Hidden under the waters of the Tigris River, the ruins are emerging more and more frequently due to climate change and high temperatures
< /p>The ancient ruins of the lost city of Zakhiku, an important center of the Bronze Age Mittani Empire
The ruins of an ancient lost city in Iraq washed ashore after the terrible drought that are experienced in the country due to the strong temperatures that have hit this summer.
The dire effects of climate change drained a reservoir into the Tigris River, revealing the archaeological relic that stunned experts and sent them working around the clock to excavate, map, and protect the site before the floodwaters cover it again.
Although the modern name of the site is Kemune, experts suspect it to be the lost city of Zakhiku, a major center of the Bronze Age Mitanni Empire that was destroyed by an earthquake a few years ago. 3,400 years. In a surreal twist, remnants of the settlement periodically reappear as the result of a different kind of disaster, man-made climate change, which has been particularly devastating for Iraq. Before these recent revivals, the lost city had not been seen for decades.
The nation has suffered from such extreme heat and low rainfall that its water reservoir The most important, located in the Tigris, has been drained to levels that expose the ancient city and its treasures, including approximately 100 cuneiform tablets that have fortunately been preserved underwater.
Droughts due to climate change have caused the city to rise from the waters of the Tigris River
A team of Kurdish and German archaeologists who have known Kemune for years, they were able to pay a brief visit when the ruins resurfaced in 2018. When the water levels dropped again in December, the group hurriedly sought to return to the tantalizing ruins before it disappeared into the reservoir again. In a matter of months, the collaboration was able to map the contours of the city, document numerous artifacts, and cover the site with plastic sheeting to prevent further erosion now that it is, once again, flooded.
“The results of the excavation show that the site was an important center in the Mitanni Empire,” Kurdish archaeologist Dr. Hasan Ahmed Qasim, president of the Kurdistan Archeology Organization and leader of the excavation team, concluded in the statement.
Qasim, along with his leading colleagues Ivana Puljiz from the University of Freiburg and Peter Pfälzner from the University of Tübingen, had already uncovered the remains of a palace with 20-foot-high walls during their visit to Kemune in 2018. In their latest excavation , documented new buildings, including a defensive wall and towers, an industrial center, and a huge storage facility that likely contained imported goods. The team also highlighted the extraordinary preservation of the city walls, some of which are several feet high.
The Mittani empire existed about 3,400 years ago in what is now Iraq< p class=”paragraph”>The discovery of the ancient cuneiform tablets is perhaps the most exciting result of the hasty expedition. These ancient blocks may contain written messages that could open a rare window into daily life in the Mitanni Empire.
“It is almost a miracle that cuneiform tablets made from unfired clay survive so many decades underwater,” Pfälzner said in the statement.
But the Kemune ruins also offer a dire warning about the vulnerability of our own civilization to climate change man-made, which is exacerbating the extreme droughts in Iraq and poses a major threat to other communities around the world.