Shakar Tepe (SSP-24, "sugar hill" in Kurdish) has been known as a conspicuous archaeological site since the mid-20th century. It forms an oval plan, consisting of a low mound in the northeastern half and a high conical mound with a flat top in the southwestern half. The dam lake is located in the north of the site, which occasionally reaches the skirt of the mound, and
wadis flow on the sides into the lake. The northern part of the mound has been crucially eroded and destroyed.
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| Shakar Tepe I (from SW) |
The SSP team already collected many archaeological materials on the surface of Shakar Tepe. Although most of them can be dated to historical ages, such as Early-to-Middle Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Parthian-Sasanian Period, a few potsherds and lithics likely belong to the Late Neolithic and Ubaid Periods. In 2019, we visited the site and recognized that the late prehistoric artefacts were scattered over a quite limited range. In particular, a ware group of the potsherds represented by incised decorations on the buff-coloured surfaces seemed to be dated to the end of the 7th millennium BC. This estimated date completely corresponds to the apparent gap of archaeological evidence in the Shahrizor Plain.
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Orthorectified mosaic image and the topography of Shakar Tepe I
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Thus we decided to excavate Shakar Tepe. Because of the limited distribution of the late prehistoric materials on the surface, we could easily set the first operation (Operation A). It was laid on the northwestern skirt of the conical higher mound, aligned from just below the cliff to the northwest as a step trench measured 9.5 m long and 2.0 m wide. The first season's excavations in 2019 successfully recovered the Ubaid layer and the stratigraphic sequence covering ca. 6400-6000 BC. Finally we reached the virgin soil, about 5 m below the highest surface level of this operation.
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Excavations of Operation A at Shakar Tepe I, 2019 (from N)
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Late Neolithic large blades made of local chert, Shakar Tepe I (ca. 6240-6000 BC)
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Late Neolithic pottery, Shakar Tepe I (ca. 6240-6000 BC)
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Ubaid potsherd, Shakar Tepe (5th mil. BC)
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Our second season's campaign was conducted in 2023. During this season, we identified three "satellite" low mounds (Shakar Tepe II, III, and IV) in the west and southwest of the main mound (Shakar Tepe I). A 4.0 x 4.0 m excavation square was set on the summit of Shakar Tepe II (Operation B), and the cultural deposit from the late Halaf period (ca. 5600-5400 BC) was recovered on the virgin soil. Also, the second step trench measuring 3.0 x 3.0 m (Operation C) was arranged near Operation A, at the steep cliff of Shakar Tepe I. This operation provided a long stratigraphic sequence covering Late Neolithic and Late Chalcolithic periods (ca. 6200-6000 and 3950-3650 BC).
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Aerial photo of Shakar Tepe (from E)
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