Back to Shemshara. A new NINO project in northern Iraq
| Datum | donderdag 24 januari 2013 |
|---|---|
| Tijd | 15:00 – 16:00 uur |
| Faculteit | Geesteswetenschappen |
| Locatie | Rijksmuseum van Oudheden |
Lezing georganiseerd door het Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten (NINO) i.s.m. RMO.
Spreker: Dr. Jesper Eidem (directeur NINO)
In 1957 Danish archaeologists briefly excavated the site of Tell Shemshara, located in the Rania Plain in northeastern Iraq, close to a strategic pass leading into the Zagros mountains on the border between Iraq and Iran. Among the finds was an archive of cuneiform tablets from the early second millennium BC, which remains to this day the major source for the early history of the region.
In 1958-9 Iraqi archaeologists did further work at Shemshara, but subsequently the site was partially flooded by the artificial Dokan Lake. This situation and decades of political unrest in northeastern Iraq prevented further exploration.
In recent years, however, archaeologists from many countries have returned to the region, and Leiden University alone is represented in two different projects. In 2012 NINO also decided to initiate a field project here – and to return to Tell Shemshara, an important site, which was never fully investigated. The lecture will present some of the results from the first short season in September-October 2012.