For half a century, one institution has been working in the city of Turin to promote the historical and archaeological research, the enhancement of the cultural heritage and the preservation and restoration of the architectural and archaeological resources in several countries within the Mediterranean area – including Italy – and the Near and Middle East: we are talking of the Centro Ricerche Archeologiche e Scavi di Torino per il Medio Oriente e l’Asia.
Carlo Lippolis and Stefano de Martino, the Head and Scientific Director of this important institution, have kindly agreed to present to us its main activities and projects: enjoy the reading!
Activities of the Centro Ricerche Archeologiche e Scavi di Torino per il Medio Oriente e l’Asia (CRAST)
The Centro Ricerche Archeologiche e Scavi di Torino was founded on September 16, 1963 by Giorgio Gullini with the aim of supporting the work of the Istituto di Archeologia, now Dipartimento di Studi Storici of the Università degli Studi di Torino.
Fig. 1: CRAST excavation at Kuh-i Khwaja (Iran), 1960s
The research and heritage protection activities promoted by the CRAST in the nearly 60 years since its establishment have to be seen within the broader perspectives of a continuative dialogue with the institutions and social realities of the countries in which it operates, and a strong attention to the management and accessibility of the historico-archaeological heritage. The archaeological interventions carried out in numerous Mediterranean and Asian countries, among which the first investigations in the Swat District in Pakistan and in the site of Kuh-i Khwaja in Iran (Fig. 1), the excavation, conservation and restoration of important sites such as Jerash in Jordan and the Arsacid foundation of Parthian Nisa in Turkmenistan (where archaeological activities, first directed by Antonio Invernizzi and now by Carlo Lippolis, are still ongoing), the topographic and photogrammetric documentation of the archaeological stratigraphy of Beirut and the project for the Cultural and Environmental Park of the Maalga and Punic Ports – Carthage are contextualised in this framework.
It is in Iraq, however, that the main initiatives of the CRAST have focused and are still centred today.
PAST AND CURRENT RESEARCH
Archaeological research activities in Mesopotamia were inaugurated in 1964 with the excavations at Seleucia-on-Tigris and Veh-Ardashir, which lasted until 1989. Between the 1970s and the 1980s, the CRAST was actively involved in rescue projects in archaeological areas threatened by the construction of dams and reservoirs, such as those in the Jebel Hamrin (including the sites of Tell Yelkhi, Tell Hassan, Tell Abu Husaini, Tell Kesaran, Tell Harbud, Tell Al-Sarah and Tell Mahmud, with archaeological evidence spanning from prehistory to the proto-Islamic period), on the Euphrates, upstream of Haditha (site of Kifrin, a Roman fortified military outpost dating to the 2nd-3rd centuries) and on the Tigris, upstream of Mosul (site of Khirbet Hatara, chronologically spanning between the Halaf and Islamic periods). Moreover, the CRAST undertook archaeological excavations in three important Mesopotamian centres: Babylon (SHU-AN-NA quarter), Nimrud (Fort Shalmaneser sector) and Hatra (area of the great sanctuary of the Sun god).
Fig. 2: Tūlūl al-Baqarat (Iraq): TB7, building A from south-west
Since 2013, after a long break, the research activities of the CRAST have resumed on the field with the archaeological investigation of Tūlūl al-Baqarat, a little-known archaeological area that is located about 200 km south-east of Baghdad and is of great interest owing to its multimillennial occupation. The Iraqi excavations first (2008-2010), and the Italian excavations directed by Carlo Lippolis (Università degli Studi di Torino – CRAST) since 2013, have explored this archaeological area and brought to light the first vestiges of a complex system of settlements situated in proximity to one another. Of the two tells that are currently being investigated by the mission from Torino, the first (TB7; Fig. 2) is a rural settlement that can be dated to the early 4th millennium BCE, while the second (TB1; Fig. 3), slightly to the west, bears the remains of an ancient religious complex dedicated to the Sumerian mother goddess Nin-ḫur-saĝ, whose most ancient phases date back to the 3rd millennium BCE. The identification of this sanctuary with the ancient Keš mentioned in Sumerian texts is supported by inscriptions of some of the main kings of Mesopotamian history: from Akkadian sovereigns to rulers of the Ur III dynasty and Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.
