Memories of a travel to the Shanidar cave and the ancient village of Barzan. Estimated reading time:
Memories of a travel to the Shanidar cave and the ancient village of Barzan. Estimated reading time: 6 min. Version française |Versione italianaWe’ve asked Yves Ubelmann, Iconem CEO, to narrate us about his travel to the Kurdish region of Northern Iraq, bringing us with him in those fascinating places through his stories. After Akre, he and Julien Buteau, stopped near Barzan, to digitize and ancient cave and visit a traditional village. When we moved to Barzan, we visited mainly two sites, the Neanderthal cave of Shanidar and the traditional village that is almost totally abandoned. In this cave, between 1957 and 1961, the archaeological remains of ten Neanderthal burials were discovered. They date back to a remote past, I’m talking about 35,000-65,000 years ago!One of these inhumations seems to have been very important to anthropologists as it had the pollen of some flowers on the ground underneath the body of the burial number IV.This could be the very first evidence of funerary rites in Neanderthal culture…Despite the rain and the short time available, we managed to make a good 3D survey. The beauty of this place and its charm lies in the marvelous importance of the archaeological discovery that has been made, I felt a mysterious aura around the cave.We were able to scan the site thoroughly, starting from the outside, the rocky wall, up into the cave.Now we have a lot of photos of the inside of the cave, as well as several video drone where you can admire the majesty of the cave. The red dot indicates the position of Barzan, northern Iraq.Here we have been in front of the traditional architecture of the Christian society that has lived here for a long time. Now the old village is abandoned, only few modern cemented structures are still inhabited.The ancient village is very particular, the houses for example have roofs made up with earth and the grass is growing on them. I can say that architecture is fully integrated with the ecosystem and the surrounding nature!By entering one of these abandoned homes, we found many of the tools that were used, for example, I remember a tool that was used to flatten the ground.We were in a real traditional society made of gestures and tools that are now slowly disappearing.There are still the remains of the traditional techniques that were used in the everyday life and the remains of the tools that few now know how to use because the population has moved and left these activities.The village church is probably one of the oldest Christian churches in the Kurdish region of Northern Iraq. To the third part of the travel diary -- source link