Excavations at Bestansur

The major aim of the 2021 season’s excavations at the Early Neolithic site of Bestansur was to expand the exposed area of Neolithic architecture to generate major new insights into the neighbourhood scale of occupation at the site. We achieved this aim by excavating Neolithic levels in two areas adjacent to Trench 10 where we have conducted excavations already for several seasons. During the course of excavations, we further augmented our recording procedures to develop our project geodatabase with the use of a GNSS system and FPV drone, the latter of which was kindly lent to the team by the Sulaimani Directorate of Antiquities and Heritage.

In Trench 10N and Trench 10W, we excavated Late Islamic levels, including a burnt building and stone walls dating to the 17th century AD, and an extensive activity area characterised by more than a dozen tanours, large storage features and basins. Underlying the later levels, major phases of Neolithic mudbrick architecture were identified in Trenches 10N and 10W, probably contemporary with the Building 8 and Building 5 phases in the central region of Trench 10. These Neolithic phases remain to be fully excavated in future seasons.

The architecture at Bestansur continues to demonstrate considerable knowledge of earthen construction techniques and elaboration. Building 9, the smaller building to the east of Building 5 in Trench 10, was well-constructed and had traces of probable red pigment on the eastern wall of the entrance portico, Space 51, and on at least two of the well-laid multiple floors of the ‘reception’ room, Space 61. Further excavation of burials was focused on eight individuals in Space 61 of Building 9 and the extended areas of Trench 10W and Trench 10N. While Buildings 5 and 8 have been the prior focus of human burials, this season increasing amounts of human remains were found in the extension areas of Trench 10.