FRANKFURT. The team of archaeologists led by Dr. Alexander Tamm (FAU, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg) and Prof. Dirk Wicke (Institute of Archaeological Sciences, Goethe University Frankfurt) has returned from its field research in northern Iraq without artefacts, but with many new insights. Over the past months, the ten-strong team has examined a building complex at the Gird-î Kazhaw site in the Kurdistan region of Iraq (Picture 1). The structure, which was first discovered in 2015, was probably built around 500 AD. Its purpose had, however, so far been unclear.
Five square pillars made of quarry stone, partly plastered with white gypsum, had suggested that it might be a church (Picture 2). Geophysical investigations had revealed more walls underground, so that this "church" was initially believed to be part of a larger monastery. In particular its relationship to a settlement mound directly adjacent, with a small Sasanian fortification dating from the 5th to 6th century AD, is still unexplained. This fortification is overlaid by an Islamic cemetery.
This year, the team from Frankfurt began its excavations in late summer in two areas: a surface excavation around the pillars (Area A) and an exploration of the Islamic cemetery (Area B), with a focus on anthropological documentation. They uncovered brick walls and floors made of rammed earth and later also of stones and broken bricks relatively close to the surface in Area A. The discovery of further stone pillars, which points to the existence of perhaps a three-nave structure with a central nave running in a north-west to south-east direction, as already evidenced in early Christian religious architecture in this region, was a huge surprise. The size of the central nave, presumably 25 by 5 meters, is unusual (Picture 2). Whether the adjacent rooms indeed form monastery buildings will, however, call for further research in coming years.
The discovery, also in Area A, of a room with a floor made of neatly laid, fired bricks, with the outline of a semicircle at its north-western end (Picture 3) was equally surprising. Apart from the architecture, the main indication that the buildings were used as a Christian meeting place is the discovery of decorated pottery depicting a Maltese cross (Picture 4). The early dating for a church building into the fifth to sixth century AD is not unusual in the region, as there are comparable structures in northern Syria and northern Mesopotamia. (An international workshop on this topic took place in Frankfurt on October 24–25, 2025.)
Particularly relevant to research on religious neighborhoods, such as will be conducted in the future as part of the LOEWE Center "Dynamics of Religion" approved from 2026 onwards, is the proximity to the Sasanian fortification described above. Should the two buildings indeed date from the same period, this would suggest that Zoroastrians, followers of the religious founder Zarathustra, and Christians lived side by side at that time. Establishing when exactly the people in Kazhaw converted to Islam, as evidenced by the Islamic graves (see Picture 5), is also part of the research agenda.
The excavations in Kazhaw are part of a larger research project by Dr. Tamm and Prof. Wicke on rural communities and settlements in the Shahrizor Plain in northern Iraq. To date, archaeological research has paid little attention to rural and small towns; it has mostly focused on the capital cities of ancient empires. The latter were undoubtedly the engine for cultural development in antiquity, but it was the rural regions that created the economic basis for the supply of goods. Without this basis, cultural life in the cities would have been impossible. Work in Kazhaw will continue next year and focus more on the economic infrastructure, this time using archaeometric methods, in particular archaeobotany, zoology and forensic anthropology. The aim is to study what life was like within the excavated walls.
