Excavations at the Darband-I Rania Pass, Kurdistan Region of Iraq: Report on the 2016 and 2017 Seasons

Abstract

This paper presents the results of the work of the new field initiative launched by the British Museum at the Darband-i Rania pass in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The pass is located at the northeastern corner of Lake Dokan, where, though now subsumed into the lake, the Lower Zab flows from the Peshdar into the Rania Plain. It is a strategic location on a major route from Mesopotamia into Iran, and control of both the road and the river must always have been important. The aim of the work, which commenced in autumn of 2016, is to explore a cluster of sites that commanded the pass, with a particular focus on the first millennium b.c. Excavation is being carried out principally at two sites: Qalatga Darband, a large fortified site at the western end of the pass, and Usu Aska, a fort inside the pass itself. The occupations of these two sites are predominantly Parthian and Assyrian respectively. Smaller operations have also been carried out at Murad Rasu, a multi-period site situated on a headland across the waters on the southern shore of Lake Dokan. The results have included the discovery at Qalatga Darband of a monumental complex built of stone and roofed with terracotta roof tiles containing the smashed remains of Hellenistic statuary. Other features indicative of Hellenistic material culture are Mediterranean-type oil-presses and Corinthian column bases and capitals. At Usu Aska remains are being uncovered of an Assyrian fortification of massive proportions.

Rabana-Merquly: a fortress in the kingdom of Adiabene in the Zagros Mountains

“…2018; Bahrani et al . 2019) and Qalatga Darband (MacGinnis et al 2020) in Iraqi Kurdistan reflects a desire by their local vassal rulers to control strategic overland communications.

Figure 2.Map of the north-central Zagros region with sites and features mentioned in the text (map by M. Brown; © Rabana-Merquly Archaeological Project ).

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“…Particularly diagnostic amongst this material are green glazed ceramics that date to the Parthian period, based on parallels from sites including nearby Qalatga Darband (MacGinnis et al . 2020: 164–66) and Seleucia on the Tigris (Debevoise 1934: 34). A further three buildings may represent variations on the ‘barrack’ design, with an approximately 5.5m-wide annex along their northern side.…”

“…Aside from Rabana-Merquly, the only other known Parthian-era settlement of comparable scale within the Lower Zab watershed is Qalatga Darband. This site is located on flat terrain in the Rania Plain and may have been founded slightly earlier, during the later second century BC (MacGinnis et al 2020: 165–66). Further west along the Lower Zab, a Parthian-era fortress of approximately 1–3ha in size has been investigated on the south bank at Tell Mahuz (Córdoba 2005: 223).…”

Bayesian mixing models as a tool to explore Bronze Age bitumen trade from Tell Lashkir (Erbil, Iraq)

“…Neighbouring contemporary archaeological sites including Qalinj Agha (Abu al-Soof, 1966;1969), Tell Nader (Beuger 2016: 20), Erbil's citadel (Nováček et al, 2008), and later sites such as Kurd Qaburstan (Schwartz et al, 2017), the Darband-i Rania pass (MacGinnis et al, 2020), and previous landmarks in the region such as Shanidar Cave (Solecki et al, 2004), Gird Banahilk (Gómez-Bach et al 2019 or Jarmo (Braidwood and Braidwood 1950) present considerable amounts of bitumen remains. This suggests that, in northern Mesopotamia, bitumen had been and was acquired, consumed, and traded by most human settlements in the region.…”