Tell Shemshara is one of the most famous archaeological sites in the Kurdish region of Iraq. The Danish and Iraqi excavations carried out 1957-1959, before the construction of the Dokan Dam, unearthed the remains of an ancient Babylonian palace, including two archives of cuneiform tablets dating back to the early 18th century B.C.
The rich epigraphic material, particularly the letters exchanged between a local governor and several neighbouring kings, describes the daily life and the regional politics of nearly 4000 years ago.
Shemshara was the stronghold of a certain Kuwari, a governor who acted on behalf of an eastern kingdom in the Zagros Mountains: Itabalhum. When the Gutian mountain people began to exert pressure on the surrounding kingdoms in their expansionist policies, Kuwari abandoned his alliance with Itabalhum and joined the Kingdom of Shamshi-Adad I, a vast empire in northern Mesopotamia. Eventually, a local rebellion ended Kuwari’s rule, and Shemshara was set ablaze (ca. 1780 B.C.).
GATEWAY TO THE EAST
Tell Shemshara is strategically located near the Darband Pass, a natural gap in the mountain range that serves as the gateway to the eastern routes of the Zagros Mountains. The Darband Pass’s significance over the centuries is evident from the many ancient monuments in its vicinity, which include a long sequence of forts aligned along the mountain ridge just south of the pass. This control and defence system was first described by a British traveller in the 1950s and later topographically surveyed by the Pisa Archaeological Project in 2019. The fortified complex comprises a stone wall, largely eroded today, extending approximately 1500 meters, connecting at least 11 distinct forts or towers. Its purpose was to safeguard the Rania Plain against eastern assaults, where the mountain range ascent is comparatively more straightforward. Uncertainty surrounds its dating due to multiple phases of reuse, though it likely dates back to the 1st millennium B.C.
RETURN TO SHEMSHARA: A NEW PALACE
After the first excavations in the 1950s, Tell Shemshara suffered severe damage due to erosion caused by Lake Dokan’s annual fluctuation. However, the substantial washout of the site also revealed new structures, including those of another palace some 200 years older than the one excavated.
The Pisa Archaeological Project is currently investigating this building, which was destroyed in antiquity by a large fire. The excavations focused on the eroded slope, where the ruins lie close to the surface, exposing ten rooms, some containing large storage jars in situ.
One room revealed a cuneiform tablet dating back to the 20th century B.C., depicting a list of bread rations for, among others, an envoy from ancient Erbil. The forthcoming excavation campaigns plan to extend the area of investigation into the central part of the palace, where the archive of that residence is likely to be located.
New Discoveries 2025
During spring 2025 monitoring of Lake Dokan indicated that the water level in autumn was likely to be the lowest since before the initiation of our project (2012). In this situation we requested and received permission to survey and conduct minor excavations on all archaeological sites in the Dokan Lake flood-zone in 2025. In fact by the time of our mission in autumn the level of Lake Dokan was at its lowest since 2010, which made it possible to reach several important sites normally inundated or only appearing as islands in the lake. Plans for the season were thus adjusted to the new possibilities and the season was principally devoted to survey in the now dry zone and trial excavations on three important sites: Baiz Agha, Basmusian, and Kundu, which produced important new evidence.
Baiz Agha is a very eroded site not identified by the 1950s survey. After decades of flooding extensive remains of stone foundations are exposed on surface. Our small test excavations revealed that the site was occupied in 2 phases, both in the late 2nd Mill. BC. The ceramics retrieved represent a clear Middle Assyrian profile, but with some local elements. It seems likely that Baiz Agha functioned fairly briefly as an outpost of the Middle Assyrian empire in its late phase.
Basmusian is the largest site on the Rania Plain and placed at its center. Iraqi excavations in the 1950s exposed a succession of early 2nd Mill. BC temples under the large flat and almost square summit of the site. Almost always inundated or an island in the lake Basmusian has suffered enormously from the movements of the water. Our trial excavations exposed levels of 3rd and 4th Mill. BC date on the southwestern upper slope of the site, and established that the square summit, now reduced to a small core was a large terrace, supported by insets of baked brick walls, and probably constructed in the late 2nd Mill. BC, when the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser I tried to establish a fortified center at Basmusian. Since the pre-flood map of the site produced in the 1950s is very basic a precise erosion estimate is not possible, but can be approximated to ca. 200.000 m3.
Finally Kundu has never been investigated before, and no pre-flood map is available, but the site seems to have been substantially flattened by erosion since the 1950s. Our test trenches revaled that the site preserves very substantial levels from the 4th and early 3rd Mill. BC capped by remains of buildings from the Iron Age. On the south slope of the site we could plot some 30 ovens visible in surface within a fairly small area, and excavation of a set of 3 ovens exposed a floor with Neo Assyrian ceramics in situ. A possible interpretation is that the area with ovens may relate to an Assyrian army unit which once camped on the site.
New Discoveries 2024
MORE OF KUWARI'S PALACE
In 2024 a new area was opened and revealed, immediately under surface, a fairly well-preserved corner of the palace, where the famous archive of cuniform tablets was excavated in the 1950s. This building was almost completely excavated by Iraqi archaeologists in 1958, but the excavation avoided most of the large central courtyard, assuming that it would be empty of finds. Thus we were able to expose a corner of this courtyard undisturbed, but framed by the Iraqi search trenches from 1958. Re-excavation of the Kuwari palace (18th cent. BCE) was an important research objective of the first phase of the project (2012-15), and it was our impression that almost all of what remained of the building had been investigated, but the new effort in 2024 demonstrated that there are still some corners left.
The Older Palace
In 2023 the top of our older palace (Level VIII, ca. 2000 BCE) was reached in a large area on the Main Hill of Shemshara, adjacent to exposures 2012-22 of this level further east, on the slopes of the site. In 2024 this trench was re-opened and parts of 5 different rooms in the complex excavated. This work revealed that a passage or ‘corridor’ east-west in the center of the trench probably divides the area in two separate, but contemporary blocks. Two rooms in the southern block were excavated. The east room contained the remains of 3 large storage in situ, while the west room had an oven against its north wall. This area would have served as storage and kitchen in the complex. North of the passage only very narrow parts of two rooms could be exposed, and these revealed no clear traces of their function. A sounding in the southeast room reached walls of an even older building.
A NEW PERIOD ON SHEMSHARA
In 2023 we opened some small test trenches on the very eroded south part of Main Hill, which as far as we known had never been excavated before, and here we found building remains of the Iron Age (1st Mill. BCE). This was an surprising discovery since elsewhere on the site this occupation is not attested, perhaps removed or eroded, and it has important implications for the history of Shemshara. In 2024 we therefore opened a larger trench and discovered that the one of the 3 Iron Age levels here was extremely well preserved with stone footings of rooms still standing to a height of ca. 1,5 m. Studies of the associated ceramics are under way, but they seem to date the well-preserved level to the Neo-Assyrian period (ca. 800-700 BCE).
GIRD SURUSHAM
This is a small site ca. 8 kms southwest of Shemshara with levels from the 3rd and 2nd Mill. BCE, and used as a cemetery in the Iron Age. In one of our small test trenches a grave with a rich inventory of ceramic vessels and jewellery in bronze and silver was excavated.
