This time, Mar Shiprim goes “In the Field” and presents to its readers an update on a relevant project which is currently ongoing in the Middle East: “The Mapping Mesopotamian Monuments Project”. In this article, the two authors Matthew Peebles and Erhan Tamur provide a detailed overview on the history of this documentation effort, describe the fieldwork carried out in the past years and tell us how to stay informed about the main results of the project via the web. What is more, we can enjoy some wonderful photographs, including an immersive panorama!

 

Documenting Disappearing History:
The Mapping Mesopotamian Monuments Project

Matthew Peebles (mnp2013@columbia.edu)
Erhan Tamur (e.tamur@columbia.edu)

 

Sunset at Gali Zardak. Photo: MMM team.

I. Introduction and Aims of the Project

The Mapping Mesopotamian Monuments (MMM) project is a documentation effort that aims to counter the systematic erasure of the past in the Middle East and the related disassociation of people from their diverse cultural heritage. Since 2012, our topographical survey has been documenting endangered monuments, rock reliefs and architecture, from ancient to modern, in a region stretching from southeastern Anatolia and Iraqi Kurdistan to the Nineveh province in Iraq. We plan to extend our onsite documentation to the south of Iraq in the coming years.

The project was envisioned by Zainab Bahrani, Edith Porada Professor of Ancient Near Eastern Art and Archaeology at Columbia University, in response to the destruction of cultural heritage resulting from the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003. Following the withdrawal of the U.S. troops in 2011, the project was officially launched by Columbia University and involved an international team of archaeologists, art historians, and heritage specialists based in New York, Baghdad, Babylon, Istanbul, and Iraqi Kurdistan. The onsite documentation aims to provide thorough descriptions and analyses of historical monuments by using a range of tools including geo-spatial mapping, photogrammetry, perspective-controlled photography, gigapixel imaging and 360° immersive panoramas. In particular, we utilize these immersive panoramas, which are generally used for architectural analysis, to document rock reliefs in such a way as to contextualize them in their spatial setting and historical landscape. The digital record created with these techniques is combined with detailed stylistic, iconographical, and historical analysis as well as related bibliographical resources and a selection of historical images and drawings of sites.

Click on the image above for an immersive panoramic view of the spectacular rock formation featuring the Neo-Assyrian Eğil Relief (late 8th century BC), near Diyarbakır, and the surrounding Tigris river valley. Photo: Serdar Yalçın.

Although our project began before the recent targeting, looting and destruction of archaeological and religious sites, museums, and monuments in the region, these events further reinforced the urgency of onsite documentation. For instance, our team documented the old city of Diyarbakır only a few months prior to its large-scale destruction due to military conflict. Therefore, we would argue that the current circumstances necessitate prioritizing detailed assessments of the damage inflicted on sites and monuments, rather than initiating new excavations in the region. Such assessments will provide invaluable data for future preservation purposes and serve as evidence in potential legal trials.

The Bahdinan Gate serves as the western entranceway to the citadel of Amadiya/Amedi, whose remaining fortifications date to the Zengid period (12th century AD). The staircase that leads up to the gate is much earlier, built in antiquity; three figural reliefs, attributed to the Parthian era on iconographic and stylistic grounds, are carved within niches in the cliffside along this approach (one of them visible in the far left of the photograph). Photo: Zainab Bahrani.

Moreover, we believe that archaeological and art historical projects can only be successful through active collaboration with local stakeholders. In addition to carrying out collaborations on various levels in the field, we will make our digital archive available not only in English but also in Arabic, Kurdish, and Turkish for both scholarly and public use. Through our topographical survey and documentation, we strive to bring to the fore the very cultural, ethnic, and religious diversity that has been under considerable attack in a region ravaged by war and conflict.

The Mapping Mesopotamian Monuments Project is funded by a multi-year grant from Columbia University’s President’s Global Innovation Fund, awarded to Zainab Bahrani in 2012.

 

II. Overview of Fieldwork, 2013–2019

The Mapping Mesopotamian Monuments team has been conducting fieldwork since the fall of 2013; so far, we have concentrated on the regions north and east of Mosul, covering extensive areas of southeastern Anatolia and Iraqi Kurdistan. During the inaugural season of 2013, our survey included various places in Iraq’s Duhok, Erbil, and Nineveh Governorates. In 2015, we moved north to the area of the upper Tigris, covering Turkey’s Mardin, Diyarbakır, and Batman Provinces. The Sulaymaniyah/Slemani Governorate of northeastern Iraq was the hub of our fieldwork in 2017. The 2018 season, along with two smaller expeditions in 2019, involved the expansion of our documentation in areas of northern Iraq to Iraqi Kurdistan that were already partially surveyed.

