First Archaeological Hints: Early Birds in Iraqi Kurdistan

The recent online publication of the Ernst Herzfeld files in the Metropolitan Museum include notebooks from his extensive survey activity in NE Iraq/Western Iran in 1916-7, and inspires a new look at the pre-modern exploration in this region. In this paper we discuss two areas for which the Herzfeld files provide particularly rich documentation, and which are also well-known to the authors. The first part examines the Sulaimani area including the plain of Sulaimani (Slemani city) itself and the Plain of Sharezur to the Hawraman mountains, their archaeological sites and heritage buildings. The second case concerns the Rania Plain, which became a focus for salvage archaeology when the Dokan Dam on the Lower Zab was constructed in the 1950s. Both areas have recently seen a surge in modern exploration by multiple archaeological projects, and the paper attempts to trace the early hints of archaeological remains reported here, inserting the new evidence from the Herzfeld files.