HAZAR
MERD CAVE
![](hazarmerdcave%A0.jpg)
Hazar
Merd Cave shown within Iraq
![](640px-Hazar_Merd_1928.jpg)
Hazar
Merd Caves
Location
: south-southwest of Sulaymaniyah
Region
: Sulaymaniyah Governorate, Iraqi Kurdistan, Iraq
Coordinates
: 35°28'56 N 45°16'38 E
Hazar
Merd is a group of Paleolithic cave sites excavated by Dorothy Garrod
in 1928. The caves are located south-southwest of Sulaymaniyah in
Sulaymaniyah Governorate in Iraq. Garrod's soundings in two caves
in the Hazar Merd group provided evidence of Middle and Epi-Paleolithic
occupation.The Dark cave or Ashkawty Tarik in Kurdish has a commanding
view of the local valley and is close to a small spring and a village
with the same name.
Dark
Cave has a single lofty chamber 11 by 12 m wide. The Mousterian
layer, level C, is over 3 m thick, containing many hearths and burnt
flints and bones. The stone tool assemblage, of flint and chert,
is dominated by side scrapers and Mousterian points, with no evidence
of the Levallois technique. In the lowest reaches of level C, but
still within Mousterian layers, two hand-axes were found. Side-scrapers
slightly decrease in popularity towards the top of level C.
The
faunal assemblage, although fragmentary, again shows a completely
modem aspect, with bones from wild goat, red deer, gazelle, field
mouse, mole rat, hare, bat and several birds of woodland and scrub
habitat. This evidence, and that from the presence of snails of
the species Helix salomonica, indicates a mixed environment of woodland,
grassland and scrub, much as exists today. A smaIl sounding in the
adjacent Water Cave also revealed evidence of Mousterian occupation.
Garrod
did not keep all the excavated material and she only kept those
pieces that were topologically informative. Remaining pieces were
thrown away at the site.
Hazar
Merd and Shanidar Cave are the only excavated Middle Palaeolithic
sites in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Source
:
https://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Hazar_Merd_Cave