Iraq. Discovery provides insights into early civilization

A team from the University of Coimbra (UC) has discovered a monumental building at the Kani Shaie archaeological site in Iraqi Kurdistan, providing new insights into the sequence of human occupation over the millennia.

The discovery presents new information about the beginnings of Mesopotamia and the Zagros Mountains, helping to understand the course of human occupation over the millennia — particularly in the 4th and 3rd millennia before Christ (BC), revealed this Wednesday the UC, in a statement sent to the Lusa news agency.

The research was carried out as part of the Kani Shaie archaeological project, led by the UC's Center for Studies in Archaeology, Arts and Heritage Sciences (CEAACP) , in partnership with the University of Cambridge and the Sulaymaniyah Cultural Heritage authorities.

In the 2025 excavation campaign, “an official building of a monumental nature was identified on the upper part of the artificial hill of Kani Shaie, possibly a cult space, dating from the so-called Uruk period (c. 3300 — 3100 BC),” explained CEAACP archaeologists André Tomé, Maria da Conceição Lopes and Steve Renette.

According to researchers, this period is named after the city of Uruk, recognized as the world's first great metropolis, due to evidence of direct contact between Southern Mesopotamia—where the city was located—and the mountainous regions to the east.

By confirming the monumental nature of the building, which is now being investigated in detail, the discovery could “profoundly alter the understanding of the relationship between Uruk and peripheral regions, revealing that sites like Kani Shaie were not marginal, but rather central actors in the processes of cultural and political diffusion.”

The international archaeological team also found a fragment of a gold pendant, "which testifies to ostentatious practices and access to precious metals in a seemingly peripheral community," and a cylinder seal from the Uruk period, an artifact linked to administrative practices, control, and the legitimization of power.

According to archaeologists, wall cones, decorative elements typical of monumental architecture, widely documented in Uruk, were also identified, which reinforces the interpretation of the building as a public or ceremonial structure.

The Kani Shaie archaeological project has been ongoing since 2013, being directed by André Tomé, Maria da Conceição Lopes and Steve Renette, with CEAACP-UC researcher Michael Lewis as assistant director.

The team also includes other researchers from CEAACP at the University of Coimbra, the University of Algarve and the University of Cambridge, technicians from the heritage authorities of Iraqi Kurdistan and experts of various nationalities.

This excavation campaign was largely funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology and the University of Cambridge, and also involved the collaboration of the heritage authorities of Iraqi Kurdistan.