A large Bronze Age city was discovered in Northern Iraq, close to the town of Dohuk. The research team conducting the excavation to discover the ancient civilization proved that the settlement, now home to a small Kurdish village, was built approximately around 3000 BC, and developed for more than 1,200 years.
The study was conducted by archeologists from the Institute for Ancient Near Eastern Studies (IANES) at the University of Tübingen. Settlement layers were also found dating from the period of the Akkadian Empire, which is roughly 2340 - 2200 BC and is considered to be the very first empire in our human history.
Majestic Ancient Discovery
The study was led by professor Peter Pfälzner from the University of Tübingen and Dr. Hasan Qasim from the Directorate of Antiquities in Dohuk, who supervised the Bassetki excavation in 2016 from August to October. Consequently, the two scientists had the chance to preempt the construction on the Iraqi land.
Among the discoveries made during the excavation, perhaps one of the most important was the defense wall — constructed on the upper side of the town, dating from roughly 2700 BC, whose main purpose was to protect the citizens of the settlement from invaders.
There were also massive stone structures dating approximately 1800 BC, along with cuneiform tablets from roughly 1300 BC, which indicate that there was a temple where Adad — a Mesopotamian weather god — was worshipped.
All, from residential districts to a road network and a cemetery, was part of this ancient civilization, whose residents were connected to the neighboring location of Mesopotamia and Anatolia via an overland road way.
The excavation site is about 27 miles away from an IS territory, which allowed the investigation to be possible without disturbances. According to one of the professors, the most important value to be taken into consideration during the archeological excavations is the security of the people involved.
During the excavations, the team of researchers, which was composed of no less than 30 people, lived in Dohuk — a town that is only 37 miles north of Mosul.
The Village of Bassetki
Bassetki, where the archeological site was found, is mainly popular for the statue discovered there in 1975, purely by mistake. The statue dates from approximately 2250 BC, and its recent history is not eventless. In 2013, during the Iraq war, it was stolen from the National Museum in the capital city, but returned after it was discovered by U.S. soldiers.
