Tell Surezha Excavations, Iraqi Kurdistan, September 2024
In September 2024 I participated in excavations at Tell Surezha in northern Iraq, directed by Dr. Gil Stein, University of Chicago. Surezha is a small tell site near to the city of Erbil in the Kurdistan Province of Iraq. Our excavations were focused on ‘Ubaid and Late Chalcolithic Period (~7500-5500 years ago) layers with mudbrick architectural remains of a small northern Mesopotamian agro-pastoral village. The project, which has been running for the last 10 years, explores what life was like outside the better-known heartland of Southern Mesopotamia during the time at which people were first forming and settling in the earliest cities.
For photos of our crew’s downtime from excavations, see here.
