An Iraqi-German archaeological team raced against time to excavate and document a Bronze Age city in northern Iraq before it disappeared underwater.
As drought caused water levels to recede in the Mosul Dam's reservoir last winter, the remains of a 3,400-year-old Mittani Empire-era city once located on the Tigris emerged, an Iraqi official told The National on Tuesday.
The Mittani Empire was a kingdom that ruled parts of Syria and northern Mesopotamia, modern day Iraq, from the 15th century to the 14th century BC. The city, known as Zakhiku, is at Kemune in the northern Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
The team started excavating the city in 2018, when they revealed what was probably a palace with large walls, Dr Hasan Qasim, chairman of the Kurdistan Archaeology Organisation, said.
Fifteen clay tablets with cuneiform writing were also unearthed at the time, Dr Qasim said.
In 2019, the team discovered the walls were seven metres high and inside were chambers that had once been decorated with painted murals.
To cope with extreme drought in southern Iraq and in order to secure enough water for crops, authorities released more water from Mosul Reservoir in December, allowing the ruins to re-emerge.
“This unforeseen event put archaeologists under sudden pressure to excavate and document at least parts of this large, important city as quickly as possible before it was resubmerged,” said the University of Tubingen.
A team was put together within days and received funding from the Fritz Thyssen Foundation through the University of Freiburg.
Throughout January and February, the team managed to map the city and a massive fortification with wall and towers, a multistorey storage building and an industrial complex, Dr Qasim said. More than 200 clay tablets were found.
“The excavation results show that the site was an important centre in the Mittani Empire,” Dr Qasim said.
“The huge magazine building is of particular importance because enormous quantities of goods must have been stored in it, probably brought from all over the region,” Prof Ivana Puljiz of the University of Freiburg said.
“The research team was stunned by the well-preserved state of the walls — sometimes to a height of several metres — despite the fact that the walls are made of sun-dried mud bricks and were underwater for more than 40 years.”
The city was destroyed in an earthquake in about 1350BC, the archaeological team said, during which the collapsing upper parts of the walls buried the buildings, preserving what remained.
Five ceramic vessels that contained an archive of over 100 cuneiform tablets from the Middle Assyrian period, shortly after the earthquake disaster struck the city, are an important find.
“It is close to a miracle that cuneiform tablets made of unfired clay survived so many decades under water,” Peter Pfalzner of the University of Tubingen said.
The site is now submerged with water again but the excavated buildings were completely covered with tightly fitting plastic sheeting and with gravel fill to protect them.
The fluctuating reservoir levels highlight water shortages in Iraq. The war-ravaged country is ranked by the UN as the fifth most vulnerable country in the world to the effects of climate change.
Dr Qasim told The National that more than 500 archaeological sites emerged from underwater as a result of the drought and receding levels on the eastern bank of the Tigris within the borders of Kurdistan region. They are still unexcavated.
Iraq faces a wide range of challenges made worse by water insecurity, mismanagement and man-made problems such as the illegal clearing of agricultural areas to build houses.
More frequent and intense droughts, sandstorms, heatwaves and rising sea levels are wreaking havoc on people's livelihoods and communities.
MATCH INFO
Everton 2 (Tosun 9', Doucoure 93')
Rotherham United 1 (Olosunde 56')
Man of the Match Olosunde (Rotherham)
New schools in Dubai
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Key facilities
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Email sent to Uber team from chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi
From: Dara
To: Team@
Date: March 25, 2019 at 11:45pm PT
Subj: Accelerating in the Middle East
Five years ago, Uber launched in the Middle East. It was the start of an incredible journey, with millions of riders and drivers finding new ways to move and work in a dynamic region that’s become so important to Uber. Now Pakistan is one of our fastest-growing markets in the world, women are driving with Uber across Saudi Arabia, and we chose Cairo to launch our first Uber Bus product late last year.
Today we are taking the next step in this journey—well, it’s more like a leap, and a big one: in a few minutes, we’ll announce that we’ve agreed to acquire Careem. Importantly, we intend to operate Careem independently, under the leadership of co-founder and current CEO Mudassir Sheikha. I’ve gotten to know both co-founders, Mudassir and Magnus Olsson, and what they have built is truly extraordinary. They are first-class entrepreneurs who share our platform vision and, like us, have launched a wide range of products—from digital payments to food delivery—to serve consumers.
I expect many of you will ask how we arrived at this structure, meaning allowing Careem to maintain an independent brand and operate separately. After careful consideration, we decided that this framework has the advantage of letting us build new products and try new ideas across not one, but two, strong brands, with strong operators within each. Over time, by integrating parts of our networks, we can operate more efficiently, achieve even lower wait times, expand new products like high-capacity vehicles and payments, and quicken the already remarkable pace of innovation in the region.
This acquisition is subject to regulatory approval in various countries, which we don’t expect before Q1 2020. Until then, nothing changes. And since both companies will continue to largely operate separately after the acquisition, very little will change in either teams’ day-to-day operations post-close. Today’s news is a testament to the incredible business our team has worked so hard to build.
It’s a great day for the Middle East, for the region’s thriving tech sector, for Careem, and for Uber.
Uber on,
Dara
MATCH INFO
Europa League final
Who: Marseille v Atletico Madrid
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- 5 wins in 22 months as pro
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