Throughout our fieldwork, we have focused on each area’s antiquities but have also included post-antique monuments to the furthest extent possible. The importance of this methodological approach—spanning the traditional divide between pre- and post-Islamic academic research in this region—is exemplified in our work at the Amadiya/Amedi Citadel, the western gate of which is pictured above. The gate and fortifications of the citadel date to the Medieval period, while the staircase and reliefs set into niches along the cliff walls are ancient; within the walls, the modern city fabric exists in continuity with a wide range of historical structures. Below, we present a selection of the monuments that the MMM team has documented up to now.

 

Rock Reliefs

The rock relief at Darband-i Gawr in Sulaymaniyah/Slemani Governorate, Iraqi Kurdistan, carved by an Ur III ruler during the last century of the 3rd millennium BC. This image is one of several photographs and panoramas taken on site to both document the relief itself and to contextualize it in the local landscape. Photo: Gabriel Rodriguez.

The mountainous regions that the MMM team has so far surveyed are rich in ancient reliefs carved into the cliffsides. The earliest that we have examined as yet are found at a cave near Gündük (east of Duhok) and date to the Early Dynastic period; heavily damaged by an explosion in the 1990s, we documented these reliefs during our inaugural 2013 season. In 2017, we investigated several reliefs dating from the late 3rd/early 2nd millennium BC in the Sulaymaniyah/Slemani Governate, including those at Darband-i Gawr (pictured on the right) and Darband-i Belula, as well as a little-known panel near the village of Dailaija. The team has also documented numerous Neo-Assyrian reliefs. The most northerly of these are found in the Diyarbakır and Mardin Provinces of modern Turkey: in 2015, the team studied the reliefs at Eğil, Gisgis, and at the Birkleyn Caves—a geological site that the Assyrians considered to be the source of the Tigris. To the south, we have documented several further Neo-Assyrian rock-carved images and sites in northern Iraq: in 2013, the well-known reliefs at Maltai and Khinnis, and in 2018, a number of reliefs located along the slopes of Jebel Alqosh near Faida. Multiple reliefs dating from the Parthian era have been examined during various seasons; these include three at the entrance to the citadel of Amadiya/Amedi (see our recent publication), as well as several at more remote sites at Mt. Piramagrun and Jebel Maqloub.

 

Citadels and Historical Cities

The city of Hasankeyf, situated along the Tigris in the Batman Province of modern Turkey, flourished as the capital of one branch of the Artuqid dynasty in the 12th century AD. The team documented the city in 2015, before the completion of a hydroelectric dam upstream, which resulted in the relocation of several monuments and the flooding of much of the historic city center. Photo: Zainab Bahrani (modified by Matthew Peebles).

Related to MMM’s effort to contextualize the monuments it documents is a more holistic interest in the region’s historical cities. Most of the cities of interest have been continuously occupied and built up over long periods, and the architectural dialogue between various historical phases only becomes apparent by maintaining a wide perspective. During the 2015 season in southeastern Anatolia, the cities that we documented included Mardin, Midyat, Diyarbakır, and Hasankeyf—the last of which (illustrated above) has since been partially submerged due to the completion of an upstream hydroelectric dam. Our fieldwork in the Sulaymaniyah/Slemani Governorate in 2017 provided the opportunity to study the capital city of the name. In the other provinces of northern Iraq, we have surveyed Erbil/Hawler and Amadiya/Amedi (2013 and 2018), as well as Akre (2019). When documenting these cities, the team captures both general street views and individual historical monuments in the context of the current urban fabric. Some particularly significant sites within the cities, including certain historical residences and religious complexes, are provided with special entries in the database (see below).

 

Residential, Commercial, and Civic Architecture

The Rashid Agha house, built in the early 20th century, is one of several luxurious homes set along the perimeter of the Erbil/Hawler Citadel, overlooking the surrounding area. This photograph was taken in 2013, during ongoing efforts to rehabilitate the historical architecture of the citadel. Photo: Zainab Bahrani.

During our fieldwork in the cities named above, we have documented numerous historical houses, most of them dating to the late Ottoman period. In addition to these residences, we have examined several hanis/khans (including in Diyarbakır and Midyat, as well as at Darbandikhan in the Sulaymaniyah/Slemani Governorate). In Erbil/Hawler, we also studied the city’s 18th century hammam and the oldest sections of the Bazaar (Qaissariyeh). We have been mindful that many of these structures are evolving due to recent cultural preservation efforts in the region. In particular, the citadel of Erbil/Hawler has been undergoing a long-term renovation project, administered by the High Commission for Erbil Citadel Revitalization in partnership with UNESCO and other organizations. Our visits to the city in 2013 and 2018 allowed us to document two different phases of the careful restorations being carried out on particular buildings (as with the Rashid Agha house; see fig. 6 on the left). This is of course true of other types of monuments within the cities, such as religious complexes, as well.

