The Kurdish-Italian Gir-e Gomel Archaeological Project (KIGAP)

 

In 2017 the first excavation campaign took place at Gir-e Gomel in the frame of the new cooperation project “The Kurdish-Italian Gir-e Gomel Archaeological Project” (KIGAP), directed by Daniele Morandi Bonacossi and Hasan Ahmad Qasim (Duhok Directorate of Antiquities).

After test-trenches carried out in 2012-13 in the southern lower town with the aim of investigating the structures brought to light by the river’s flooding and obtaining a first stratigraphic sequence of the site, in the 2017 campaign the excavation area was extended (Operation 1). In the three excavation campaigns, a funerary area spanning from the sub-recent period to the 3^rd mill. BC was brought to light. In the Neo-Assyrian period (Iron Age, 1^st mill. BC) the graveyard was characterized by the presence of incineration graves, a burial practice not widely attested in this area at this epoch, with the exception of findings in eastern Syria (Sheikh Hamad) and south-eastern Turkey (Ziyaret Tepe). Although other hypotheses cannot be excluded, the most plausible interpretation of Gomel’s unusual funerary evidence is that the in-situ Gomel cremations belong to deportees coming from regions in which during the Iron Age cremation was practised, such as the Levant and eastern Anatolia. Concerning later periods, Parthian (3^rd cent. BC – 3^rd cent. AD) and Hellenistic epoch (4^th – 1^st cent. BC) residential units were also brought to light.

In 2018 two new excavation areas were opened: Operation 2, in the eastern lower town, characterized by the presence of Parthian-period poorly preserved residential architecture and a monumental 2^nd mill. BC building, and Operation 3, on the tell’s western side, where an area devoted to ceramic production dated to the 4^th mill. BC was found.

The site was settled from the 4^th millennium, however, the periods of major flourishing are the Early Bronze Age (3^rd mill. BC) and the Middle Bronze Age (first half of the 2^nd mill. BC). Especially in Operation 1 the finding of EBA graves with very prestigious and rich goods, i.e. precious metals and stones, shows the existence of an élite at the site and the pre-eminence of Gomel in the Navkur plain. The same prosperity and relevance of the urban site is still attested in the 2^nd mill. BC, as shown by the monumental chamber-vaulted graves in Operation 1. This is supported by the Operation 2 monumental building, which was probably an administrative building, seat of the Gomel urban élite.