Tell Kunara

Tell Kunara is an ancient Near East archaeological site about 10 kilometers southwest of Sulaymaniyah in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.

The excavators have speculated that the city, with its monumental buildings, was the capital of the Lullubi state.

[2][3][4] Tell Kunara consists of two oval mounds, the western one higher than the eastern, separated by a modern road.

The site was first visited in 1943 when Sabri Shukri of the Iraqi General Directorate of Antiquities in Baghdad conducted a survey, issuing a report dated November 10, 1943.

A geomagnetic survey at Tell Kunara showed signs of a monumental (60 meters by 30 meters) building in the Lower Town[7] It has been excavated in nine seasons since 2012 by a French National Center for Scientific Research team led by Christine Kepinski and Aline Tenu.

French Excavations at Tell Kunara. Akkadian-Lullubian, 2300–2000 BCE. Sulaymaniyah Governorate, Republic of Iraq, 3 October 2019
Clay tablet, freshly excavated, covered with mud to protect it. From Tell Kunara, Sulaymaniyah, Iraq. Akkadian-Lullubian, 2300–2000 BCE. Now in the Sulaymaniyah Museum, Iraq
Akkadian cylinder seal, late third-millennium BCE. From Tell Kunara, Tanjro Valley, Sulaymaniyah, Iraq. Sulaymaniyah Museum