According to early hypotheses, researchers suggest that this sprawling city with a palace and several large buildings could be ancient Zakhiku, which is believed to have been an important center in the Mitanni Empire (ca. 1550-1350 BC), from agree with a report from DW.
In recent months, the flow of the Euphrates has visibly decreased, drying up its less flowing tributaries. As a result, when temperatures approach 50 degrees, a third of Diwaniya province is deprived of direct access to water.
To prevent crops from drying out, large amounts of water have been withdrawn from the Mosul reservoir, the country’s largest. This allowed the appearance of this Bronze Age city that had been submerged for decades.
This event allowed archaeologists to excavate and document parts of this large and important city before it was submerged again.
Kurdish archaeologist Hasan Ahmed Qasim, president of the Kurdistan Archaeological Organisation, and German archaeologists Ivana Puljiz from the University of Freiburg and Peter Pfälzne from the University of Tübingen spontaneously decided to undertake joint rescue excavations at Kemune, the Kurdish region of Iraq.
Between heatwave temperatures and a water shortage that is only getting worse, Iraq is one of the five countries in the world most exposed to the effects of climate change, according to the UN.
“The country of the two rivers”, as its inhabitants call it, sees each year how both the Tigris and the Euphrates shrink.
Iraqi authorities blame the drought, but also dams built upriver, in neighboring Turkey and Iran.
With information from AFP and Reuters