Urartu is a geographical region commonly used as the exonym for the Iron Age kingdom also known by the modern rendition of its endonym, the Kingdom of Van, centered around Lake Van in the historic Armenian Highlands. The kingdom rose to power in the mid-9th century BC, but went into gradual decline and was eventually conquered by the Iranian Medes in the early …
Read More »Lost city mystery solved as archaeologists decipher ancient clay tablets
The discovery of clay tablets in Iraqi Kurdistan has helped archaeologists unlock the mystery of an ancient lost city. The 92 clay tablets were unearthed last summer by archaeologists from Germany’s University of Tübingen during an excavation in the village of Bassetki. Stored in a pottery vessel and wrapped with …
Read More »The Skeletons of Shanidar Cave
A rare cache of hominid fossils from the Kurdistan area of northern Iraq offers a window on Neanderthal culture 1- in 1856, laborers working in a limestone quarry in the Neander Valley near Düsseldorf, Germany, dug up some unusual-looking bones. Subsequent study revealed that they belonged to a previously unknown …
Read More »Iraq’s Drought Exposed a 3,400-Year-Old Palace From the Mittani Empire
A team of German and Kurdish archaeologists have discovered a 3,400-year-old palace that belonged to the mysterious Mittani Empire, the University of Tübingen announced on Thursday. The discovery was only made possible by a drought that significantly reduced water levels in the Mosul Dam reservoir. “The find is one of the …
Read More »ANCIENT MYTHOLOGY AND KURDS. ARARAT OR JUDY?
Latif Mammad The Kurds, as the ancient inhabitants of Mesopotamia, are directly related to the spiritual heritage that had been accumulating for thousands of years, enriched and subsequently flowed into the spiritual treasury of humanity. The Kurdish people,during a long human evolution, as a genetic guide and a living book, …
Read More »History on a hill
As the world’s earliest known civilization developed in Mesopotamia…as Genghis Khan worked to create the largest contiguous land empire in history…as the Ottomans occupied European and Asian lands for nearly 600 years…each empire had one thing in common. They all set up camp on a small plot of land in …
Read More »ERBIL CITADEL
ERBIL CITADEL The Erbil Citadel is a fortified settlement on top of a 20-30 meter high tell. It has a long settlement history, dating back to at least the Chalcolithic period and gaining prominence as Arbela during the Assyrian period. The citadel is uninhabited since 2006 and undergoing reconstructions. …
Read More »