FArMQaD back in the field at Logardan
In June 2024, the French Archaeological Mission in the Qara Dagh (FArMQaD) was back in the field at Logardan in the Kurdistan region of Iraq (Fig. 1). Although the mission had been engaged in research and cooperation programmes with the Kurdish Antiquities for several years, the last field season took place in 2019. Then, no more fieldwork research was possible, first because of the COVID pandemic and later due to the security restrictions that affected all French expeditions in Iraqi Kurdistan. After a four-year absence on the field, our aim was to assess the damages on two of the sites studied by the FArMQaD in a micro-region east of the Chamchamal agglomeration (Sulaymaniyah Governorate) – Girdi Qala and Girdi Qala North – and to resume field activities on another site, Logardan.
A bit of Late Chalcolithic southern Mesopotamia in the Zagros Piedmont
Generally speaking, archaeological remains, after having been deeply buried for centuries or millennia, are all documented once brought to light. a But, apart from some cases of restoration and musealisation, what happens to them over time, after having been excavated and neglected, is rarely considered. After years of abandonment of a site or trench, checking its state somehow means carrying out an archaeological survey of what has occurred in the absence of excavations and archaeologists. While we were away, Girdi Qala and Girdi Qala North quietly experienced snowy winters and heavy rains that eroded the base of ancient walls, followed later by prolonged droughts and regular agricultural works, which fortunately spared the archaeological trenches. An enclosure for sheep was built and then abandoned on the top of Girdi Qala. Shepherds visited the sites warming themselves with bonfires. Children played with Uruk pottery shards at Girdi Qala North, arranging some of them in evenly coloured piles and even making quite accurate seriations or typologies. Overall, the sites did not suffer any major damage, and the surveillance put in place in concert with the local Antiquities led to the demolition of some fences and buildings that would have threatened the 4th millennium BCE levels preserved near the surface on the southern flank of Girdi Qala.
A few hundred metres from there, our work focused on Logardan, a 1,5 ha site located on a 27 m high natural hill. A French team led by Régis Vallet (UMR 8068 – TEMPS) excavated it between 2014 and 2019. It was then quite severely weathered but sheltered from deliberate damage.
Its earliest occupation, uncovered in Trench C on the south-eastern side of the mound (Baldi 2020), dates back to the Halaf phase in the 6th millennium BCE and through various hiatus, its sequence covers large parts of the 4th, 3rd and 2nd millennia, ending with an early Parthian cemetery. The oldest occupation extensively brought to light is represented by a monumental acropolis (Levels 4b-4a) built at the very beginning of the 4th millennium BCE and then remodelled around 3750 BCE. This complex, uncovered in Trenches D and E on the summit of the hill (Fig.2), was characterised by rich typically south-Mesopotamian ceramic and material culture assemblages. It is the earliest evidence of an Uruk presence in north-central Mesopotamia (Vallet et al. 2017; Baldi, Zingarello 2021). Initially occupied by communal buildings for relatively elite gatherings and feastings, this area was later (at the beginning of the Middle Uruk phase in Level 4a) dedicated to large-scale cooking and redistributions of food rations, with large ovens and amounts of Uruk Bevelled-Rim-Bowls inside the complex, and pottery kilns and craft activities outside the acropolis.
Much later, during the Akkadian period in the last quarter of the 3rd millennium BCE, a stronghold (Level 3d) was erected on what remained of the 4th millennium structures, and shortly after converted into a monumental celebratory complex (Level 3c – Fig. 3). The latter was carefully planned, with wide courtyards traversed and bordered by well-designed stone-paved walkways leading to large halls with monolithic thresholds (Baldi, Vallet 2024).

Written sources do not offer detailed documentation about the region during the emergence and development of the Akkadian empire. But the rapid succession between a military structure and a compound of ideological and celebratory nature seems to witness first the defence of the territory by a local city-state (perhaps Azuhinum, tentatively identified with the present-day city of Chamchamal) against the growing Akkadian power, then the conquest of Logardan and its subsequent integration into the empire as a ceremonial place.
Towards the end of the 3rd millennium BCE, this building was destroyed by fire, and an extensive pottery workshop was built over it (Level 3b). This manufacturing area occupied the mound for approximately 300 years until the first centuries of the 2nd millennium BCE. It underwent five major phases of transformation, each excavated over an area of 100 to 200 square metres, with more than 200 kilns brought to light(Padovani 2023, 2024).
Connecting Trenches D and E: A Gradual Ongoing Effort
Last June, trenches D and E implanted on the summit of Logardan were broadened eastward and westward, respectively (Figure 2). One of the long-term goals of the new excavation program is to connect the two operations. The pottery workshop was the main focus of the excavation in both Trenches D and E. Nevertheless, limited work on earliest occupations produced interesting and unexpected results.
In Trench D, the 4th millennium BCE complex of Level 4a yielded rare and remarkable artefacts. From the southern and western rooms on the edges of the Middle Uruk building, come various game pieces, such as a playing dice made of a black and heavy stone (possibly hematite), carved with six square faces, each possibly bearing symbols now illegible, as well as a large, heavy grey stone with a circular hole carved on each face, most likely associated with a small and perfectly spherical smoothed pebble found close to it, fitting the holes of the large stone.
