ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - An Italian archaeological mission excavating southwest of the Erbil plain revealed its findings on two sites in Erbil’s Museum of Civilizations on Monday, underscoring the archaeological significance of the Kurdistan Region dating back to 9,000 BCE.
The head of the Italian mission, Professor Luca Peyronel, spoke to Rudaw’s Dilniya Rahman on Monday to elaborate on his team’s findings at two sites, Helawa and Aliawa, located in the Shamamok sub-district southwest of Erbil.
“At Hillawa, we have particularly focused on the prehistoric period. This means looking back at the first farmers and the people who settled in this area,” Peyronel said. The area’s fecundity attracted these early settlers in the sixth and fifth millenia BCE, giving the Mesopotamian area the nickname, ‘cradle of civilization.’
MAIPE’s subsequent discovery of three-part houses, inscribed clay sealings used in storage, and evidence of bitumen processing used in the waterproofing of masonry, “all point to socio-economic foundations of a very early farming community who would have stored produce for distribution and trade in purpose built structures,” read a statement.
At the Aliawa site, the Italian mission uncovered human activity dating back to the 3rd millennium BCE, or about 5,000 years. Peyronel was excited to tell Rudaw of the discovery of a structure that was a unique architectural feature, having “no equal in the rest of the Kurdistan Region.”
“We discovered a large monumental mud-brick building with walls seven meters thick. This is quite something,” he said.
This structure may indicate the emergence of a form of urban organization in the plain. The team also uncovered a Kura, or Kurdish bread oven, the type which is very much still in use today across the region.
The Italian Archaeological Mission in the Erbil Plain (MAIPE) is supported by both the University of Milan and the Italian Foreign Ministry. It has operated under an agreement with the Directorate General of the Kurdistan Region since 2016 on the Helawa and 2019 on the Aliawa site.
The team’s findings at both sites demonstrate the continuing importance of Erbil province in constructing a deeper understanding of the region’s history from the earliest agricultural settlements, to ancient Mesopotamia, through the rise of Islam and until the modern day.
In the spirit of continuing this uninterrupted history, the Italian archaeological team has employed local workmen to continue millenia-old traditions. In the village of Mastawe close to the Aliawa site, local artisans known as Kurachi continue to mold, dry, and fire clay bricks using methods virtually identical to the original. These bricks have been used by the Italian mission to reconstruct parts of the site.
“We are made from clay, and in the end, we return to the earth,” 64-year-old master brickmaker Haidar Omar told Rudaw. Omar, who was covered in fine silt from a nearby kiln on the site continued, “This profession has continued without interruption. I have done this work for my entire life.”
“So far, we have completely surveyed nearly 75 percent of the Erbil plain, and around 1,200 archaeological sites have been recorded,” said Nader Babakr, the director of Erbil Antiquities.
Babakr explained that even small surface fragments provide critical demographic data. “When we excavate a section, we count and calculate the pottery pieces. Those fragments tell us approximately how many people lived there—whether it was a small hamlet or a major population center.”
The ongoing work is part of a broader campaign to comprehensively document the archaeological wealth of the Kurdistan Region as well as integrating it with a broader economic strategy to encourage tourism to the region.
