Ancient Lost City of Mardaman Uncovered in Iraq

[Judi Lynn]

By Owen Jarus, Live Science Contributor | May 11, 2018 01:53pm ET

Ruins from the lost city of Mardaman, which dates back some 4,800 years, have been discovered in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq, archaeologists just announced.

A team from the University of Tübingen in Germany has been digging at the site for years now, but only last summer did they discover 92 cuneiform tablets hidden in a pottery vessel found in the remains of a palace.

More recently, Betina Faist, a philologist (language expert) at the University of Heidelberg in Germany, deciphered the text on the tablets, only to find the name of this ancient city: Mardaman (sometimes called Mardama).

The ruins of Mardaman, located near the modern-day town of Bassetki, suggest that the city got its start between 2800 B.C. and 2650 B.C., and reached its peak between 1900 B.C. and 1700 B.C., said Peter Pfälzner, a professor of ancient near-Eastern archaeology at the University of Tübingen. The city continued to flourish into the Neo-Assyrian period, which lasted from about 911 B.C. to 612 B.C. [In Photos: Ancient City Discovered in Iraq]

More:
https://www.livescience.com/62545-lost-city-of-mardaman-discovered.html

[Liberty Belle]

1. Glad to hear this. Iraq has lost so many of its archaeological treasures,

destroyed by ISIS and looted by others. Good to know there are relics that they missed.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

2. Interesting follow-up on hill cities...

In the OP article, it mentioned that Mardaman was a built-up hill city called a "tell" which got my curiosity, particularly after seeing the photo of the archaeological site, that looked more like a flat-top pyramid.

Found this interesting reference in Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hisarlik
(not the same site but similar)

A tell is an artificial hill, built up over centuries and millennia of occupation from its original site on a bedrock knob.

................

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. Thank you for that info.

Always in the market for new words.