An expedition of the British Museum in Iraqi Kurdistan discovered a fortified settlement in the area of the city of Raniya (Sulaimaniyah governorate) near the Dukan reservoir. According to preliminary data, the ancient city existed in the II-I centuries BC. The opening is reported by the London newspaper The Times.
The ancient name of the city is unknown, so for now it is called after the place of discovery - Qalatga Darband. Archaeologists found it when they matched declassified American aerial photography of the 1960s with fresh drone photographs. The pictures showed the outline of a large building. Inspection of the area revealed several other structures, including, possibly, a temple, a fortress wall, grape presses, clay tiles, coins and two statues - presumably of Persephone and Adonis.
Archaeologists will continue to survey the city in the fall of 2017.
The Darband-i Rania Archaeological Project has been operating since 2015 as a British Museum pilot project for the protection of archaeological sites in Iraq. Part of the project is to train local specialists to work with cultural values in areas affected by the actions of the Islamic State (the organization is prohibited on the territory of the Russian Federation). The work will be carried out until 2020.
Kalatga Darband is located on the northern shore of the Dukan reservoir, which appeared on the site of the lake of the same name in 1959 after the completion of the dam on the Small Zab River (left tributary of the Tigris). Before the flooding, this area was surveyed by archaeologists and revealed about forty objects, including such large ones as Tell Bazmusian and Tell Shemshara.
This entire region - the western foothills of the Zagros - was inhabited in ancient times, where such important monuments as the Neanderthal Shanidar cave and the early Neolithic settlement of Jarmo were identified.
Julia Shtutina