Eski Mosul dam

Tomb furnishings from the Uruk period

Eski Mosul Dam project: international programme for saving
the archaeological sites in the basin of the Tigris dam
Site: Khirbet Hatara
Scientific director: Antonio Invernizzi
Excavation director: Paolo Fiorina

The project of a dam built on the Tigris upstream of Mossul has caused the formation of a long basin that to the north extends to the Turkish and Syrian borders. Among the sites proposed by the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage of Iraq, the Italian Archaeological Mission chose Khirbet Hatara with the intent of verifying the accuracy of the stratigraphy proposed by Tobler in Tepe Gawra for the Calcholithic and Uruk periods of northern Mesopotamia.

The site was the object of three autumn excavation campaigns in 1984-1986.