Tell Kunara

Tell Kunara
	Shown within Iraq
Location	Iraq
Coordinates	35°31′10″N 45°21′34″E / 35.51944°N 45.35944°E
Type	settlement
History
Founded	c. 2300 BC
Periods	Bronze Age
Cultures	Akkadian, Ur III, Isin-Larsa
Site notes
Excavation dates	2012-2023
Archaeologists	C. Kepinski, Aline Tenu
Condition	Ruined
Ownership	Public
Public access	Yes

Tell Kunara is an ancient Near East archaeological site about 10 kilometers southwest of Sulaymaniyah in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. It lies on the Tanjaro River. The site was occupied from the Chalcolithic period to the early second millennium BC.^[1]

History

The site was occupied in the Akkadian, Ur III, and Isin-Larsa periods. The excavators have speculated that the city, with its monumental buildings, was the capital of the Lullubi state. There were three occupational levels (levels 1 and 2 have been radiocarbon dated)

Level 1 – Middle Bronze Age (2000–1900 BC) (in Area C)
Level 2 – End of Early Bronze (2200–2000 BC) (in Areas, B, and E)
Level 3 – Early Bronze Age (2350–2200 BC) (in Areas A and D)

Epigraphic evidence shows the city had an ensi (governor) but under what auspices is unknown at present. ^[2]^[3]^[4]

Archaeology

Tell Kunara consists of two oval mounds, the western one higher than the eastern, separated by a modern road. The western mound is designated as the Upper Town (excavation area A) and the eastern mound is designated as the Lower Town (excavation areas B, C, D, and E). Overall the site extends to roughly 600 meters by 400 meters or about 10 hectares. The site was first visited in 1943 when Sabri Shukri of the Iraqi General Directorate of Antiquities in Baghdad conducted a survey, issuing a report dated November 10, 1943.^[5]^[6]

The site was examined as part of a larger survey by C. Kepinski in 2011. A geomagnetic survey at Tell Kunara showed signs of a monumental (60 meters by 30 meters) building in the Lower Town^[7] It has been excavated in nine seasons since 2012 by a French National Center for Scientific Research team led by Christine Kepinski and Aline Tenu. Since 2012 excavation has mainly focused on the lower town.^[8]^[9] A few 10 centimeter by 10 centimeter cuneiform tablets were found in 2015 (most concerning flour) and another group in 2018 (most concerning grain) bringing the total to around 100. Quantities were listed in a new type of gur (volume measure) not previously attested as opposed to the expected Akkadian Gur.^[10]^[11]^[12]^[13]^[5]^[14]

Area A – On the upper mound. A monumental building was found, with a 2.6 meter wide wall built on a very large stone base foundation. The walls were constructed of "layers of rectangular mud bricks, protected by diluted bitumen and jointed with a mortar containing crushed bones, alternated with about 0.60 m of pisé". The building, which overlays an earlier one with similar plan, was fronted by a 100 square meter courtyard with included a 10-meter terracotta pipe for drainage. The top of the mound had first been sealed and leveled by a several meter thick layer of sand. Small finds included a bronze pendant.^[12]
Area B – In the Lower Town, designed to explore the monumental building identified by the survey. A simple poorly preserved building was found on Level 1. On level 2 lay the monumental building that had appeared on the survey. It had 1.6 meter thick wall footings made out of massive stones with facing stones. Rather than a single building it turned out to be 4 buildings joined together, in an orthogonal layout, by pebbled pathways. The remains of the building on Level 3 had large walls on a completely different orientation. Small finds included bronze pins, beads, molds for casting bronze blades, lithic artifacts, and a finely carved greenish Akkadian period stone cylinder seal.^[12]
Area C – A large but shallow excavation at the outer edge of the site. Iron Age pottery shards were found at the surface level and radiocarbon dating of material returned c. 1110−909 BC. To the south, Level 1 remains are fragmentary but appear to be related to food production. Levels 2 and 3 so portions of a monumental building with walls 1.4 meters in width. At the lowest floor were many storage jars. A number of fragmentary cuneiform tablets were found.^[5]^[14]
Area D – several narrow trenches on the slope of the Lower Town to look for a defensive wall and examine the interrelationship with the Upper Town. Small finds here included beads, an obsidian flint, a lithic arrow head of Akkadian type.^[5]
Area E - In the northern part of the Lower town. A single occupation level. A monumental building (damaged during the construction of the modern road and other buildings possibly lost) and a small house were found. The monumental building had walls are least 20 meters long, with stone footings. The house was about 36 square meters in area with three rooms. The largest room was about 15 square meters.^[14]

