower, with architecture that appears to be relatively modern but certainly predated the Iran-Iraq War. In Hamilton’s account of the area, he lists and describes the police and military towers along this valley but does not mention this location. In all probability, it dates to the Ottoman or Sorani Emirate periods as a position to monitor much of the valley. Without further investigation of surrounding hillsides, it is impossible to know whether this tower was part of a more extensive system, but it bears similarities to the watchtowers surrounding Qalaat Lokhan, which at least circumstantially suggests its role as part of the Sorani Emirate network. The trek to the mountain’s peak did reveal a series of terraces, hundreds of meters higher than the surrounding valley. The most extensive terrace is located 100m below the watchtower and the peak, perhaps suggesting a more accessible agricultural production zone for the residents of the watchtower.