2021 The Iron Age in the northern Zagros as seen from the Dinka Settlement Complex in the Peshdar Plain.” In Tamás Dezső & Gábor Kalla (eds.), The Archaeology of the Riparian Region of Iraqi Kurdistan (Budapest: Eötvös Loránd University, 2021) 73-92 (with F.J. Kreppner & A. Squitieri) By Karen Radner, Janoscha Kreppner, and Andrea Squitieri

https://www.academia.edu/82320064/2021_The_Iron_Age_in_the_northern_Zagros_as_seen_from_the_Dinka_Settlement_Complex_in_the_Peshdar_Plain_In_Tam%C3%A1s_Dezs%C5%91_and_G%C3%A1bor_Kalla_eds_The_Archaeology_of_the_Riparian_Region_of_Iraqi_Kurdistan_Budapest_E%C3%B6tv%C3%B6s_Lor%C3%A1nd_University_2021_73_92_with_F_J_Kreppner_and_A_Squitieri_?nav_from=53bc679e-5d0a-4379-a20a-0d4a5eab09aa Not only the transformation processes prompted by various regions' integration into the Assyrian Empire, but also the makeup of the local Early Iron Age societies prior to the Assyrian presence, have found much attention from archaeologists in recent decades. However, the initial focus of such research was firmly on the northern provinces of the Assyrian Empire in present day south-eastern Turkey and the western provinces in modern Syria, where great advances had been achieved through increased field research, especially from the 1990s onwards. On the other hand, the situation in the eastern provinces remained virtually unknown as no significant field research could be carried out in the Zagros Mountains on Iraqi territory since the 1960s, due to regional and international armed conflict, including the Iran-Iraq War and the three Gulf Wars. As a result, only very limited archaeological data was available on the eastern provinces and the indigenous Early Iron Age societies of the Zagros Mountains. Field research in the Autonomous Region of Kurdistan in north-eastern Iraq, as it has been undertaken since 2009, can help decisively here. Since 2015, excavations and geophysical prospections conducted by the Peshdar Plain Project in the so-called Bora Plain, located about 3 km south of the modern town of Qaladze, have revealed an extended Iron Age settlement of around 60 ha (judging by the spread of the surface Iron Age pottery), for which the available radiocarbon dates indicates a settlement development from the last quarter of the 13th to the 6th century BC. Since the ancient name of the settlement is currently unknown and its extent encompasses two previously identified archaeological sites, Gird-i Bazar and Qalat-i Dinka, we call it the Dinka Settlement Complex (DSC) after the larger of the two sites. This paper uses data from DSC to explore the Iron Age in the northern Zagros before and during the Assyrian occupation of the region.