Excavation photographs

Oct. 2015, French excavations at Tell Kunara, Akkadian-Lullubian, 2300–2000 BCE. Sulaymaniyah Governorate, Iraq
Oct. 2015, French excavations at Tell Kunara. Akkadian-Lullubian, 2300–2000 BCE. Sulaymaniyah Governorate, Iraq
Wall. Excavations at Tell Kunara, Akkadian-Lullubian, 2300–2000 BCE. Sulaymaniyah Governorate, Iraq
Excavations at Tell Kunara. Akkadian-Lullubian, 2300–2000 BCE. Sulaymaniyah Governorate, Republic of Iraq. October 3, 2019
Excavations at Tell Kunara. Akkadian-Lullubian, 2300–2000 BCE. Sulaymaniyah, Republic of Iraq. October 3, 2019
Drainage system. Excavations at Tell Kunara. October 3, 2019. Akkadian-Lullubian, 2300–2000 BCE. Sulaymaniyah, Republic of Iraq
Foundation-walls. Excavations at Tell Kunara. October 3, 2019. Akkadian-Lullubian, 2300–2000 BCE. Sulaymaniyah, Republic of Iraq
French Excavations at Tell Kunara. Akkadian-Lullubian, 2300–2000 BCE. Sulaymaniyah Governorate, Republic of Iraq, October 3, 2019
A dagger, a turquoise piece, and a skeleton. Excavations at Tell Kunara, Akkadian-Lullubian, 2300–2000 BCE. Sulaymaniyah Governorate, Iraq
Excavations at Tell Kunara. October 3, 2019, Akkadian-Lullubian, 2300–2000 BCE. Sulaymaniyah, Republic of Iraq

References

^ [1]Tenu, Aline, and Christine Kepinski. "Kunara, a Bronze Age City on the Upper Tanjaro (Iraq)". 9th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East. Vol. 3, pp. 147–159, 2014
^ [2]Tenu, Aline, "Kunara, a 4000 year-old city in Kurdistan", 3rd International Scientific Conference under slogan Archaeology and Heritage of Kurdistan held in Erbil, pp. 592–611, 2019
^ Marchand, Florine, "Kunara Lithic Industry: A Preliminary Report", Proceedings of the 11th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East: Vol. 2: Field Reports. Islamic Archaeology, edited by Adelheid Otto et al., 1st ed., Harrassowitz Verlag, pp. 243–52, 2020
^ Tenu, Aline, "Excavations at Kunara (Iraqi Kurdistan): New Results", Prehistoric and Historical landscapes & Settlement Patterns, pp. 653–663, 2018
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Tenu, Aline, et al., "Kunara. Preliminary report on the fifth excavation campaign (2017)", Akkadica, 2019
^ Amin, Osama Shukir Muhammed. "New Discovery: Clay Tablet & Cylinder Seal from Tell Kunara, Iraq - October 13, 2015". World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved 15 September 2022.
^ Kepinski, C., "Research in the Suleymaniyah Province (Iraq): The upper Tanjaro Survey", P. Bieliński et al. (eds.), Proceedings of the 8th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East 30 April – 4 May 2012, University of Warsaw, Volume 2, Wiesbaden, pp. 149–164, 2014
^ [3]Tenu, Aline, "Kunara: an Early Bronze Age city in the Zagros foothills. The 2018 and 2019 Seasons of Excavations", Proceedings of the 12th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, vol. 2, Harrassowitz, pp. 603-617, 2023
^ [4]Tenu, A., Clancier, Ph., Marchand, F., Monerie, J., Sarmiento-Castillo, D., and Verdellet, C., "Kunara. Rapport préliminaire sur la cinquième campagne de fouilles (2017)", Akkadica 140, pp. 5-71, 2019
^ "Kepinski, C. et al. "Kunara, small town in the foothills of the Zagros Mountains at the age of Bronze: preliminary report on the first campaign of excavations, 2012 (Iraqi Kurdistan)". Akkadica 136.1, 51–88, 2015
^ Kepinski, Christine, and Aline Tenu. "Two Seasons of Excavations at Kunara (Upper Tanjaro): An Early and Middle Bronze Age City". Archaeological Research in the Kurdistan of Iraq and the Adjacent Areas, Oxford, pp. 139–145, 2016
^ ^a ^b ^c "Tenu, Aline, et al., "Kunara, a third millennium town in the peaks of Zagros. Preliminary report on the third excavation campaign (2015)", Akkadica, 137.2, pp. 109–182, 2016
^ Tenu, Aline, et al. "Kunara. Preliminary report on the fourth excavation campaign (2016)". Akkadica 139.1, pp. 1–72, 2018
^ ^a ^b ^c [5]Tenu, Aline, "The 2016–2017 Excavation Seasons in Kunara (Iraqi Kurdistan)", 11th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, Apr 2018, Munich Germany, pp. 435-444, 2018

