AL-RĀFIDĀN Vol. XXXVII 2016 143 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS A T GRD-I TLE IN T HE RANYA PLAIN, IRAQI KURDISTAN Atsunori HASEGAWA*, Shigeo Y A MADA* and B arzan B aiz ISMAIL ** Introduction The archaeological investigation of G rd-i Tle, reported here, w as planned and undertaken as a part of the ongoing project “H istorical-A rchaeological Study of the N ortheastern A rea of Mesopotamia” (re p re se n ta tiv e : H iro to sh i N u moto, K okushikan U niversity)1). This project has followed the excavation of the major site of Tell Taban (Hassake, Syria) in 1997–1999 and 2005–2010, w hich brought to light a large number of cuneiform-inscribed sources from th e Middle A ssyrian and O ld B abylonian periods w hile shedding new light on the history and culture of the region [Numoto e t al., 2013]. A fter the excavations at Tell Taban ceased due to the turmoil p re v a ilin g in S y ria sin c e 2010, the project team now aims to investigate archaeological sites in Iraqi K urdistan in the hope of finding further archaeological data on the second mille n n iu m B C fro m the northern part of Mesopotamia, hopefully including cuneiform documents. G rd-i Tle has been chosen for the site of our reconnaissance visit because of its size and location, which suggest a center of some importance in the region through the ages2). F ig . 1 Location of Iraqi K urdistan and Sulaymaniyah Province (Produced based on Tsuneki e t a l. 2015: Fig. 2.1). * U niversity of Tsukuba, 1–1–1 Tennodai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305–8571, Japan ** S u la y maniyah D irectorate of A ntiquities, D G A , K urdistan Regional G overnmen t, Iraq 1) The project is sponsored through funding by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Kakenhi, Grant number 23401030 (re p re se n ta tiv e : H iro to sh i N u moto ). 2) Th e importance of G rd-i Tle w as first suggested by K azuya Shimogama in our internal mee tin g s. 144 Atsunori HASEGAWA, Shigeo Y A MAD A and B arzan B aiz ISMAIL F ig . 2 Location of G rd-i Tle in the R anya Plain (Produced based on Tsuneki e t a l. 2015: Fig. 2.4). The site of G rd-i Tle (36°26′18″ N , 44°45′22″ E) is located in the Ranya Plain, northwest of D okan Lake, about 2.5 km northwest of the town of H ajiaw a in the Ranya district, Sulaymaniyah Province, in the K urdish A utonomous R egion of Iraq (Figs. 1, 2). The R anya Plain connects the Zagros highlands and upper Mesopotamia, and the Low er Zab flows through the plain before it joins the Tigris. In the 1950s, several sites, including Tell Basmusia n , T e ll S h imshara, Tell K amaria n , Tell Q arashina, and Tell ed-D em, w ere excavated as part of the salvage projects prior to the construction of the dams and reservoirs at D okan [Ingholt 1957; Laessøe 1959; Soof 1970], but few excavations w ere undertaken in Iraqi K urdistan after the 1960s due to the political instability of the region. Only after 2010, w ith the improvemen t o f p o litic a l sta b ility , many archaeological missions began in Iraqi K urdistan [Kopanias e t a l. 2 0 1 5 ]. A p art fro m the archaeological survey conducted by Giraud (Institut français du Proche-O rient at Erbil) over the entire area of Sulaymaniyah Province and the Ranya Plain Survey project of the N etherlands Institute for the N ear East (NINO , Leiden) and the University of Copenhagen [Kopanias e t a l. 2015: 38–39], a number of archaeological sites have been excavated. For example , in th e R a n y a P la in , th e majo r site o f T e ll S h imshara has been re-excavated by N INO and the U niversity of R eading [Eidem 2012], and B ab-u K ur w as excavated by the U niversity of C openhagen [Kopanias e t a l. 2015: 38 and 39]. In the Peshdar P la in , adjacent to the R anya Plain to the east, Q alat Said A hmadan [Tsuneki 2015] and Grd-i Bazar [cf. Radner 2015] have been excavated by the University of Tsukuba and the University of Munich, respectively. Following this trend of new archaeological w orks, w e carried out a reconnaissance