Fig. 3: Tūlūl al-Baqarat (Iraq): TB1,opening a sounding in the southern area
In order to reconstruct settlement dynamics in this part of the Mesopotamian alluvium, the archaeologists working at Tūlūl al-Baqarat have carried out a systematic territorial analysis. This has evidenced how, at least until the Achaemenid or Parthian period, an ancient branch of the Tigris river had flowed immediately south of the site and how access to this water resource likely influenced, on a regional scale, the slight east-west shift of settled areas.
Similar reconstructions of ancient landscapes, irreplaceable tools available to archaeologists and historians for the exploration of ancient settlements, have always been central to the research conducted by the CRAST. The topographic, geological, geomorphological and urbanistic investigations undertaken in the areas of Carthage and Uthina (Tunisia) with the aim of expanding the archaeological knowledge on these territories while promoting their preservation and enhancement can be mentioned as relevant examples.
Moreover, another territorial analysis was conducted in Mesopotamia on the monumental urban structure of Babylon and on its traces on the ground, through the interpretation of satellite and aerial images (2008-2011). A similar study is currently underway for the site of Seleucia, capital of the Seleucid empire located about 30 km south of Baghdad; this “Greek” metropolis in Asia is sited within an exceptional archaeological area referred to as “al-Mada’in”, i.e. “the cities”, by the Arab conquerors, in recognition of the historical and topographic importance of this complex of monumental ruins, still visible at the time of the Islamic conquest.
Fig. 4: Excavation at Kal-e Chendar (Iran)
Analogous works have interested some regions of Iran as well: a study focusing on late periods (end of the 1st millennium/Islamic era) in the Atrek valley has attempted to identify eventual demarcation lines between cultures in a border region between the Iranian plateau and Central Asia. In recent years, an archaeological mission directed by Vito Messina (Università degli Studi di Torino) in the Khuzestan Province of Iran and, more precisely, in the valley of Shami, has investigated a large system of sanctuaries structured as imposing artificial terraces distributed across its mountainous territory (Fig. 4).
Finally, the collaboration with the professors of the Università degli Studi di Torino (Stefano de Martino, Elena Devecchi, Maurizio Viano) ensures that historical and philological research, as well as the study and publication of Hittite, Hurrian, Akkadian and Sumerian texts, accompany archaeological research themes, which have always constituted the main scientific interests of the CRAST.
HERITAGE PROTECTION AND ENHANCEMENT
Heritage protection and enhancement have been essential aspects of the activity of the CRAST since its foundation. In 2016, the Italian-Iraqi Cultural Centre for Archaeological Sciences (founded in 1969 and closed after the lootings in 2003), a joint institute established with the aim of drawing and enacting action plans to safeguard the archaeological and architectural heritage of Iraq on an equal level with local authorities, was reopened. Between the 1970s and the beginning of the 1990s, interventions were carried out on some of the most representative monuments of Iraq: the Taq-i-Kisra, great vaulted hall originally belonging to the Palace of Khosrow II in Ctesiphon; the ziggurat of Aqar Quf, in the site of the ancient Dur-Kurigalzu; the leaning minaret of the Great Mosque of al-Nuri, in Mosul; the minaret of Anah, originally located on an island on the Euphrates, and the Islamic monuments of Baghdad, testament to a building tradition of exceptional historical value, mostly obliterated by the intense growth and modernisation of the city.
Starting with the First Gulf War, a long series of attacks to the Iraqi cultural heritage, including illegal excavations, the dramatic looting of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad and the most recent and violent episodes of iconoclasm have led the CRAST to focus its greatest efforts in interventions aimed at the protection and enhancement of the Iraqi archaeological heritage. After the BRILA (Bureau for Recovering and Investigating Iraqi Looted Antiquities) project, implemented in collaboration with the Carabinieri Armed Force’s Nucleo per la Tutela del Patrimonio Culturale and aimed at retrieving and cataloguing objects coming from illegal excavations or looted from Regional Museums or the Iraq Museum, a campaign for the documentation of the reliefs decorating the royal suite of Sennacherib’s Palace in Nineveh was launched in 2002.
Baghdad, Iraq Museum: Great Assyrian Gallery
Still, it is in the Iraq Museum, the place where the most significant evidence of the history of the country from prehistory to the Islamic period is kept, that most of the works of the CRAST have focused in the last fifteen years. These have found expression in the redevelopment of the two Assyrian galleries (known as Great Assyrian and Middle Assyrian Galleries, Figs. 5, 6) and the Islamic Gallery, which greatly contributed to the museum reopening in 2015.
