Nimrud’s Lower City Mapped: Where Most Assyrians Lived
Archaeologists keep digging the palaces of Assyria. A new map looks at where everyone else lived.
A team led by Daniele Morandi Bonacossi and Francesca Simi of the University of Udine has produced a high-resolution map of more than 800 acres around the acropolis mound of Nimrud, an Assyrian capital in northern Iraq. This area was once protected by nearly five miles of defensive walls, and it was home to most of the ancient city’s population. The Nimrud Lower Town Archaeological Project (NiLTAP) wants to reconstruct the daily life of the merchants, artisans and other non-elites of the Assyrian Empire.
How they mapped it
The team started with declassified satellite images, which showed that the lower city still has well-preserved walls, gates, streets and residential areas. It then used a differential GPS and a drone to build a digital terrain model. A walking survey collected and mapped visible pottery fragments across the whole area, and the combined data showed how settlement spread across the site from the third millennium B.C. through the Islamic period.
What is under the ground
Geophysical surveys in several parts of the lower city confirmed streets, neighborhoods, large building complexes, walls, kilns and pits. The team plans more geophysical surveys and excavations to check what it found.
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