Qualla: Kani Shaie https://qualla.com/kani-shaie en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:31 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/t/n/2/4/kani-shaie-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Kani Shaie https://qualla.com/kani-shaie Kani Shaie: Introduction https://qualla.com/kani-shaie/ Photo credit Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg), CC BY-SA 4.0. Sixty-two clay sealings, two cylinder seals, and a fragment of a gold pendant. That is what emerged from the dirt at Kani Shaie during recent excavations, artifacts from a time before writing, before bronze, before any kingdom had a name. This small archaeological mound, rising 15 meters above the Basian Basin at the western edge of the Zagros Mountains, holds roughly 7,000 years of human activity compressed into layers of earth and ash. Located 23 kilometers west of modern Sulaymaniyah in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, it is a place where the deep origins of civilization are measured not in chapters but in strata.

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Image: Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg) | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/n/2/4/kani-shaie-wp/tn24-kani-shaie-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Kani Shaie: Fifteen Layers Deep https://qualla.com/kani-shaie/ Photo credit Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg), CC BY-SA 4.0. The main mound at Kani Shaie covers about half a hectare, with a diameter of 75 meters at the base. A "lower town" extends northward. The site's primary occupation spans from the 5th millennium BC Chalcolithic period to the middle of the 3rd millennium BC Early Bronze Age, encomp...

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Image: Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg) | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/n/2/4/kani-shaie-wp/tn24-kani-shaie-fifteen-layers-deep.mp3 0:06 2 full Kani Shaie: Fire and Bowls https://qualla.com/kani-shaie/ Photo credit Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg), CC BY-SA 4.0. Markers of the Uruk culture, the world's first urban civilization centered in southern Mesopotamia, appear at Kani Shaie in Late Chalcolithic 2 and persist through Late Chalcolithic 4. Among the most telling artifacts are beveled rim bowls, mass-produced vessels believed to have ...

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Image: Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg) | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/n/2/4/kani-shaie-wp/tn24-kani-shaie-fire-and-bowls.mp3 0:06 3 full Kani Shaie: Grain, Seals, and the Shape of Authority https://qualla.com/kani-shaie/ Photo credit Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg), CC BY-SA 4.0. Excavations resumed in 2024 under a joint team from the University of Coimbra and the University of Cambridge, part of the Kani Shaie Archaeological Project first launched after surveys in 2012 and excavation seasons in 2013, 2015, and 2016. The 2024 campaign uncovered part of a ...

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Image: Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg) | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/n/2/4/kani-shaie-wp/tn24-kani-shaie-grain-seals-and-the-shape-of-authority.mp3 0:06 4 full Kani Shaie: A Monumental Discovery https://qualla.com/kani-shaie/ Photo credit Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg), CC BY-SA 4.0. The 2025 season yielded a find that reshaped understanding of the site. A monumental Late Uruk period building, dating to approximately 3300-3100 BC, was uncovered. It was adorned with decorative clay cones, a construction technique typical of Uruk culture that involved embedding...

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Image: Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg) | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/n/2/4/kani-shaie-wp/tn24-kani-shaie-a-monumental-discovery.mp3 0:06 5 full