BIBLE HISTORY DAILY

Excavating Middle Bronze Kurdistan

The mysteries of Kurd Qaburstan

Standing mudbrick architecture in the Kurd Qaburstan lower-town palace. Courtesy Tiffany Earley-Spadoni, UCF.

While some archaeological sites are well-known from ancient sources, others remain a mystery, despite the scale of their remains. This is the case with Kurd Qaburstan, a site near Erbil in northern Iraq. After more than ten years of excavation, it is clear that the site was a major regional center during the Middle Bronze Age (c. 2000–1550 BCE), around the time of the famous Babylonian king, Hammurabi (r. 1792–1750). But not much else is known. So, what questions can be asked, and what can be learned by excavating a site like Kurd Qaburstan?

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Excavated by teams from Johns Hopkins University and the University of Central Florida (UCF), Kurd Qaburstan has so far provided archaeologists with numerous Middle Bronze finds, including a lower city palace and a well-ordered residential neighborhood. The palace itself includes monumental architecture, human remains, and even evidence of destruction.

However, to the archaeologists, the site’s residential neighborhood is just as interesting and may shed light on what life was really like in the region. Two particular sets of finds from the neighborhood are particularly interesting: well-decorated and carefully made ceramics and the remains of animal bones from both domesticated and wild animals. Both are surprising for a non-elite neighborhood and challenge ideas of a sharp divide between the haves and the have-nots in ancient Mesopotamia. Perhaps there was a much larger middle class than previously thought.

“We’re studying this ancient city to learn very specific things about the ancient inhabitants,” said Tiffany Earley-Spadoni, a professor at UCF and director of the excavation. “First, to what degree did they plan their environment, or was it just the result of an organic process? We also want to know how social inequality worked in this ancient city. Were there very poor people and very rich people? Or was there possibly a middle class?”

Broken pieces of storage jars from the lower town palace. Courtesy Tiffany-Earley-Spadoni.

What was the ancient name of Kurd Qaburstan? The leading theory is that the site is ancient Qabra, an important regional center mentioned in the records of other city-states at the time. “The presence of writing, monumental architecture, and other administrative artifacts in the lower town palace further supports this identification since the site must have been an important city of its time,” Earley-Spadoni said.

Related reading in Bible History Daily:

Ancient Mesopotamian Tavern Discovered

Uncovering a 4,000-Year-Old Mesopotamian Boat

Who Were the Babylonians?

Who Were the Amorites?

All-Access members, read more in the BAS Library:

A Mesopotamian Feast

Circular Signatures: Getting a better view of Mesopotamia’s smallest art form