External links

Jean-Baptiste Veyrieras (March 19, 2019). "A Historical Treasure Bordering Ancient Mesopotamia". CNRS.
Kunara page at National Archaeological Museum, France
Kunara radio program at radiofrance - Archaeology of Iraqi Kurdistan - Sunday, 31 March 2019

[1] [1]Tenu, Aline, and Christine Kepinski. "Kunara, a Bronze Age City on the Upper Tanjaro (Iraq)". 9th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East. Vol. 3, pp. 147–159, 2014

[2] [2]Tenu, Aline, "Kunara, a 4000 year-old city in Kurdistan", 3rd International Scientific Conference under slogan Archaeology and Heritage of Kurdistan held in Erbil, pp. 592–611, 2019

[3] Marchand, Florine, "Kunara Lithic Industry: A Preliminary Report", Proceedings of the 11th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East: Vol. 2: Field Reports. Islamic Archaeology, edited by Adelheid Otto et al., 1st ed., Harrassowitz Verlag, pp. 243–52, 2020

[4] Tenu, Aline, "Excavations at Kunara (Iraqi Kurdistan): New Results", Prehistoric and Historical landscapes & Settlement Patterns, pp. 653–663, 2018

[Tenu2019-5] Tenu, Aline, et al., "Kunara. Preliminary report on the fifth excavation campaign (2017)", Akkadica, 2019

[6] Amin, Osama Shukir Muhammed. "New Discovery: Clay Tablet & Cylinder Seal from Tell Kunara, Iraq - October 13, 2015". World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved 15 September 2022.

[7] Kepinski, C., "Research in the Suleymaniyah Province (Iraq): The upper Tanjaro Survey", P. Bieliński et al. (eds.), Proceedings of the 8th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East 30 April – 4 May 2012, University of Warsaw, Volume 2, Wiesbaden, pp. 149–164, 2014

[8] [3]Tenu, Aline, "Kunara: an Early Bronze Age city in the Zagros foothills. The 2018 and 2019 Seasons of Excavations", Proceedings of the 12th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, vol. 2, Harrassowitz, pp. 603-617, 2023

[9] [4]Tenu, A., Clancier, Ph., Marchand, F., Monerie, J., Sarmiento-Castillo, D., and Verdellet, C., "Kunara. Rapport préliminaire sur la cinquième campagne de fouilles (2017)", Akkadica 140, pp. 5-71, 2019

[10] "Kepinski, C. et al. "Kunara, small town in the foothills of the Zagros Mountains at the age of Bronze: preliminary report on the first campaign of excavations, 2012 (Iraqi Kurdistan)". Akkadica 136.1, 51–88, 2015

[11] Kepinski, Christine, and Aline Tenu. "Two Seasons of Excavations at Kunara (Upper Tanjaro): An Early and Middle Bronze Age City". Archaeological Research in the Kurdistan of Iraq and the Adjacent Areas, Oxford, pp. 139–145, 2016

[Tenu2016-12] "Tenu, Aline, et al., "Kunara, a third millennium town in the peaks of Zagros. Preliminary report on the third excavation campaign (2015)", Akkadica, 137.2, pp. 109–182, 2016

[13] Tenu, Aline, et al. "Kunara. Preliminary report on the fourth excavation campaign (2016)". Akkadica 139.1, pp. 1–72, 2018

[Tenu2018-14] [5]Tenu, Aline, "The 2016–2017 Excavation Seasons in Kunara (Iraqi Kurdistan)", 11th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, Apr 2018, Munich Germany, pp. 435-444, 2018

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