Deteriorating drought conditions have allowed the 3,400-year-old city of Zakhiku to remain above the water, helping archaeologists study the site.
The ancient city of Zakhiku, 30 km from Dohuk, experienced the devastation of an earthquake, the Assyrian conquest as well as floods due to the creation of the Mosul dam built by Saddam Hussein in 1980. While other heritage sites, such as Ashur, were in danger of imminent destruction due to the construction of an additional dam by the current Iraqi government, the withdrawal of the Tigris water has effectively revealed the ancient city of Zakhiku. A true blessing for archeology.
According to Hasan Ahmed Qasim, president of the Kurdistan Archaeological Organization, which has been active at the site for a decade, the city has appeared regularly since 1980 in November with the drop in water levels after the long Iraqi summers. This year, the city remained above water in all months of January and February due to «drought in southern Iraq that led to unprecedented water being drawn from the basin to prevent crops from drying out;“.
Although this phenomenon underscores the challenges facing Iraq with climate change, it has provided a unique opportunity to further excavate and document the city of the Mittani Empire, once anchored on the banks of the Tigris River and not submerged by him.
In as little time as possible, as much as possible had to be excavated: based on Qasim’s intervention on a building on the site, the team managed to map much of the ancient city as well as discover a massive fortification with walls and towers, a monumental multi-storey building, floors and a industrial complex. According to archaeologists, the extensive urban complex dates back to the time of the Mittani Empire, which expanded between 1550 and 1350 BC. to large areas of northern Mesopotamia and Syria.
From the Bronze Age conquest of the Mitanni Empire by the Assyrians to the more modern battles between the Kurdish peshmerga and Saddam Hussein’s forces, as is often the case in Iraq, the gap between past and present is easy to bridge. The reason why so few excavations have been carried out in the Kurdish areas of Iraq, Qasim says, is not only the lack of academic and archaeological resources in the 20th and 21st centuries, but above all. “the indifference that the Iraqi authorities have reserved to places in Kurdish areas for political reasons“.
Zakhiku is not a unique case in Iraqi Kurdistan: according to Qasim “there are over a hundred underwater sites in the eastern Tigris area. Given the attested potential of the site, the likelihood of getting you increased significantly “Eye-catching archeological discoveriesMany of the treasures obtained have been cleaned, cataloged and now stored at the Duhok Museum, although further fundraising is needed to further the work of documentation. On the feasibility of an exhibition in a short time, Qasim warns that we have to wait for the complete documentary about the excavations, a task that can take decades.
In the meantime, the city’s next surface appearance is expected, submerged again after being covered in plastic and gravel with a conservation grant from the Gerda Henkel Foundation. Climate change will bring Zakhiku back to the surface quickly and leave her there much longer than expected.