(University of Tübingen)
Iraq is among the countries facing the direst consequences of climate change.(Old Submerged City) Since early 2021, the West Asian nation has been experiencing a drought crisis, which has been exacerbated by climate change-induced spikes in temperatures and record drops in rainfall.
Since December 2021, the southern regions of Iraq have been drawing large amounts of water from the Mosul reservoir — the country’s most important water storage — to prevent their crops from drying out. And these drastic measures indirectly led to a shocking find, as the waterbody’s falling water levels coughed up an ancient, submerged city!
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This 3,400-year-old city could be the ancient Zakhiku — an important centre in the Mittani Empire (ca. 1550–1350 BC), which controlled large parts of northern Mesopotamia and Syria. Once located on the Tigris River, it was recently found at modern-day Kemune, an archaeological site based in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
(University of Tübingen)
Its sudden reappearance, coupled with the possibility of its re-submergence once the water levels rise again, created a high-pressure scenario for the researchers. Therefore, spontaneous rescue excavations were jointly undertaken by a team of German and Kurdish archaeologists in January and February 2022, in what was a race against time to document this Bronze Age city.
Thankfully, the mapping process was completed within a short time. It ended up uncovering several large structures: a monumental multi-story storage building, a massive fortification with walls and towers, an industrial complex, and a palace that had previously been documented during a short campaign in 2018.
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The team was particularly stunned by the well-preserved state of the storage building’s walls, considering it lasted through more than four decades of being underwater despite being made of sun-dried mud bricks. This unbelievable preservation was probably down to a 1350 BC earthquake, which collapsed the upper parts of the walls and buried the buildings in a shielded manner.
(University of Tübingen)
More underwater survivors, and perhaps the most interesting finds of this excavation, are the five ceramic vessels that contained an archive of over 100 cuneiform tablets from the Middle Assyrian period. Some of the tablets, which may be letters, were found inside their clay envelopes!
“It is close to a miracle that cuneiform tablets made of unfired clay survived so many decades under water,” remarked Peter Pfälzner, a German archaeologist from the University of Tübingen who co-led the excavation.
(University of Tübingen)
Now, the researchers hope that further study of this discovery will provide important information about the end of the Mittani-period city and the beginning of Assyrian rule in the region.
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As for the archaeological site, it has gotten completely submerged once again. Prior to its immersion, however, the excavated buildings were completely wrapped with tight-fitting plastic sheeting and covered with gravel fill, so as to protect the walls of unbaked clay and any other finds that may still be hidden in the ruins during times of flooding.
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NOTE – This article was originally published in Weather and can be viewed here
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