Tell Kunara

Clay tablet, freshly excavated, covered with mud to protect it. From Tell Kunara, Sulaymaniyah, Iraq. Akkadian-Lullubian, 2300–2000 BCE. Now in the Sulaymaniyah Museum, Iraq

The site was occupied in the Akkadian, Ur III, and Isin-Larsa periods. The excavators have speculated that the city, with its monumental buildings, was the capital of the Lullubi state. There were three occupational levels (levels 1 and 2 have been radiocarbon dated)

• Level 1 – Middle Bronze Age (2000–1900 BC) (in Area C)
• Level 2 – end of Early Bronze (2200–2000 BC) (in Areas A and B)
• Level 3 – Early Bronze Age (2350–2200 BC) (in Areas A and D)

Epigraphic evidence shows the city had an ensi (governor) but under what auspices is unknown at present. [2][3][4]

Akkadian cylinder seal, late third-millennium BCE. From Tell Kunara, Tanjro Valley, Sulaymaniyah, Iraq. Sulaymaniyah Museum

Tell Kunara consists of two oval mounds, the western one higher than the eastern, separated by a modern road. The eastern mound is designated as the Lower Town. Overall the site extends to roughly 600 meters by 400 meters or about 10 hectares. The site was first visited in 1943 when Sabri Shukri of the Iraqi General Directorate of Antiquities in Baghdad conducted a survey, issuing a report dated November 10, 1943.[5][6]

The site was examined as part of a larger survey by C. Kepinski in 2011. A geomagnetic survey at Tell Kunara showed signs of a monumental (60 meters by 30 meters) building in the Lower Town[7] It has been excavated since 2012 by a French National Center for Scientific Research team led by Christine Kepinski and Aline Tenu. Work was then conducted in 2013 and again in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019. A few 10 centimeter by 10 centimeter cuneiform tablets were found in 2015 (most concerning flour) and another group in 2018 (most concerning grain). Quantities were listed in a new type of gur (volume measure) not previously attested as opposed to the expected Akkadian Gur.[8][9][10][11][5][12]

• Area A – On the upper mound. A monumental building was found, with a 2.6 meter wide wall built on a very large stone base foundation. The walls were constructed of "layers of rectangular mud bricks, protected by diluted bitumen and jointed with a mortar containing crushed bones, alternated with about 0.60 m of pisé". The building, which overlays an earlier one with similar plan, was fronted by a 100 square meter courtyard with included a 10-meter terracotta pipe for drainage. The top of the mound had first been sealed and leveled by a several meter thick layer of sand. Small finds included a bronze pendant.[10]
• Area B – In the Lower Town, designed to explore the monumental building identified by the survey. A simple poorly preserved building was found on Level 1. On level 2 lay the monumental building that had appeared on the survey. It had 1.6 meter thick wall footings made out of massive stones with facing stones. The remains of the building on Level 3 had large walls on a completely different orientation. Small finds included a finely carved greenish Akkadian period stone cylinder seal.[10]
• Area C – A large but shallow excavation at the outer edge of the site, to the south, Level 1 remains are fragmentary but appear to be related to food production. Levels 2 and 3 so portions of a monumental building with walls 1.4 meters in width. At the lowest floor were many storage jars.[5]
• Area D – several narrow trenches on the slope of the Lower Town to look for a defensive wall and examine the interrelationship with the Upper Town. Small finds here included beads, an obsidian flint, a lithic arrow head of Akkadian type.[5]

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  Oct. 2015, French excavations at Tell Kunara, Akkadian-Lullubian, 2300–2000 BCE. Sulaymaniyah Governorate, Iraq
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  Oct. 2015, French excavations at Tell Kunara. Akkadian-Lullubian, 2300–2000 BCE. Sulaymaniyah Governorate, Iraq
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  Wall. Excavations at Tell Kunara, Akkadian-Lullubian, 2300–2000 BCE. Sulaymaniyah Governorate, Iraq
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  Excavations at Tell Kunara. Akkadian-Lullubian, 2300–2000 BCE. Sulaymaniyah Governorate, Republic of Iraq. October 3, 2019
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  Excavations at Tell Kunara. Akkadian-Lullubian, 2300–2000 BCE. Sulaymaniyah, Republic of Iraq. October 3, 2019
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  Drainage system. Excavations at Tell Kunara. October 3, 2019. Akkadian-Lullubian, 2300–2000 BCE. Sulaymaniyah, Republic of Iraq
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  Foundation-walls. Excavations at Tell Kunara. October 3, 2019. Akkadian-Lullubian, 2300–2000 BCE. Sulaymaniyah, Republic of Iraq
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  French Excavations at Tell Kunara. Akkadian-Lullubian, 2300–2000 BCE. Sulaymaniyah Governorate, Republic of Iraq, October 3, 2019
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  A dagger, a turquoise piece, and a skeleton. Excavations at Tell Kunara, Akkadian-Lullubian, 2300–2000 BCE. Sulaymaniyah Governorate, Iraq
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  Excavations at Tell Kunara. October 3, 2019, Akkadian-Lullubian, 2300–2000 BCE. Sulaymaniyah, Republic of Iraq

• Cities of the ancient Near East
• Ancient Mesopotamian units of measurement

• Perello, Bérengère, Aline Tenu, and Christine Kepinski. "A preliminary assessment on earthen architecture of Iraqi Kurdistan: the case of Kunara (Suleymanieh province) at the end of the 3rd mill. BC". Terra Lyon 2016-XIIe World Congress on Earthen Architecture. 2016
• Kepinski, C. et al. "Kunara, petite ville des piedmonts du Zagros à l'âge du Bronze. Rapport préliminaire sur la première campagne", 2012 (Kurdistan irakien)". Akkadica 136, pp. 51–88, 2015
• Tenu, Aline, et al. "Kunara, une ville du IIIe millénaire dans les piémonts du Zagros. Rapport préliminaire sur la troisième campagne de fouilles (2015)". Akkadica 137.2, pp. 109–182, 2016
• Tenu, Aline, et al. "Kunara. Rapport préliminaire sur la quatrième campagne de fouilles (2016)". Akkadica 139.1, pp. 1–72, 2018
• Tenu, Aline, Michaël Seigle, and Cécile Verdellet. "Kunara. Rapport préliminaire sur la sixième campagne de fouilles (2018). Partie 2". Akkadica 2020.
• Tenu, Aline, et al. "Rapport préliminaire sur le septième campagne à Kunara (2019)". 2021
• Marchand, Florine, et al. "Kunara Rapport Préliminaire de la septième campagne de fouilles (2019)-Chantier E". Studia Mesopotamica 5, 2021
• Kepinski, Christine, and Aline Tenu. "Kunara, ville majeure de la haute vallée du Tanjaro". Routes de l'Orient (2014) Marchand, Florine. "L'industrie Lithique de Kunara". Journée Chainop-Études des chaînes opératoires: Regards croisés sur le site de Kunara (Kurdistan irakien, IIIe millénaire av. J.-C.). 2021
• Tenu A. and Kepinski, Christine, "Prospection dans la haute vallée du Tanjaro. Mission archéologique française du Peramagron 2011". Études Mésopotamiennes – Mesopotamian Studies 1. 2020

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tell Kunara.

• Jean-Baptiste Veyrieras (March 19, 2019). "A Historical Treasure Bordering Ancient Mesopotamia". CNRS.