Moreover, a limited exposure of the north-east corner of room 661 in the same building – selected for micromorphological sampling carried out by Elena De Rosa (PhD student, Lyon 2 University, Milan University) – revealed more than forty tiny tiles of varying colours and sizes (mostly 1 to 1,5 cm) scattered across the floor. The tesserae were black, white, green or reddish (with shades ranging from pinkish to brownish). Each colour was made from different materials. Black tesserae were made of coal, marble, and even obsidian. The white ones were in marble, quartz, and bone. Additionally, a numeral tablet (Fig. 4) was found during the excavation of the steps leading to an entrance on the south-western face of the same room. At the time, this room was used to redistribute rations from large food ovens.
Concerning the later Level 3c (Fig. 3), the portion of the Akkadian building excavated in 2018 was slightly enlarged towards the door of the main room, east of the southern monumental threshold (see n.996 in Fig. 3). Several charcoal samples have been taken for radiocarbon dating. Actually, this monumental building had two distinct phases of occupation. In the first one (represented in orange in Fig. 3), the entrance of the building led into two rooms of almost equivalent size. In the second phase (represented in grey in Figure 3), the size of the southern room was reduced by the setup of installations and the construction of an elongated airlock to access the northern room.
Kiln it! Rediscovering the early 2nd millennium pottery workshop organisation
In Trench D, levels 1, 2 and 3a1 of the pottery workshop were excavated by Claire Padovani over an elongated triangular area of approximately 40 m2, extending the 2019 excavation limit eastwards. In Trench E, levels 1 and 2 of the same workshop were excavated in two sectors, to the northeast by Elena de Rosa and Melania Zingarello, and to the southwest by Ludivine Audebert (PhD student, Paris 1 University). Both operations yielded a significant amount of potter’s stone tools, particularly ovoid scrapers and polishers.
Level 3a1 was only excavated in Trench D, revealing a completely different organisation than the other levels. Ducts conveying heat between the pottery kilns served as connections between adjacent kilns. A stone plug was found at the opening of one of these ducts in a kiln wall.
Level 2, built after a radical reorganisation of the industrial area, revealed an unprecedented degree of spatial organisation of production facilities. Both in Trench D and E, this phase of the workshop yielded a system of north-south and east-west oriented ducts that no longer simply connected the nearest furnaces but developed over a network of intersections. The intense heat inside these channels often gave the bricks above them a whitish colour.
In both trenches, Level 1 constituted a further development and rationalisation of the firing system. This last stage of the pottery proto-factory, dating from the early 2nd millennium BCE, was identified just a few centimetres below the surface. Its firing areas were set up in a platform of thin bricks measuring 30×18 cm. The clusters of kilns were highly organised, with firing installations connected by a system of underground ducts from 7 to 10 cm wide. This network allowed the heat to be channelised between the firing structures, exploiting the slight slopes and unevenness of the hillside from east to west and north to south. Each duct, carefully built with bricks and protected with stones when crossing the kilns walls, connected several firing structures, forming a sort of underground grid with very regular crossings between channels running parallel or perpendicular to each other (Fig. 5). This system of large ducts was somewhat backed up by smaller ducts 5 cm wide (Fig. 6), connecting the kilns of each cluster. Evidence of intense heat, such as disintegrated sandstone and stones transformed into white and pink lime, were found on the kiln’s walls and in fillings.
In Trench D, some kilns from level 1 were reconstructed on the same spots as previous level 2 firing installations, suggesting a substantial continuity without long gaps between the two phases. The firing structures were built with great care, using large stones as foundations of the walls. These large stones were strategically placed at critical architectural points to strengthen the structures, such as at intersections between kilns’ walls and ducts. Small chips and stones were used to fit the large slabs and ensure their stability and flatness.
Although now documented in several large workshops and sites, the technology of firing pots in interconnected kilns was first discovered in the Qara Dagh a few years ago and still raises many questions (Padovani 2023, 2024). For this reason, an experimental project was carried out during the summer at the Archéorient headquarters in Jalès. The unexpected and surprising results of this experience will be made known on this blog and in further publications.
Conclusion: A lot of work still to be done
Meanwhile, as the June campaign went on, we, too, experienced some of the effects of the intense heat on ourselves, with temperatures reaching almost 45°C in the morning (Fig. 7). Late June is perhaps not the best time to excavate in Iraqi Kurdistan. Still, the childlike enthusiasm with which we faced the fieldwork every day clearly shows how excited we were, in this time of war and international uncertainty, to have the opportunity to start working in Logardan again. Some of the young assistants we worked with in 2019 are now adults. Others had younger siblings who were kids and who, now grown up, struggled under the sun with us in June. Resuming work after so long may have been a new beginning, with new approaches (analysis of chemical residues of ceramics from food contexts, study of microstratigraphic samples) and new questions. Even contexts we had extensively studied before, such as the kilns of Levels 1 and 2, started revealing entirely unsuspected features, such as the degree of organisational complexity of their production facilities. What some of us might have imagined as a kind of “homecoming” was actually more of a series of unexpected discoveries. Meanwhile, Girdi Qala and Girdi Qala North continue their quiet slumber, which we hope to interrupt soon by shaking and tickling them with pickaxes and trowels. See you soon, Logardan, hopefully.
