Tell Surezha Excavations, Iraqi Kurdistan, September 2025
In September 2025 we returned to Tell Surezha, the ‘Ubaid and Late Chalolithics Period archaeological site south of the city of Erbil in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq to continue excavations there. Led by Dr. Gil Stein of the University of Chicago, his team has conducted excavations at Surezha for over 10 years. This was my second season at the site, and I assisted excavations of a 10 x 10 m trench with a mini-team of local Kurdish excavators and American graduate students that we had worked on last year as well. We worked on exposing a series of mudbrick walls and platforms, delineating buildings and outdoor spaces, all focused on learning about activities taking place in this 5500-7500 year-old agro-pastoral village in northern Mesopotamia.
For photos from last years excavations, see here.
