[2] The site, then known as Kasr of Shomamok, was visited by Austen H. Layard in 1850 noting it was surrounded by an embankment and was divided in two parts by a ravine or ancient watercourse.

He reported that a local sheik had been excavating at the site and "had opened several deep trenches and tunnels in the mound, and had discovered chambers, some with walls of plain sundried bricks, others paneled round the lower part with slabs of reddish limestone, about 3 or 4 feet high.

[13] In the northern part of the tell a palace of Middle Assyrian ruler Adad-nirari I (c. 1305–1274 BC) was found with in situ inscribed floor bearing his name.

[17][18] From 2012 to 2020 the Erbil Plain Archaeological Survey used satellite photographs, drone photogrammetry, and surface collection to establish occupation patterns at number of sites in the region, including Qasr Shemamok.

[19] Surface finds and satellite image analysis suggests that there was a 30 hectare industrial area in a northern extension to the site.

Based on similar fragments found in the Late Bronze levels of the citadel its provenance was determined to be Qasr Shemamok, dating to before the Middle Assyrian period.

[24][25][26] A shabti (Egyptian funerary statue) fragment of the 'king-mother' Udjashu from the Thirtieth Dynasty of Egypt was found at Qasr Shemamok.

[28] Occupation at the site was light from the Hassuna, Halaf, Uruk, Ninivite V, Early Dynastic, Old Babylonian, through the Middle Bronze period.

[29] In the early portion of the Late Bronze period the site was under Hurrian influence, possibly as part of the Mitanni Empire.