Acknowledgements:
The preservation of Girdi Qala and Girdi Qala North, as well as the resumption of fieldwork at Logardan would have been impossible without the constant logistical, administrative, legal and scientific support of the Directorate of Antiquities of Sulaymaniyah, especially the Director General Kak Hussein Hama Ghreib and the Director of Excavations Kak Nawshirwan Aziz Mohammed. Economically, our expedition was made possible above all by the financial support granted by the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs and by the funding of the ANR project FACT_WORK – First proto-industrial ceramic FACTories in the 7th-2nd millennia BCE Mesopotamia and Levant. WORK organisation from the proto-urban settlements to the supra-regional kingdoms (ANR-22-CE27-0003). In addition to us, our field team was also composed of two other archaeologists (Ludivine Audebert – PhD student, Paris I University, and Elena de Rosa – PhD student, Lyon 2 University), a draftsperson (Jasmine Vese – Sapienza University of Rome) a topographer and geologist (Zirak Tahseen Yaseen – Salaheddin University, Erbil), a representative of the Directorate of the Antiquities of Sulaymaniyah (Kak Rawa Karim), a driver (Kak Faraidun Faeiq Hama), and several workers. We would like to express our deep gratitude both to these institutions and to all these people, hoping that last June’s season was just the first in a long series of joint collaborations and discoveries. Indeed, there is a lot of work to be done at Logardan.
Bibliography
Baldi, J. S. 2020. Evolution as a Way of Intertwining: Regional Approach and New Data on the Halaf-Ubaid Transition in Northern Mesopotamia, in: M. Iamoni (ed.), Proceedings of the Broadening Horizons 5. Civilization in Contact. Proceedings of the 5th “Broadening Horizons” Conference (Udine 5-8 June 2017). Volume 1. From the Prehistory of Upper Mesopotamia to the Bronze and Iron Age Societies of the Levant (West & East, Monografie 2). Trieste, EUT, 71-88.[Online] https://www.openstarts.units.it/entities/publication/674e1628-8ae3-44ee-8384-1104f7c1c409/details
Baldi, J. S., Vallet, R. 2024. From a Military Fortress to a Monumental Complex. A First Tentative Functional Reconstruction of Architectural Spaces in Logardan, in: B. Couturaud (ed.), Early Bronze Age in Iraqi Kurdistan (Bibliothèque Archéologique et Historique 226). Presses de l’Ifpo, Beyrouth, 155-176.
Baldi, J. S., Zingarello, M. 2021. A Ceramic Tale of Three “Oikumenai” from the Qara Dagh Area (Iraqi Kurdistan), in: M. Lebeau (ed.), Identity, Diversity & Contact, From the Southern Balkans to Xinjiang, from the Upper Palaeolithic to Alexander (ICE 1 International Congress The East). Brepols, Turnhout, 219-252.
Padovani, C. 2024. The Hill on Fire. Strategies of Ceramic Production at Logardan during the Second Half of the 3rd Millennium BCE, in: B. Couturaud (ed.), Early Bronze Age in Iraqi Kurdistan (Bibliothèque Archéologique et Historique 226). Presses de l’Ifpo, Beyrouth, 313-328.
Padovani, C. 2023. Kiln Technology and Potters’ Agency in the Early Bronze Age: The Social Construct of Logardan Firing Areas, Western Qara Dagh, in: N. Marchetti, M. Campeggi, F. Cavaliere, C. D’Orazio, G. Giacosa, E. Mariani (éds.), Proceedings of the 12th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East. 06-09 April 2021, Bologna. Vol. 1. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, 475-490.
Vallet, R., Baldi, J. S., Naccaro, H., Rasheed, K., Saber, S. A., Hamarasheed, S. J. 2017. New Evidence on Uruk Expansion in the Central Mesopotamian Zagros Piedmont, Paléorient 43/1, 61-87.
Les auteurs
Johnny Samuele Baldi is an archaeologist, ceramologist and CNRS researcher specialising in the proto-urban phase in Mesopotamia and the Levant. He is a member of UMR 5133 Archéorient, Maison de l’Orient et de la Méditerranée in Lyon.
Claire Padovani is an archaeologist specialising in pottery pyrotechnology and production organisation in proto-historic Mesopotamia. She is post-doc researcher at the CNRS (UMR 5133 Archéorient) in Lyon.
Melania Zingarello is an archaeologist specialising in Mesopotamian ceramics from the 3rd millennium BCE. She is currently leading the ANR Accès ERC DRAFT_BREW project on brewing traditions in Mesopotamia (4th-2nd mill.) at UMR 7264 CEPAM in Nice.
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Johnny Samuele Baldi, Claire Padovani et Melania Zingarello (11 octobre 2024). FArMQaD back in the field at Logardan. ArchéOrient - Le Blog. Consulté le 9 février 2025 à l’adresse https://doi.org/10.58079/12gfq