The Italian Archaeological Mission in Iraqi Kurdistan (MAIKI) – DiSA Sapienza University of Rome – aims to study the historical and cultural development of the Kurdish region in the Arsacid, Sasanian and early Islamic periods. Since 2006, MAIKI’s activities have centred on two archaeological areas of great interest: the Sasanian site of Paikuli and the Erbil Citadel, inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List. In Erbil, MAIKI studies the archaeological stratigraphy of the Citadel through geophysical prospecting and the analysis of ceramic material collected in the excavation campaigns directed by the High Commission for the Erbil Citadel Revitalization.
In cooperation with the Directorate of Antiquities of Sulaymaniyah and the Directorate of Antiquities of Garmian, MAIKI carried out several documentation and excavation campaigns on the Paikuli monument. The Sasanian king Narseh (293-303 CE) built the monument near a pass in the Qaradagh Mountains to commemorate his accession to the throne. The long bilingual inscription in Middle Persian and Parthian, arranged on fifteen tiers of inscribed blocks, is one of the most outstanding sources for the early Sasanian period and the development of Middle Iranian languages. The monument was further adorned with various decorative elements, including five monumental sculptures of the sovereign, but its exterior cladding of large rectangular blocks is today entirely lost.
The archaeological survey activities at Paikuli proved significant in documenting the site and its remains with the identification of a large number of unpublished inscribed blocks that substantially increase the reconstruction of the epigraphic text. For safeguarding reasons, the epigraphic material, together with the sovereign’s busts and other architectural elements, was transferred to the Sulaymaniyah Museum where it is now available to scholars and visitors.
Thanks to the support of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, MAIKI built two new exhibition halls at the Slemani Museum that opened to the public in 2019 and 2021. The halls represent a tangible sign of Italy’s commitment to preserving the Cultural Heritage of the Kurdish Region in Iraq and result from the long-lasting synergy between the Department of Antiquities of Sulaymaniyah and the Department of Ancient World Studies of Sapienza. The Paikuli Gallery houses the collection of inscribed blocks that formed the bilingual (Middle Persian and Parthian) inscription of King Narseh at Paikuli. Through careful cataloguing, documentation, epigraphic study and restoration of some 130 blocks, it was possible to arrange an exhibition that restores the philological order of the two inscribed walls. Equally evocative is the King Narseh Gallery, dedicated to the five monumental busts of the Sasanian ruler that once decorated the monument at Paikuli.
In order to further our knowledge of the historical and settlement development of the Paikuli area and the adjacent Shahrazur Plain, MAIKI launched a new research and excavation project in 2021, focusing on the site of Yasin Tepe, one of the most impressive and significant archaeological evidence in the Sulaymaniyah province.
