Unexpected find.

Please be advised that this blog post contains photographs of human burials.

Our progress on the excavations at Kharaba Tawus was slowed by the discovery of several infant burials at the bottom of the plowzone at the site. Finding late unmarked graves is a common occurrence as archaeological sites are typically found on high ground, or on anthropogenic mounds created through long-term occupation in which the decay of mudbrick houses accumulates over centuries or even millennia of use. After settlements are abandoned and the buildings decayed, such high places are often chosen for informal burial grounds by locals and visitors alike.

We cannot say for certain when the burials were cut into the collapsed buildings of Kharaba Tawus. Modern plowing has truncated the burials, the locations of which were sometimes originally covered by a stone or a few potsherds. One of the infant burials was cut into an ancient pit which we think may be of Iron Age date, so that burial was later in time than the pit. If we are correct that the pit was of Iron Age date, then the burials must be more recent than the pit. Archaeologists would say that the Iron Age the terminus post quem.

This burial, possible of a neonate was badly disturbed in antiquity and few bones remain intact. The size and fragility of infant bones makes their preservation much less common than adult human bones.

That said, 2500 years separates the end of the Iron Age from the beginning of modern plowing, so our dating is very rough at this point. None of the burials contained any burial goods like pottery that would have helped us date the burials. The orientation of the bodies may suggest that they are Islamic which would narrow down the possible dates to the last 1300 years, but that is still a large date range.

This infant burial was also badly disturbed in antiquity. The cut made for the burial was deep and very narrow. In ancient times, infant mortality rates were very high. Although precise figures are not available, some scholars suggest that pre-modern mortality rates were as high as between one-third and half of children not surviving infancy.

In consultation with our government representatives, it was decided that given the unknown age but likely antiquity of the burials, the most appropriate action was to clean and briefly record the skeletons in situ, and then to collect the bones and ask our Kurdish colleagues to rebury them. We were informed that this was acceptable to local religious leaders and in line with common practice on archaeological sites in the region.