The Directorate of Antiquities in Erbil Governorate in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq announced, on Tuesday, the discovery of clay artifacts dating back to 4300 BC.
The Director-General of Antiquities in Erbil, Nader Bakr, said in a press conference that two Spanish and American excavation teams came to the region this year to resume excavations, and “we are waiting for two more foreign teams to come.”
He explained that “the team of the University of Barcelona, along with the team of the Directorate of Antiquities of Erbil, conducted excavations for five seasons in the Kurdish region, and clay traces were found dating back to the Warka era, about 4300 BC.”
During the press conference, the artifacts that were found were presented, which are different clay pieces.
The American team also found “graves and human skeletons dating back to that era,” according to what the Director of Antiquities of Erbil Governorate said during the press conference.
The “Warka” civilization, in relation to the city of Warka, is considered one of the first centers of civilization in the world that appeared at the beginning of the Bronze Age, more than 4 thousand years BC.
In the city of Uruk, writing was invented, and from this city the first letter appeared in the world, in the range of 3100 BC. The writing appeared in its first form, as it was in its beginnings pictorial writing and later developed into cuneiform.
Warka is the historical city of the Sumerian and Babylonian civilization, located east of the bank of the Euphrates River, about 35 miles from Ur and about 30 km east of Samawah, in Muthanna in southern Iraq.
