Udine University archaeologists discover early forms of pottery production in Kurdistan over 8,000 years ago

In Iraqi Kurdistan, at the site of Kanispan, a Neolithic-era settlement dating from the 7th millennium B.C.E., the earliest forms of pottery production associated with grain processing, dating back more than 8,000 years, have been discovered by archaeologists from the University of Udine. Two large buildings, dating from 6000-7000 years ago, called the Rectangular Mudbrick Building and the White Building, located on top of a hill and belonging to the elites of the time, were also found in the nearby settlement of Asingeran. These findings represent the most significant results of the excavation campaign conducted this year as part of the Asingeran Excavation Project, sponsored by the University of Friuli in collaboration with the Dohuk Directorate of Antiquities.

The project aims to understand how early agricultural communities, originally egalitarian in nature, evolved into complex settlements characterized by a division of labor and a hierarchical social structure-a prototype of modern society. The excavations are concentrated in the Navkur plain, a short distance from the town of Rovia.

Research by archaeologists from the University of Udine will continue with laboratory analysis of ceramic finds, paleobotanical remains and DNA recovered from the two sites, thanks to collaboration with the Universities of Bologna and Padua and the National Museum of Denmark. The results of these investigations will make it possible to reconstruct both the social organization of the early communities of Asingeran and the surrounding area and the subsistence farming practices adopted locally.

Coordinated by Marco Iamoni, the project is being developed by the Department of Humanities and Cultural Heritage Studies at the University of Udine. “The information obtained at Asingeran and at the new Kanispan site is exceptional,” stresses Professor Iamoni, professor of Archaeology and Art History of Ancient Western Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean. “At the former site the two large buildings indicate the presence of elites; at Kanispan the traces of the earliest forms of ceramic production are combined with the processing of grains that were grown in the area.”

Asingeran

The Asingeran site was first identified in 2013 during a field survey conducted by the University of Udine as part of the PARTeN project. Excavations revealed extensive and uninterrupted occupation from the Neolithic Ceramic to the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC, with a significant phase of resettlement in the second half of the 2nd millennium B.C.E. “The site is a case study for investigating the patterns of land occupation and the emergence of socio-economic complexity in the Eastern Upper Tigris area and, more generally, in Northern Mesopotamia,” Iamoni explains.

Ottoman-era finds

Excavations at Asingeran also unearthed modestly sized stone dwellings dating to three different phases of occupation during the Middle and Late Ottoman period (1500-1800 AD). Within these structures, and in the surrounding areas, hearths, post holes, ovens for cooking food(tannur) and a kiln were found, confirming the domestic use of the area.

Udine University archaeologists discover early forms of pottery production in Kurdistan over 8,000 years ago

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