Rocco Palermo Unearths 6,000-year-old Settlement at Iraqi Archaeological Dig
Assistant Professor of Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology Rocco Palermo and his Kurdish-American team have uncovered a 6,000-year-old site in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq as part of the Gird-I Matrab Archaeological Project (GMAP). The project has been underway since 2022, but it was not until this season that Palermo and his team uncovered their most well-preserved evidence yet in the form of homes with inner courtyards and kitchens, and what may even be a small palace.
The site was first settled in the early fifth millennium BCE and remained inhabited for almost a thousand years. After a long hiatus, it was occupied again during the Iron Age and would become a prominent site in the region by the end of the first millennium CE. Its significance lies not in its grand scale – it is, in fact, smaller than many of the large tells that are considered to have been true cities – but in what it can tell us about smaller, rural communities and how they once lived.
The unique preservation of this site is likely due to an ancient earthquake that led to its rapid abandonment. Natural disasters like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions – the most well-known case being Pompeii – can lead to impressive site preservation, as people pick up their lives quickly to flee and leave behind caches of objects that give modern archaeologists a peek into what their lives looked like. These disasters often stir up or create sediment layers, leading to the site being buried and protected from the ravages of time.
The discovery of this site has uncovered a huge wealth of intact artifacts, including pottery and tools used in everyday life. The discovery of this site and all it holds give incredible insight into how people lived 6,000 years ago and how these small, rural communities would have reacted to large-scale disasters and changes in empires.
Dig into GMAP Excavation Details
This spot has yielded the earliest evidence of settlement at the site, showcasing an impressive sequence of architectural remains spanning from circa 4200 BCE to the late fourth millennium BCE. The excavation of the mound from 2024-25 found an architecturally complex mudbrick building with multiple rooms. The collapse of the roof sealed most of the building’s spaces, potentially due to a sudden, non-violent event such as an earthquake. This event yielded a vast array of artifacts, including storage jars and other vessels, seal impressions, cretulae, stone tools, spindle whorls, loom weights, axes, mace heads, ring scrapers, reworked bones, and more. The building also featured an open courtyard to the south and a well-preserved pottery kiln. Future excavations in the expanded areas will further elucidate the spatial layout of the building and its association with other architectural structures of the early Late Chalcolithic 2 settlement at Matrab.
In Mound Two, evidence of domestic architecture, associated craft activities, and a rich material culture has been uncovered. The abundant evidence of textile activities, including numerous loom weights and spindle whorls, and the significant number of caprine bones, suggests that textiles played a crucial role in the site’s economy and subsistence.
Mound Three has yielded remarkable findings. Stratigraphic exploration, combined with geophysical investigations, has revealed the remains of a monumental building constructed using fired bricks. The complex architectural solutions employed in this building are evident in the numerous curved and trapezoidal bricks found collapsed alongside the still-standing structures. These bricks were likely used to construct vaults and arches in contemporary, elite-related buildings in Seleucid-Parthian Mesopotamia, such as the Parthian palace at Assur, approximately 50 miles west of Matrab. The associated ceramics in Mound Three are also particularly intriguing. They consist mainly of quasi-fine vessels, including plates, bowls, and jars. These artifacts provide valuable clues about the purpose of the monumental building in Area C, as these vessels perhaps suggest that it served as a residential space for the elite.
Rocco Palermo
Assistant Professor of Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology Rocco Palermo has been directing GMAP since 2022. His decade-long involvement in the archaeology of Mesopotamia, particularly at projects at Harvard and Udine, led him to this position.