QaNaTES Project

A very limited archaeological interest in the region of Iranian Kurdistan continued for a long time, but from 2000 onwards an ever increasing attention has concerned the Western Iran, also due to the revitalisation of field research in Iraqi Kurdistan, a phenomenon that has has political and cultural connotations (see J. Ur in Bibliography). The area around Lake Zaribar and the plain of Marivan have been the subject of archaeological investigations carried out both along the western shore of the lake basin (the evidence is apparently limited to the Parthian age), and in the south-eastern region of Marivan, thanks to the activity of a group of archaeologists from the University of Hamadan (Mohammadifar and Motarjem 2003; see Bibliography). The QaNaTES Project intends to clarify the nature and spatial organisation of the archaeological cultures developed further south in a complex geomorphological context, independent but related to the geology of the Zaribar basin.