Ancient history

The excavation of the palace of the Kingdom of Mitanni has begun! 【news】

In the Kurdistan Autonomous Region in northern Iraq, a ruin that seems to be a palace of the Kingdom of Mitanni was found in a reservoir (Mosul Dam) whose water level dropped due to drought.

To be exact, the existence was confirmed in 2010, but the water level did not drop enough to be excavated, and it was only possible to start the investigation nearly 10 years after the discovery.

Not limited to the Kingdom of Mitanni, in such an old age, there are many situations where the ruins themselves have collapsed due to civil war or war, or valuable cultural properties have been stolen, and research cannot proceed. It will be a valuable opportunity to understand even a little.

It was a time when various countries were rising and falling, and it was a transition period from bronze to the Iron Age, and it was also a time when the origin of religion began to flow. Regarding ironware, maybe there was a country that started using ironware before Hittite =ironware in 2017? I just discovered it, and I'm looking forward to unraveling the mysterious part as much as possible. It's close to the Hittites, and I hope we can solve the mystery of the transition to the Iron Age ...

German archeology and the ancient Middle East seem to have a deep connection, such as the Neo-Babylonian "Ishtar Gate", the ancient Greek colony "Miletus Gate" in present-day Turkey, and the sarcophagus of Assyrian Kingdom Shamshi-Adad V. There is the Pergamon Museum where you can see.

The Pergamon Museum is a museum centered on Islamic culture and West Asian culture, so if you are interested in this era, you should check it out. There are museums and art galleries in the ancient Islamic and Western Asian regions in Japan, but the Pergamon Museum is a little exciting because it has large-scale exhibits such as gates. It's under construction in 2019, so it's a place I'd like to visit someday after next year.

I'm worried that the drought will be so severe that I can see the bottom of the dam ...