4,000-year-old Mesopotamian city, 'Pompeii of the region,' unearthed in Iraq

An international team of archaeologists has unearthed a 4,000-year-old city in Iraqi Kurdistan, a discovery likened to Pompeii for its preserved state of destruction. Located at the Kurd Qaburstan site, the city of Qabra emerged during a period of conflict and was ultimately destroyed by a siege, leaving behind a stark snapshot of Bronze Age life.

The unearthed ruins include structures that were consumed by fire, administrative records left behind in haste, and the remains of individuals found in the very places they perished. A significant defensive wall encircling the settlement also points to the city's strategic importance and the intensity of the assault it faced. Experts consider this find a significant documentation of a Middle Bronze Age siege in Mesopotamia, dating between 2000 and 1600 BCE.

Among the most crucial discoveries are cuneiform tablets and approximately one hundred administrative seals, recovered from beneath a destroyed palace. These artifacts provide an exceptional window into the city's economic and political structures. One tablet, linked to a high-ranking official, is expected to shed light on the individual's role and the historical events of the era. The presence of 17 skeletons within a collapsed building, lacking any funerary rituals or grave goods, further underscores the sudden and violent end that befell the city's inhabitants.