Ruins of Hidden 3,400-Year-Old City Emerge as Giant Dam Dries Up

Climate change is revealing secrets that have been hidden for thousands of years.

The traces of people and civilization long gone from the mortal realm can be seen as waters and ice retreat. In recent months, Iraq has been hit particularly hard, battered by extreme drought, with the Mosul reservoir shrinking as water is taken to keep crops from drying.

The ruins of an ancient city, submerged for decades, are once again on dry land. The re-emergence of the dam is a rare opportunity for scientists to explore it. Kemune is the name of the archaeological site.

The palace and other large structures were built around 3,400 years ago. The ruins are thought to be the ancient city of Zakhiku, a bustling center for the Mittani Empire, which flourished on the banks of the Tigris River between 1550 and 1350 BCE.

This is not the first time that the city has risen from the water. Archaeologists were given a brief window in which to discover and document the ruins after the water level rose.

When the city began to emerge again in December of 2021, archaeologists were ready to take advantage of the second brief window.

In January and February of this year, archaeologist Hasan Ahmed Qasim from the Kurdistan Archaeology Organization in Iraq, along with fellow researchers Ivana Puljiz of the University of Freiburg and Peterpflzner from the University of Tübingen in Germany, set out.

The building has walls. The universities of Freiburg and Tübingen.

The palace was found in the year 2018, but other structures were also discovered. A huge, multi-story storage building, an industrial complex, and a wall and towers were all built in the past.

Puljiz says that the huge magazine building is important because enormous quantities of goods must have been stored in it.

The mud brick walls had been underwater for over 40 years, but that was a result of the city falling in 1350 BCE.

The region was devastated by an earthquake which caused a protective coating of rubble to fall over the remaining intact walls.

One of the vessels has tablets. The universities of Freiburg and Tübingen.

The city yielded some ceramic jars containing over 100 unfired clay tablets from the Middle Assyrian, which were found shortly after the earthquake.

The team hopes that the records contain some information about who lived in the city and what happened after the earthquake.

It is close to a miracle that the unfired clay used to make the tablets survived so many decades underwater.

The city was submerged once more after the dam was refilled, but steps have been taken to make sure that it will be preserved for future excavations. The ruins have been sealed to prevent future erosion and degradation.

The frenzied work has given the archaeologists material to study that may shed light on the lives of the ancient Mittani who lived in the once-great city.

The site was an important center in the Mittani Empire, according to the results of the excavation.