Millennia-old archeological artifacts discovered in Sulaimani

SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region - An archeological team has found artifacts dating back to around 11,500 years ago in Sulaimani province. 

The site is located northwest of Sulaimani in the village of Zarzi, near Chamirazan. Archeologists said that the artifacts date back to 11,500 years ago. 

“The site of Chamirazan is about 11,500 years old and people came here to hunt wild animals,” Roger Matthews, archeology professor at the University of Reading and supervisor of the project, told Rudaw’s Peshawa Bakhtyar. “People at the time were hunter-gatherers, they settled for two months and made new relationships with other groups in the area.” 

The history of the archaeological area within the village of Zarzi dates back to pre-agricultural times and the Neolithic period. 

It will be excavated by the British team in joint collaboration with the Sulaimani archeology department. 

“The villagers used stones as knives, needles from bones, and other materials as cosmetics,” said Kamal Rauf, archeologist at the Sulaimani Archeology and Heritage Department. 

The archaeological site is older than the village of Charmo and 2,000 years older than the archaeological sites of the village of Bestansur in Sulaimani's Sharazur region.