We present the geomorphological map of the northwestern part of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, where the landscape expresses the tectonic activity associated with the Arabia-Eurasia convergence and Neogene climate change. These processes influenced the evolution of landforms and fluvial pathways, where major rivers Tigris, Khabur, and Great Zab incise the landscape of Northeastern Mesopotamia Anticlinal ridges and syncline trough compose the Zagros orogen. The development of water and wind gaps, slope, and karsts processes in the highlands and the tilting of fluvial terraces in the flat areas are the main evidence of the relationship between tectonics, climate variations and geomorphological processes. During the Quaternary, especially after the Last Glacial Maximum, fluctuating arid and wet periods also influenced local landforms and fluvial patterns of the area. Finally, the intensified Holocene human occupation and agricultural activities during the passage to more complex societies over time impacted the evolution of the landscape in this part of Mesopotamia.

During the Assyrian rule over Northern Mesopotamia (present-day northern Iraq), complex systems of canals were built to increase the surface of cultivable land and improve the movement of people and goods across the irrigated waterscape of the hinterland of Nineveh and other major urban centres, with the aim of granting socio-economic prosperity to the empire. Nevertheless, supra-regional political instability eventually led to the rapid downfall of the Assyrian state during the late seventh century BCE, causing the swift abandonment of the canal systems. In this study, we examine the post-abandonment formation processes of the natural and anthropogenic infillings of three portions of King Sennacherib’s Khinis canal system (705–681 BCE, northwestern Kurdistan Region of Iraq) through means of archaeological, sedimentological and micromorphological analyses. We identify water lain sediments, desiccation features, colluvial gravel intake and pastoral occupation layers, anchoring the deposit to radiometric dating and contextualising it against the known regional climatic history. The interpretation of pedostratigraphic evidence highlights subsequent phases of use, abandonment, and repurposing of the canals, reflecting shifts in land-use from agriculture to pastoralism and dynamic adaptation and resilience of the local ancient communities in response to Late-Holocene climate changes and geopolitical events.

Grotta Romanelli can be counted among the most interesting sites for the late Upper Palaeolithic of the Mediterranean area, since returned a consistent record of lithic artefacts, faunal remains, mobiliary and parietal art, and human fossils which represent the least-known materials from the context. The resumption of the investigations in 2015, after 40 years of inactivity in the cave, provided relevant results. During the 2019 campaign, a distal phalanx of the hand was recovered in the so-called terre brune levels, providing for the first time a clear stratigraphic and chronological reference for the human fossils record of Grotta Romanelli. In addition to morphological description and age estimation, the new finding is here analyzed using 3D Micro-CT scans. The new human fossil confirms the exceptional richness of the paleoanthropological record of Grotta Romanelli, opening new avenues of investigation and posing crucial questions on the use of the cave and cultural practices at the Late Pleistocene-Holocene boundary.

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Tells are multi-layered, archaeological mounds representing anthropogenic landforms common in arid regions. In such contexts, the preservation of the archaeological record is mined by ongoing climate changes, shift in land use, and intense human overgrazing. Such natural and human-driven factors tune the response of archaeological soils and sediments to erosion. Geomorphology offers a plethora of tools for mapping natural and anthropogenic landforms and evaluating their response to unremitting weathering, erosional and depositional processes. Here, we present a geomorphological investigation on two anthropogenic mounds in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, with a special focus on the ongoing erosional processes mining their slope stability and threatening the preservation of the local archaeological landscape. Applying the revised universal soil loss equation model for soil loess derived from UAV imagery and implemented with geoarchaeological investigation, we assess the erosion rate along anthropogenic mounds and estimate the risk of losing archaeological deposits. We argue that a large-scale application of our approach in arid and semi-arid regions may improve our ability to (i) estimate the rate of soil and/or archaeological sediments loss, (ii) propose mitigation strategies to prevent the dismantling of the archaeological record, and (iii) schedule archaeological operations in areas of moderate to extreme erosion risk.

Located along the Tigris River in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, the Mosul Dam Reservoir is the second biggest dam of the Near East and represents an important water storage for local human activities. The dam was built between 1981 and 1988 north of the village of Eski Mosul, submerging the course of the Tigris River for c. 100 km. The analysis of historical images derived from declassified Corona satellite imagery acquired between December 1967 and August 1968 reveals the pristine pattern of the Tigris River, including the seasonal changes of its riverbed, shifting across the hydrological year from meandering to anastomosing patterns. Geomorphological mapping based on Corona images allowed us to estimate the seasonal modification of fluvial elements such as the floodplain and point, middle and longitudinal bars. The comparison with Landsat data collected since the 1990s showed the first phases of the basin filling and the control on the present‐day aspect of the lake inherited from the setting of the Tigris channel belt and, more in general, the litho‐structural control over the evolution of the local hydrographic network; we also document the influence of the original Tigris River course on its recent insertion into the lake. Our work allowed reconstruction of the ancient fluvial landscape below the Mosul Dam Lake and the evolution of its riverscape controlled by litho‐structural factors and seasonal variations of the river discharge. Finally, this contribution highlights the relevance of declassified intelligence satellite imagery in interpreting natural geomorphic processes and landforms, today altered by human agency.

<p>During the late Quaternary, Iraqi Kurdistan was the scenario of several fundamental human-related<br>events including the dispersion of Homo in Asia and Europe, the origin of agriculture, the beginning<br>of urbanization, and the formation of the first state entities. We present the initial results of a<br>geoarchaeological investigation in this area, which aims to reconstruct a detailed framework of the<br>relationship between climatic changes, landscape responses, human adaptation, and settlement<br>distribution during the Late Quaternary. Paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic data were collected<br>from two key areas: the territory of the Navkur and Faideh plains, in northern Kurdistan, and a portion<br>of the Erbil plain, in southern Kurdistan. In the two regions, the Land of Niniveh and MAIPE<br>archaeological missions are operating. Remote sensing, GIS analyses, and geomorphological survey<br>are the tools used for the geomorphological reconstruction of ancient hydrology (fluvial pattern) and<br>the evolution of distinct landforms. Geochemical and geochronological analyses on speleothems from<br>the Zagros piedmont caves of same region provide information on Holocene climatic variability in<br>the area. Whereas environmental settings and human land use are investigated on the basis of<br>sedimentological, palynological, micropaleontological, and geochemical analyses of a fluvio-<br>lacustrine sequences preliminary dated between 40 and 9 ka BP. The lacustrine sequence is composed<br>by clayey and silt-sandy sediments alternating calcareous and organic matter-rich layers.<br>Environmental and geomorphological data have been compared with archaeological information<br>(mostly the chronological distribution of the archaeological sites) to interpret exploitation of natural<br>resources, the settlement dynamics and shift in land use. </p>

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