(CNN) – A sprawling 3,400-year-old city arose in Iraq after extreme drought caused water levels at a reservoir to drop rapidly.
Kurdish and German archaeologists excavated the settlement in the Mosul Reservoir along the Tigris River in the Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq in January and February. The project was implemented in partnership with the Directorate of Antiquities and Heritage in Duhok to preserve the cultural heritage of the region for future generations.
The archaeological site of Kemune is believed to be the Bronze Age city of Zakhiku, an important center of the Mittani Empire that lived from 1550 to 1350 BC. reigned. The kingdom’s territory stretched from the Mediterranean to northern Iraq, according to Ivana Puljiz, an assistant professor at the Institute for Near Eastern Archeology and Assyriology at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau and one of the project leaders.
A race against time
Zakhiku was submerged under water after the Iraqi government built the Mosul High Dam in the 1980s and has rarely seen the light of day since.
After Puljiz heard that the city had resurfaced, her team rushed to excavate the site as it was unknown when the water level would rise again.
“Because of the tremendous time pressure, we dug in sub-zero temperatures, snow, hail, rain, even storms and the occasional sunny day, not knowing when the waters would rise again and how much time we would have,” Puljiz said.
The ancient city is now underwater again, but researchers have been able to catalog much of the site.
A palace was already documented when the city briefly surfaced in 2018, but several additional structures have been documented during recent excavations. Some of the discoveries include a fortress with towers and walls, and a storehouse several stories high.
Many of the structures were made of sun-dried adobe, which would not normally hold up well underwater, the researchers said. However, Zakhiku suffered around 1350 BC. under an earthquake, and parts of the upper walls collapsed, covering the buildings.
preserve the past
Little is known about the ancient Mittani people who built the city, largely due to the fact that researchers have not identified the empire’s capital or discovered its archives, Puljiz said. However, certain artifacts unearthed during recent excavations may provide a glimpse.
Archaeologists found five pottery vessels containing over 100 clay cuneiform tablets made shortly after the earthquake event. They probably date from the Middle Assyrian period, which is from 1350 to 1100 BC. and may shed light on the city’s fall and the rise of Assyrian rule in the region, according to a press release.
“It borders on a miracle that cuneiform tablets made of unfired clay have survived so many decades under water,” said Peter Pfälzner, professor of Near Eastern Archeology at the University of Tübingen and one of the excavation leaders, in a statement.
The tablets have not yet been deciphered, but Puljiz suspected they belonged to a private archive.
“I am excited to see what the study of the cuneiform texts will reveal next about the fate of the city and its residents after the devastating earthquake,” she said.
All the excavated artifacts, including the tablets, are kept in the Duhok National Museum.
Before the city disappeared under the water again, researchers covered the ruins with tight-fitting sheets of plastic held in place with rocks and gravel. Puljiz hopes these measures will protect the ancient site from water erosion and prevent it from disappearing entirely.