Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Antichità

The cooperation project “Safeguard and Enhancement of Cultural Heritage in Iraqi Kurdistan”, led by the Department of Classics – Sapienza University of Rome, is rooted in an enduring experience which, since 2006, involves both Italian and Kurdish members in the field of cultural heritage management and promotion of local Museums of Erbil, Duhok and Sulaimaniyah.

The present project, in which the training represents a primal goal, is conceived on the integration of a wide range of activities that, carried out by several Italian professionals (archaeologists, numismatists, epigraphists, surveyors, architects and restorers) foresee the use of innovative technologies and methodologies applied to the cultural heritage. 

All the activities, aimed to meet the needs of local institutions in terms of capacity building, are primarily based on the following topics:

• The Paikuli commemorative monument of the the Sasanian king Narseh (293 – 302 AD) and its bilingual inscription (Middle-Persian and Parthian), with training in epigraphy and cataloguing of its inscribed blocks nowadays held in the Sulaimaniyah Museum. The collaboration with Studio 3r aims to support, through new technologies, the scientific research on the Paikuli inscription and to elaborate visual renderings of the monument elements.
• The numismatic collections belonging to the three regional museums, with preliminary examination, data recording, preservation, exhibit of the coins and isolation of modern forgeries.
• The Citadel of Erbil with training courses in archaeological investigations through the use of geophysical sounding methodologies, architectural and structural restoration, and topography, photogrammetry, GIS.

To support the practical phases of the training courses as well the cataloguing activities an integrative database has been developed in collaboration with Studio Bradypus.