Barda Balka

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Barda Balka
Barda Baka Paleolithic site, Sulaymaniyah Iraq, c. 100000-60000 BCE. A large megalith once stood here and was demolished deliberately.jpg
Barda Balka, March 2021. The 4-meter high megalith was deliberately demolished and its fragments are scattered on the site
LocationIraq
TypeSurface site
History
Materialgravels
PeriodsMiddle Paleolithic, Neolithic
CulturesLate Acheulean
Site notes
Excavation dates1951
Archaeologists and Herbert E. Wright

Barda Balka is an archeological site near the Little Zab and Chamchamal in the north of modern-day Iraq.[1]

The site was discovered on a hilltop in 1949 by Sayid Fuad Safar and Naji al-Asil from the . It was later excavated by and Herbert E. Wright in 1951. Stone tools were found amongst a particular layer of Pleistocene gravels that dated to the late Acheulean period. The tools included pebble tools, bifaces and lithic flakes that were suggested to be amongst the oldest evidence of human occupation in Iraq.[1] They were found comparable with tools known to have been made around eighty thousand years ago.[2]

Similar material was found in other locations around the .[1]

A Neolithic megalith is also located at the center of the site around which the tools were found.[2]

Gallery[]

  • Barda Baka in March 2021

  • Barda Balka, the large megalith once stood here was demolished

  • A fragment from the megalith of Barda Balka, in situ

  • A fragment from the megalith of Barda Balka at the Sulaymaniyah Museum, Iraq

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c Braidwood, Robert., & Howe, Bruce., Prehistoric Investigations in Iraqi Kurdistan, The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Studies in Ancient Oriental CIvilization, No. 31, University of Chicago Press, 1960.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b Georges Roux (27 August 1992). Ancient Iraq. Penguin Books Limited. pp. 72–. ISBN 978-0-14-193825-7. Retrieved 10 October 2012.

External links[]

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