[1] Garrod's soundings in two caves in the Hazar Merd group provided evidence of Middle and Epi-Paleolithic occupation.

it is referred to as Ashkawty Tarik in Kurdish, which means Dark Cave, it also has a commanding view over the valley and it's close to a small spring and a village with the same name.

The stone tool assemblage, of flint and chert, is dominated by side scrapers and Mousterian points, with no evidence of the Levallois technique.

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.