Fig. 6: Baghdad, Iraq Museum: Middle and Neo-Assyrian Gallery (2015)
This redevelopment, undertaken along with structural and systems engineering interventions and supported by didactic tools and trails for visitors, provided a more modern museum and improved accessibility to museum spaces and collections. Additionally, a new project for the redevelopment of the Sumerian Gallery, one of the most meaningful spaces of the museum, has been recently agreed on with the Iraqi authorities and will be coordinated in its archaeological and museological parts by the Università degli Studi di Torino (Carlo Lippolis and Stefano de Martino) in collaboration with the CRAST.
TRAINING AND DISSEMINATION
The CRAST’s multifaceted approach to archaeological practice, the public and social dimension of which is becoming increasingly essential, comes from a long-standing work experience in conflict zones. Wars and political instability, besides causing enormous damage to the historico-archaeological heritage, often undermine the efforts of entire generations of archaeologists and remove the population from themes connected to the cultural legacy of their country. For these reasons, in certain contexts, it is necessary to complement excavations and protection and enhancement interventions with activities aimed, on the one hand, at the training and continuing education of personnel working in the cultural heritage sector and, on the other hand, at outreach activities and the dissemination of research findings that cannot and should not remain an exclusive prerogative of the academic world.
Fig. 7: Baghdad, Iraq Museum: training on restoration of “Neo-Assyrian” ivories
In this context, the Italian-Iraqi Cultural Centre for Archaeological Sciences and Restoration of Baghdad currently hosts seminars and training courses on research, conservation and restoration methodologies, heritage protection, new technologies applied to archaeological research and museology and organises theoretico-practical restoration courses in the laboratories of the Iraq Museum (Fig. 7) as well as study stays in Italy for conservators-restorers and Iraqi technicians. Furthermore, the periods of activity on the field of the Italian archaeological mission at Tūlūl al Baqarat provide a suitable framework for training and scientific dialogue with Iraqi colleagues. Between 2017 and 2019, a European project coordinated by Nicolò Marchetti of the Università Alma Mater Studiorum di Bologna (EDUU – Education and Cultural Heritage Enhancement for Social Cohesion in Iraq, 2017-2019) in partnership with the CRAST concentrated on the promotion of cultural heritage as a tool for communication and social cohesion in Iraq, engaging younger generations. Thanks to the funds available for the project, it was possible to create a series of archaeology-themed comics for 10-14-year-olds and to set up, within the Iraq Museum, a didactic room for young visitors that was inaugurated in January 2020.
The experience of archaeology as a tool at the service of the community developed in Iraq has paved the way for the most recent intervention of the CRAST in Mongolia, where, since 2018, an archaeological mission directed by Roberta Menegazzi has been operating with the aim of enhancing the extraordinary historico-archaeological heritage of the area of Kharkhorin (the ancient Mongol capital Karakorum, founded by Genghis Khan in the 13th century), supporting local museums and sharing the results of archaeological research with the local community (Fig. 8).
Fig. 8: Kharkhorin, museum of Karakorum: training on moulded clay and terracotta objects (2018)
Communication and dissemination of research results on multiple levels have always been central objectives for the CRAST, which periodically organises exhibitions, conferences and seminars in collaboration with the Università degli Studi di Torino and other national and international universities. In 2018, the CRAST co-organised the exhibition “Statues also Die” in partnership with Museo Egizio, Musei Reali and Fondazione Sandretto.
Moreover, the CRAST, jointly with the Università degli Studi di Torino, is working on the organisation of the 67th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, which will take place in Torino in July 2021.
Concerning scientific communication, the CRAST is in charge of the publication of two journals (Mesopotamia, Rivista di Archeologia, Epigrafia e Storia Orientale Antica, founded by Giorgio Gullini in 1966 and Parthica. Incontri di culture nel mondo antico, founded by Antonio Invernizzi in 1999) and two book series (Monografie di Mesopotamia since 1982 and Attività e Ricerca since 2020).
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Carlo Lippolis (Head of the CRAST, Università degli Studi di Torino)
Stefano de Martino (Scientific Director of the CRAST, Università degli Studi di Torino)
Website: www.centroscavitorino.it