Bakr Awa

Bakr Awa is a tell, or archaeological settlement mound, in Sulaymaniyah Province, Iraq. It is located near Halabja in the Shahrizor Plain in Iraqi Kurdistan. It is in the foothills of the Zagros Mountains not far from the headwaters of the Diyala River. The site is 40 meters high and consists of a central settlement mound (277 meters by 216 meters) surrounded by a lower city measuring . Other sites in the area include Tell Kunara, Tell Bazmusian, and Tell Shemshara.

Archaeology

Bakr Awa was first described by James Felix Jones in 1844. Jones J. Felix, "Memoirs by Commander James Felix Jones", Bombay: Selections from the Records of the Bombay Government, New Series, 1857 The site was then investigated in 1927 by Ephraim Speiser as part of a more general study of the area. Speiser, E. A., "Southern Kurdistan in the Annals of Ashurnasirpal and Today", Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research, vol. 8, pp. 1–41, 1926-1927 Speiser proposed identifying the site as Atlila, which was subsequently renamed to Dur-Assur. Rafał A. Fetner, "Human remains from Bakr Awa, Iraqi Kurdistan,2014", Bioarchaeology of the Near East, vol. 9, pp. 55–59, 2015Altaweel, M. et al, "New investigations in the environment, history and archaeology of the Iraqi Hilly Flanks: Shahrizor Survey Project, 2009–2011", Iraq 74, 1–35, 2012

Subsequent excavations took place in 1960 and 1961 by archaeologists from the Iraqi Directorate-General of Antiquities. The excavators mentioned that they expanded a trench dug by George Martin Lees 40 years before.Muhammad Baqir al-Husaini, "The Excavations at Tel Bakr-Awa", Sumer, vol. 18, no. 1-2, pp. 141-164, 1962 (arabic)Madhloom, T., "The Excavations at Tell Bakr-Awa", Sumer 21, pp. 75-88, 1965 (in Arabic) In 2009 the site was surveyed. New excavations were started in 2010, by which time the site had been subject to heavy looting, and continued until at least 2017.Peter A. Miglus et al., "Excavation at Bakr Awa 2010 and 2011", Iraq, vol. 75, pp. 43-88, 2013Fetner, Rafał A., and Joanna Szymczak, "Human remains from Bakr Awa, Iraqi Kurdistan, 2017", Bioarchaeology of the Near East 11, pp. 63-69, 2017 The survey and the 2010-2017 excavations were undertaken by a team from the University of Heidelberg led by .

During the Iraqi excavations 24 cuneiform tablets and tablet fragments were found. In 2013-14 Belgian excavators found 17 more cuneiform tablets. None of the epigraphic finds were in situ, rather being found in the spoil of Islamic period construction. They are possibly all from the same archive and have been tentatively dated by palaeography and C14 dating to the 15th century BC. Texts include "administrative documents, sealed clay bullae, a list of witnesses - probably part of a legal document -, a letter, a hemerology, extispicy omens and prayers, as well as a fragment of the so-called Weidner God-list". A few of the tablet fragments contain text written in the Hurrian language. With one exception it appears that none of the tablets have yet been published.Cuneiform tablets from Bakr Awa - Institut für die Kulturen des Alten Orients - University of TubingenMatouš, L., "L’almanach de Bakr-Awa.", Sumer, vol. 17, pp. 17–66, 1961 (french)

Graves from the Islamic period, the Iron Age, the Middle/Late Bronze Age, and Akkadian Period have been found at the site. Rafał A. Fetner, "Bakr Awa (Iraq), seasons 2010–2011", American Journal of Archaeology 110.4, pp. 603-641, 2012 DNA analysis has been done on 18 Bronze and Iron Age samples.Williams, Matthew Peter, "Exploring the Genetic History of the Ancient Near East through the Bronze and Iron Ages", Dissertation, University of Adelaide, 2021 In 2026, ancient DNA was sequenced from 17 individuals in the region spanning a period from 2112 BCE to 331 BCE.

History Though no settlement remains were excavated, late 4th millennium BC Uruk period pottery shards were found.Al-Soof, Bahnam Abu, "Uruk Pottery. Origins and Distribution", 1985

Excavators defined seventeen citadel occupation levels: Levels I-VII - Islamic (modern) Levels VIII-X - Hurrian (middle to late 2nd millennium BC) Levels XI-XV - Old Babylonian and Isin-Larsa (1st half 2nd millennium BC) Levels XVI-XVIII - Ur III and Akkadian (late 3rd millennium BC)

For the Lower Town the stratigraphy was different: Level I-II - Islamic Level III - circa 800 BC Levels IV-VIII - 2nd millennium BC

On the eastern area of the tell a large 30 meter by 22 meter mudbrick building with a 11 meter by 10.5 meter pebbled courtyard dating to the c. 2000 BC (Middle Bronze Age) was initially uncovered by Iraqi excavators and termed a temple. Excavation to lower levels during the Belgian excavations led to the building being reclassified to a residential structure. In particular a feature original thought to be an altar was recognized as a domestic shrine, typical for the period. Peter A. Miglus, "Private house or Temple? Decoding Patterns of the Old Babylonian Architecture", in Miriam Müller ed Household Studies in Complex Societies: (Micro) Archaeological and Textual Approaches, Oriental Institute Seminars 10, Chicago: The Oriental Institute, pp. 229-242, 2015

Iron Age Iron Age occupation at Bakr Awa dates to the Neo-Assyrian period, from the 9th to 7th century BC when it was part of the Assyrian province Zamua, Achaemenid Empire and the Sassanian Empire. Islamic period occupation ranges from the Abbasid period into the Ottoman period. The site continues to be occupied today.

Economy In the Early Dynastic period, the economy was nomadic and based on sheep and goat (74.1%), mainly killed for meat. There were also remains of cattle and more rarely equids. Piątkowska-Małecka, Joanna, "Different types of animal economy at Bakr Awa, Iraq, in the Bronze Age", Bioarchaeology of the Near East 9, pp. 1-19, 2015

In the Akkadian period, the economy shifted from nomadic to more sedentary and pastoral, introducing new elements as pig and poultry breeding as well as wild animal hunting.

Recent changes The mound and its surrounding areas were lastly excavated in 2017. A recent visit to the site revealed innumerable pits; the telltale "pockmarks" at a looted site which algorithms can recognize and flag as suspicious.

Gallery

Bakr Awa

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