5th-6th Century Church Uncovered Alongside Sasanian Fortress in Iraqi Kurdistan

Archaeologists from Goethe University Frankfurt and Erlangen-Nuremberg University have uncovered a church from the 5th or 6th century beside a Sasanian fortification in the Gird-î Kazhaw area of Iraqi Kurdistan. This research provides strong evidence for the existence of religious pluralism during the 5th and 6th centuries AD.

Based on the proximity of a site dedicated to Christian worship to a Zoroastrian structure, previous historians have suggested that Christians and Zoroastrians were at odds throughout this period. However, this new discovery challenges that narrative.

The excavation site revealed three nacelle pillars from one church and multiple pottery shards bearing a Maltese cross, which gives us a view of how different communities coexisted in rural Mesopotamia during the Sasanian period.

In 2015, the archaeological site Gird-î Kazhaw was located; it includes a large building complex that has been previously identified. Researchers have found that the stone columns and the brick floors correspond with building styles that were used when developing liturgy in early Christianity.

The location of the site, which is next to a Sasanian fortress, represents an area where early Christians cohabited with other faiths who were practitioners of the Persian faith of Zoroastrianism. This archaeological discovery provides another example of the recent focus in academia on looking at rural settlements that provided the social and cultural bases for economic prosperity, rather than focusing solely on the imperial centres.

The research team concluded that the remains of the structure would be identified as a church based on identifiable archaeological features. The excavations have uncovered five square pillars made from quarried stone, which are only partially covered in white plaster; taken together with an architectural plan that indicates a three-nave pattern, these features suggest strong evidence of early Christian church design from northern Syria and Mesopotamia.

Another piece of evidence indicating that religious worship occurred in this location was the recovery of a sherd of pottery that was decorated with a Maltese cross. This provides definitive evidence of Christian liturgical activity in this site during the time featured by the discovery of the five columns.

This study is part of a larger project looking into rural communities on the Shahrizor Plain. The researchers aim to develop a picture of the everyday lives of workers, farmers and followers outside royal capital cities. The church and the Sasanian fortress were both later built upon by an Islamic burial site, showing the evolution of culture and religion throughout the northern Iraq region for thousands of years.

Future research will incorporate archaeometry (archeobotanical and forensic anthropology) in order to learn about the health, nutrition, and basic infrastructure of the people who lived there.