EXCAVATIONS AT KURD QABURSTAN, A SECOND MILLENNIUMb.c. URBAN SITE ON THE ERBIL PLAIN

Abstract

Excavations at the 109 hectare site of Kurd Qaburstan on the Erbil plain in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq were conducted by the Johns Hopkins University in 2013 and 2014. The Middle Bronze Age (Old Babylonian period) is the main period of occupation evident on the site, and the project therefore aims to study the character of a north Mesopotamian urban centre of the early second millennium b.c. On the high mound, excavations revealed three phases of Mittani (Late Bronze) period occupation, including evidence of elite residential architecture. On the low mound and the south slope of the high mound, Middle Bronze evidence included domestic remains with numerous ceramic vessels left in situ. Also dating to the Middle Bronze period is evidence of a city wall on the site edges. Later occupations include a cemetery, perhaps of Achaemenid date, on the south slope of the high mound and a Middle Islamic settlement on the southern lower town. Faunal and archaeobotanical analysis provide information on the plant and animal economy of the second millennium b.c. occupations, and geophysical results have documented a thirty-one hectare expanse of dense Middle Bronze Age architecture in the northern lower town.

Kurd Qaburstan on the Erbil Plain: Field Research 2016–2017

“…In general, the Kurd Qaburstan MB assemblage seems relatively uniform, without conspicuous differences between phases or between excavation areas. Since there are many parallels between the assemblage and pottery from Mari and Leilan in the era of Shamshi-Adad and Zimrilim (see Schwartz et al 2017 and notes here), a date in the middle MB seems likely.…”

“…In 2017, the geophysics team continued magnetometer survey on the lower town of Kurd Qaburstan to investigate the urban structure, to learn how the city grew, and to identify possible evidence for destruction such as burning. 4 Most of the evidence dates to the Middle Bronze Age, since the majority of the latest occupation on the lower town belongs to that era (Schwartz et al 2017). We surveyed 17 hectares with a Bartington Grad 601-2 Magnetic Gradiometer, bringing our total coverage to 51 ha of the 95-ha city.…”

“…MB contexts were also accessible below the modern site surface on the Lower Town North, and excavations were initiated in 2017 to expand the MB exposure in this area. In 2014, excavations in trench 4870/3217 on the Lower Town North A had identified two Middle Bronze phases now designated 1 (later) and 2 (earlier) (Schwartz et al 2017). Phase 2 (Fig.…”

“…1 A walled city of c. 95 hectares in the Middle Bronze Age (c. 2000Age (c. -1600, Kurd Qaburstan is one of the largest Bronze Age archaeological sites in the region of Erbil (Figs. 2-3) (Schwartz et al 2017;Ur et al 2021). 2 Because its main period of occupation was Middle Bronze, it has been proposed that Kurd Qaburstan was ancient Qabra, capital of the Erbil area in the Middle Bronze period (Ur et al 2013).…”

Integrating Satellite, UAV, and Ground-Based Remote Sensing in Archaeology: An Exploration of Pre-Modern Land Use in Northeastern Iraq

“…Ground-based geophysics, especially magnetic gradiometry (magnetometry), is a popular and effective tool for documenting a wide range of subsurface archaeological features, and has been used widely at sites in Europe (e.g., [62]), North America (e.g., [63,64]), and Southwest Asia (e.g., [65][66][67][68][69]). Although Kvamme [70] has long advocated for the use of terrestrial geophysics as a means of "landscape archaeology," i.e., exploring off-site areas, it has rarely been employed in this manner.…”