Low water ranges ensuing from a extreme drought that has brought on a humanitarian disaster in components of Iraq have uncovered a collection of historic tombs within the nation’s north.
Archaeologists have found roughly 40 tombs, believed to be round 2,300 years previous, alongside the cracked banks of the Mosul Dam in Iraq’s Khanke area, as reported by Al Jazeera. The reservoir is the biggest within the nation. The drought — one among Iraq’s worst in practically a century — has made beforehand inaccessible websites obtainable to archaeologists.
The burial web site, archaeologists advised the AFP, dates again to the Hellenistic interval of Iraq, which adopted the institution of the Seleucid empire in 312 BCE. Tomb fragments have been first found on the reservoir in 2023, when archaeologists uncovered roughly 5 websites.
This image exhibits historic graves unearthed by members of the Dohuk Antiquities Division on the banks of Mosul Dam on an archaeological web site within the Khanke sub-district of Dohuk Governorate on August 30, 2025. (photograph Ismael Adnan/AFP through Getty Photos)
Groups are piecing collectively the fragments earlier than the artifacts are despatched to a regional museum for additional examination and preservation, in keeping with studies.
“The droughts have a significant impact on many aspects, like agriculture and electricity. But, for us archaeologists … it allows us to do excavation work,” Bekas Brefkany mentioned to AFP.
The nation’s water reserves have dropped to eight% capability, in keeping with native authorities. “As the water level drops, we expect to find other archaeological sites,” archaeologist Nazim Zibari advised AFP. “This work that we are doing now is very difficult, complex, and it takes time.”
Isa Farfan is a employees reporter for Hyperallergic. In Could 2024, she graduated from Barnard School, the place she studied Political Science and English and served because the Columbia Every day Spectator’s Arts &…
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