The bones and three pots were unearthed in Sitkan, northeast of Soran in Erbil province, during work to bring drinking water to the village.
“We were digging and we reached a place and looked at the pots. We stopped our work and contacted the archaeologists," said excavator operator Jawad Gwani.
Abdulwahab Sleman, head of Soran archeology department, estimates the skeleton belonged to a 50-year-old man and dates back to the Iron Age. "It is the first time a body dating back nearly 3,000 years has been found in this way," he said.
About 1,100 archaeological sites have been registered in the Soran administration.
