The Gaugamela Project

 

The Gaugamela Project was active at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków (Poland) with Dr Michał Marciak as the Principal Investigator from 2016 to 2022 and was a partner of the Land of Nineveh Archaeological Project conducted by the Italian Archaeological Mission in Assyria under the directorship of Prof. Daniele Morandi Bonacossi from the University of Udine (Italy). From 2018 to 2022, the activities of the Gaugamela Project were financed by a grant from the National Science Centre in Poland (grant no. 2017/26/M/HS3/00750).

The scientific aim of the project was to establish the exact location of the Battle of Gaugamela (331 BCE) using a unique approach combining the methods of ancient history and landscape archaeology (use of ancient textual evidence, scholarly literature, past and recent cartographic data, satellite remote sensing imagery, GIS [Geographic Information System] capabilities, and fieldwork).

The Battle of Gaugamela, fought between the Macedonian-Greek forces led by Alexander the Great, King of Macedonia, and the Persian army under the Achaemenid King Darius III in 331 BCE, has rightly been labelled as one of the most important battles in the history of the ancient world. Indeed, its final result led to both the effective collapse of the Persian Empire – an empire that spanned two centuries – and the emergence of a new age, now commonly labelled as the Hellenistic period. It was the Hellenistic period that brought about the unprecedented export of Greek culture and language all over the ancient Near East (as far as modern Pakistan), and as such laid the foundations for the cultural heritage of the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern worlds that continue to this day.

Despite the great importance of this battle, its exact location was not certain for a long time. This situation certainly resulted from the state of the extant historical sources. First, the extant ancient sources do not provide us with very precise geographical and topographical information (at least not to the extent that would satisfy modern geographers and cartographers). Second, some important pieces of information that can be gleaned from various ancient accounts actually contradict each other (see Arrian, 3.15.5, 6.11.4-6 contra Quintus Curtius Rufus 4.9.9-10). As a result, it comes to no surprise that in the past modern scholars did not agree on one location for the Gaugamela battlefield and suggested several locations of ancient Gaugamela: Karamleis, Qaraqosh, Tell Aswad, (south of) Wardak, and Tell Gomel (see Fig. 1)

 

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Within the Gaugamela project, three two-week-long surveys specifically dedicated to the location of the Battle of Gaugamela took place in 2016, 2018 and 2021. It should, however, be noted that the Gaugamela Project relied on archaeological data gathered by LoNAP as early as 2011. Insights gained from LoNAP’s research that are of direct importance to the Gaugamela Project include a survey of the settlement in the Navkur Plain, archaeological excavations at Tell Gomel, research on cairns (tumuli) located at the foot of the Zagros Mountains, and discoveries/reinterpretations of reliefs at Gali Zerdak and Nirok.

The identification of the vicinity of Tell Gomel as the site of the Battle of Gaugamela can be argued on several premises: first, the continuity of local onomastics (the names of Gaugamela and Tell Gomel); second, the existence of a long-distance route between Arbela and Nisibis leading through this area; third, the appropriate topographic and geomorphological features in the western part of the Navkur Plain; and fourth, the remains of monumental rock reliefs likely commemorating the battle. Thus, there can be nowadays no doubt that the Gaugamela battlefield was exactly located in the western part of the Navkur Plain near Tell Gomel (see Fig. 2): the overwhelmingly level plain (ca. 6-8 km wide and 13-16 km long) is clearly delineated by natural landmarks – the Zagros Mountains in the north, the Gomel River in the east, Jebel Maqlub in the south, and the Mahad hills in the west.

 

 

The following publications resulting from the project came out thus far:

 

1.      Marciak, M., Sobiech, M. and Pirowski, T. (2020) “Alexander the Great’s route to Gaugamela and Arbela,” Klio, 102(2), pp. 536–559. doi: 10.1515/klio-2020-1005.

 

2.      Marciak, M., Szypuła, B., Sobiech, M. and Pirowski, T. (2021a) “The Battle of Gaugamela and the question of visibility on the battlefield,” Iraq, 83, pp. 83–103. doi: 10.1017/irq.2021.11.

 

3.      Marciak, M., Wójcikowski, R., Morandi Bonacossi, D. and Sobiech, M. (2021b) “The battle of Gaugamela in the Navkur Plain in the context of the Macedonian and Persian art of warfare,” Studia Iranica, 50(1), pp. 7–68. doi: 10.2143/SI.50.1.3291169.

 

4.      Pirowski, T., Marciak, M. and Sobiech, M. (2021c) “Potentialities and limitations of research on VHRS data: Alexander the Great’s military camp at Gaugamela on the Navkur Plain in Kurdish Iraq as a test case,” Remote Sensing, 13(5). doi: 10.3390/rs13050904.

 

5.      Pirowski, T., Szypuła, B. and Marciak, M. (2022) “Interpretation of multispectral satellite data as a tool for detecting archaeological artifacts (Navkur Plain and Karamleis Plain, Iraq),” Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 14(9). doi: 10.1007/s12520-022-01637-9.

 

6.      Marciak, M., Sobiech, M. and Pirowski, T. (2022) “Alexander the Great in Mesopotamia in 331 BCE,” Antichthon, 56, pp. 77–104. doi: 10.1017/ann.2022.11.

 

7.      Marciak, M., Głogowski, P., Szypuła, B., Pirowski, T. and Gomiero, G. (2022) “Gaugamela in the plains of Nineveh? : the southern location of the battle of Gaugamela reconsidered,” Anabasis, 11, pp. 60–110.

 

8.      Wójcikowski, R.S. Morandi Bonacossi, D., Marciak, M., Szypuła, B. (2023): “Memorials of the battle of Gaugamela in the Navkur Plain”, Parthica 25, pp. 31-84.