Sustained Heritage Management in Kurdistan

This 3 year project is inscribed in a larger research theme aimed at archaeological and historical analysis of the North Mesopotamian empire of Shamshi-Adad I (ca. 1833-1776 BC), a tentative state-formation, which briefly incorporated large, demographically heterogenous, areas of modern Syria and Iraq. Focus for the research are the integrating potentials and centrifugal forces which shaped the formation and dissolution of the kingdom. Retrieval of new relevant data was initially expected from the site of Qalaat Halwanji in Northern Syria, possibly identical with the westernmost outpost of the empire. Due to the tragic and sustained unrest in Syria, however, the impirical focus has been moved to Tell Shemshara in the Kurdish Region of Iraq, known to be the easternmost outpost of the empire. Tell Shemshara was briefly excavated by Danish and Iraqi archaeological teams 1957-59. Among the finds was an archive of cuneiform tablets from the time of Shamshi-Adad, which to this day remains an important source for the history of his kingdom, and not least for the local history of a poorly known corner of Ancient Western Asia. The new project, conducted in a very constructive cooperation with the local Iraqi authorities, promises important new evidence.