survey of G rd-i Tle (Fig. 3) over a short period, between 14 and 15 September, 2015. Purpose of the investigations G rd-i T le has never been excavated before. A ccording to online satellite imagery (Google Earth, accessed on 10 September 2015), the site looked like a tell-type mound w ith a flat top, and parts of its slopes look as if they have been scraped by the construction of a modern road. The aim o f o u r v isit a t th e site w a s to o b ta in more topographical and archaeological data on the site, which appears conspicuous in the northern part of the Ranya Plain, where no other larger mounds are to be found. The central purposes were to observe and document the current condition of the mound, and to roughly ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS AT GRD-I TLE IN THE RANYA PLAIN, IRAQI KURDISTAN 145 F ig . 3 G en eral v iew o f G rd -i T le (fro m the east). e stimate the date of its occupation by examining the potshards found on the surface. T opography of Grd -i T le Preceding our visit to the site, a topographic map of G rd-i Tle w as kindly prepared by N obuya Watanabe and Shin’ichi N ishiyama (both of C hubu U niversity), w ho w ere w orking on the nearby site o f Q a la t S a id A h madan. They processed the map using Imag e S tru ctu re fro m Motio n (S fM) softw are on the basis of aerial photographs taken by a model unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV )3). A ccording to the topographical map (F ig. 4), G rd-i T le has an oval plan, measuring about 325 m north to south and about 265 m w e st to e a st, w ith a tra p e z o id a l p ro file . T h e h e ig h t o f th e mound is 584 m.a.s.l. at the top and 558 m.a.s.l. at the base. T herefore, the mound rises 26 m above the surrounding plain. T he mound is dissected by the modern road, which approaches it from the northern end, passes the w estern and southern slopes, and arrives at the flat top area (Fig. 5). The dissected section at the northwest part of the mound (Fig. 6) measures more than 5 m high, and some archaeological remains, for example, stone rows and burnt soil, are exposed (Fig. 7). In this area, it is possible to id e n tify more than five cultural layers, w hich reach the level of the surrounding plain, although the natural ground is not exposed. The southern part of the hilltop has a depression or shallow gully just above the dissected belt (Fig. 8), and large stone structures are visible on its section (Fig. 9). These features are possibly th e re main s o f a to w n -w a ll g a te . 3) The ortho-rectified photograph (ortho photo) and digital elevation mod e l (D E M) w ere processed w ith SfM software, Photoscan Pro, after photographing w as done by an autonomous UAV model. The G C Ps (Ground C ontrol Points) used to add the coordinates to the ortho photo w ere collected from G oogle Earth. H ence, its absolute coordinates may contain an error of around 5 m, w h ic h is sometimes th e c a se w ith h ig h re so lu tio n sa tellite imagery. H ow ever, the R MSE of the model is 0.18 m, and the relative accuracy is expected to be sub-meter. A t the least, the overlaying of the ortho photo with high resolution satellite imagery show s a satisfying match. T he absolute sea level of the D E M and the derived contour have the same problem (i.e. errors for absolute sea level may amount to several meters, w hile relative elevations are expected to be sub-meter) [N . Watanabe]. 146 Atsunori HASEGAWA, Shigeo Y A MAD A and B arzan B aiz ISMAIL F ig . 4 Topographical map o f G rd -i T le. F ig . 5 T he eastern slope, dissected by the modern road. ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS AT GRD-I TLE IN THE RANYA PLAIN, IRAQI KURDISTAN 147 F ig . 6 The dissected section at northwest part of the mound. F ig . 7 Some archaeological remains at the eastern slope. 148 Atsunori HASEGAWA, Shigeo Y A MAD A and B arzan B aiz ISMAIL F ig . 8 The depressed surface, southern part of the hilltop. F ig . 9 The large stone structures, southern part of the hilltop.