Archaeologists at an ancient site in Iraq have uncovered rare cuneiform tablets, mass graves, and evidence of a large-scale siege nearly 4,000 years old, giving researchers what they call the clearest record yet of Bronze Age urban warfare in the region.
The site, Kurd Qaburstan, lies in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq and is believed to be the ancient city of Qabra. Tiffany Earley-Spadoni, an associate professor of history at the University of Central Florida, led the excavations over two field seasons in 2024 and 2025 with U.S. National Science Foundation support.
Inside a structure called the Lower Town East Palace, researchers recovered 20 cuneiform tablets and more than 100 administrative sealings, the largest tablet find yet made on the Erbil Plain.
The records include palace administrative texts and a letter tied to a senior official. Several bear dates cluster within the same few days, a pattern consistent with the city’s documented fall. Earley-Spadoni said the tablets offer a detailed look at palace operations and the city’s economy in its final days.
Within the same destruction layers, researchers found the remains of 17 people. Bioarchaeologist Andrea Zurek-Ost of Michigan State University is studying the individuals.
None had been given a formal burial or left with belongings, and some appear to have died where they lay. One person was found collapsed across a stone basin.
A dig in northern Iraq has yielded rare cuneiform tablets, mass graves and a 4,000-year-old siege record that brings a forgotten ancient city back to life. pic.twitter.com/VGssXIZjt0
— Tom Marvolo Riddle (@tom_riddle2025) June 11, 2026
The site also showed two overlapping destruction events matching historical records of Qabra’s siege and conquest by Assyrian king Shamshi-Adad. Charred debris, fallen walls, and broken pottery point to a prolonged assault, making it the most complete archaeological case of Middle Bronze Age siege warfare identified in northern Mesopotamia.
Earley-Spadoni said the rare tablets, mass graves, and other findings from the Iraq site make clear that northern cities like Qabra were as organized and politically significant as the more familiar southern centers of ancient Mesopotamia.
A magnetic survey of more than 80 hectares uncovered a large fortification wall with towers encircling the site, matching the layout shown on the “Victory Stele of Dadusha,” an ancient monument tied to the siege.
Researchers also found a preserved street with an engineered drainage system and spaces used for food preparation and textile work.
Laboratory analysis is continuing, including DNA and isotopic testing on the 17 individuals to trace their origins and determine whether they were related.
