After years of severe drought, a city dating back to the Bronze Age has been discovered in an Iraqi river

 

The ancient city was a Mittani Empire stronghold at one point.

 

Archaeologists rushed to unearth a 3,400-year-old city in northern Iraq after a severe drought prompted it to reappear from a reservoir on the Tigris River.

 

The Mittani (sometimes written Mitanni) was a northern Mesopotamian kingdom that reigned from roughly 1500 B.C. to 1350 B.C. over sections of north Mesopotamia, where the Bronze Age city of Kemune can be found. Droughts allow researchers to explore the town's ruins, which they have known about for years.

 

According to a recent report by Live Science, in 2018, archaeologists conducted some excavations at Kemune and uncovered a vanished palace. The palace had walls 22 feet high (7 meters), and chambers decked in painted murals. According to a statement (opens in new tab) issued by the University of Tübingen in Germany, researchers mapped the majority of the city this time, including an industrial complex and a multistory storage facility that likely held items from all around the region.

 

In the statement, Hasan Qasim, an archaeologist who worked on the site and the chairman of the Kurdistan Archaeology Organization, said in the view that the results of the excavation show that the site was an important center in the Mittani Empire. "The excavation results show that the site was an important center in the Mittani Empire,"

 

Ivana Puljiz, a junior professor of ancient Near Eastern archaeology at the University of Freiburg in Germany who also worked on the excavation, told Live Science in an email that Kemune is the only known urban center from the Mittani Empire located directly on the Tigris River. This finding suggests that the city controlled crossings at this part of the waterway, which may have also been an important connecting point for the empire. Kemune is the Mittani Empire's only known urban center located directly on the river.

 

An earthquake most likely leveled a large portion of the city; nonetheless, parts of the city's ruins have been preserved underneath crumbling walls. According to Puljiz, archaeologists were aware of Kemune when the site was flooded with water by humans during the construction of the Mosul Dam in the 1980s. However, they had not studied the area at that time.

 

Researchers made a rediscovery of Kemune in the year 2010. Still, they could not begin excavations until the reservoir's water level dropped sufficiently due to the severe drought that occurred in 2018. According to the statement, they had a second chance to examine the city in 2022 because Iraq needed to use the reservoir's water to prevent crops from drying out and failing during another severe drought. Iraq is heavily impacted by climate change, so the water level in the reservoir was low enough for them to do so again.

 

Archaeologists rapidly assembled Kemune from Kurdistan and Germany after deciding to study Kemune. They moved quickly to the site during January and February since they did not know when the water might return. More than one hundred clay tablets dating back to the Middle Assyrian period were discovered by the crew while exploring the remains at Mittani (from around 1365 B.C.).

 

The Assyrians established a new settlement at Kemune shortly after the Mittani Empire fell. Their tablets may have contained texts that discussed the transition from one empire to another. Puljiz stated that at this time, "We do not yet know what is written in the texts." However, we are keeping our fingers crossed that they will reveal information regarding the beginning of Assyrian sovereignty in the area.

 

When the reservoir level increased in February, it caused several archaeologists' trenches to flood. To prevent the city from deteriorating anymore, they covered the structures with plastic sheets and then covered the plastic sheets with gravel. Researchers are unsure of when they will be able to return to Kemune because the island is once again entirely submerged in water.

 

Puljiz stated that it is impossible to tell when the location will become accessible again. "It may become clear as soon as this summer, or it may not become clear until a few years from now."

 

 

Article source : https://www.livescience.com/ancient-city-in-iraq-emerges-after-drought

Image source : https://pixabay.com/id/photos/suriah-timur-tengah-peta-bola-dunia-1034467/