Bakr Awa: Information about the new field research at Bakr Awa

Bakr Awa: Information about the new field research at Bakr Awa

Bakr Awa (35°13‘14‘‘N, 45°56‘26‘‘E) is situated about 70 kilometer southeast of Sulaimaniyah, near the city of Halabja at the Iraqi-Iranian border. It is the biggest mound in the southern part of the Plain of Shahrizor, with a nearly 40 m high citadel in the middle of a c. 800 × 600 m wide lower city. 

 First soundings at the site were conducted by Ephraim Speiser in 1927, but extended excavations did not take place before 1960 and 1961 when Iraqi archaeologists of the Directorate General of Antiquities opened two trenches on the southwestern slope of the citadel and in the eastern lower city. After a break of half a century the work at Bakr Awa was resumed by a team of the University of Heidelberg in 2010. During the last three seasons investigations took place in five operation areas.