 

Religious Buildings and Complexes

In 2013, the MMM team documented one of the holiest Yezidi sites: the sanctuary of Shayk ‘Adī (12th century AD). Located in the Sheykhan region of northern Iraq, the complex has expanded over centuries as it developed into a center of pilgrimage, a role it retains to this day. Photo: Zainab Bahrani.

The MMM team has documented numerous sites of religious worship, significant for both their history and architecture, throughout our fieldwork. In our inaugural season, we studied several Yezidi shrines in and around the sanctuary of Lalish (the baptistry of Ain Baydha, the mausoleum of Shayk Shams, and the sanctuary of Shayk ‘Adī, pictured above) prior to DAESH’s tragic and destructive attacks on the community in 2014.

A detail of the rock-carved Qyzqapan tomb in the Sulaymaniyah/Slemani Governorate, Iraqi Kurdistan, dating to the Achaemenid period and documented by MMM in 2017. This engaged Ionic column was one of a pair flanking the doorway that separated the large, open anteroom from the inner tomb chamber. In addition to the columns, the rear wall of the anteroom was richly decorated with figural reliefs. Photo: Helen Malko.

We have documented the main mosques of Diyarbakır and Amadiya/Amedi; just outside of the latter city, once renowned as a center of theological study, we examined the ruins of the Qubahan Medrese (built in the 12th century AD or later). In addition to covering a number of historical churches in the cities we have surveyed, we have also traveled beyond urban areas, seeking out churches and monasteries set in more remote locations. One of the earliest of these—dating to the 4th century AD—is the church of Sultan Madohkt in the village of Aradin, east of Amadiya/Amedi, studied in 2013 by the MMM team. During later seasons in Iraq, we documented the monasteries of Rabban Hormuzd, on Jebel Alqosh, and Mar Mattai at Jebel Maqloub, just north of Mosul. In 2015, we surveyed several of the monasteries of Mardin Province, Turkey—particularly those of the Tur Abdin, which were first photographed in the early 20th century.

 

Bridges & Aqueducts, Tombs, and Other Monuments

We have documented a number of historical bridges and aqueducts spanning a wide geographical and chronological range. Sennacherib’s aqueduct at Jerwan can be associated with this king’s famous water control system constructed to the north of Nineveh. The Zakho Bridge, located in the city of the same name and probably dating to the Roman era, crosses the Khabur River, while the Malabadi Bridge that runs over the Tigris near the city of Silvan (north of Hasankeyf) is of the mid-12th century AD. We have also documented the two known Achaemenid-era rock carved tombs in Iraqi Kurdistan at Qyzqapan and Kur u Kich, Sulaymaniyah/Slemani Governorate. The main Sasanian-era monument we have examined so far stands in the pass of Paikuli in the same province. This tower-shaped structure was once faced with a lengthy inscription, repeated in both Parthian and Persian, indicating that it was built by the king Narseh to commemorate his ascension to the throne (293 AD). As usual, the MMM team has approached the documentation process in multiple ways: both to create high resolution, zoomable details of each structure (as in the illustration above), and also to provide the wider context for the monument, giving the viewer a sense of the experiential aspect of the encounter through broader perspectives and panoramas.

 

III. The Publication and Expansion of the Database

The MMM team is currently organizing the digital archive in preparation for the opening of the database to the public. Before the launch, we are planning to produce multilingual versions of the content so as to maximize its accessibility to scholars and communities based in the region of the MMM survey. The database will be continually updated through future fieldwork, and new technologies of onsite documentation will be integrated into our research and analysis.

Facing the systematic destruction of cultural heritage in the Middle East, we believe it is our responsibility as scholars to do everything in our power to counter this vicious erasure of the past. We hope that the Mapping Mesopotamian Monuments project will contribute significantly to the growing number of such initiatives and serve as a reliable source to explore the rich but disappearing history of this ethnically, religiously, and culturally diverse region. 

A screenshot featuring a section of the MMM catalogue, soon to be made publicly accessible in English and three local languages. Upon clicking a given panel, the user is brought to the associated media and textual entries. The textual information includes sections on the monument or site’s visual and material qualities, its history, and an account of its early explorations, along with a selected bibliography for further research.

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