Globalisation, the immense progress in communication and information technology, and the emergence of a new world order have raised the awareness of individuals and peoples alike. This, in turn, led oppressed and disenfranchised peoples to revolt and rise up against occupiers and against primitive, backward, racist, and totalitarian governments. It guided the changes that have occurred and are occurring in the Middle East and Southwest Asia—especially in the countries occupying Kurdistan—leading to the collapse of these backward racist regimes and the establishment of a semi-independent region in South Kurdistan. All these positive developments, which are in favor of the people of Kurdistan, have created excellent conditions for conducting objective scientific studies and research on Kurdish history to uncover the true landmarks of the Kurdish people’s civilization, history, ancient heritage, and the deep historical roots of their presence in their homeland. Thus, objective historical studies began to be conducted regarding the ancient history of the Kurdish people, exposing the attempts of racist occupiers to forge facts about Kurdish history and the ancient nature of its civilization and language. Therefore, I considered it appropriate to write a very brief overview of the deep historical extension of the Kurdish presence in Kurdistan, given that Kurdistan is the cradle of the first and second human lineages, to introduce Arabic-speaking readers to the history and civilization of the Kurds. This aims to contribute to building a confident Kurdish self-identity, free from feelings of inferiority and subordination resulting from the long period of Kurdistan’s occupation and the enforcement of the occupiers’ cultures, languages, and rule over the Kurdish people. Furthermore, the goal of this study is to write the history of the Kurdish people in a scientific, objective manner based on facts and reliable sources, and to refute the lies and fabrications of Kurdistan’s occupiers regarding the history of the Kurdish people, as well as their actions in canceling, obscuring, and distorting ancient Kurdish history while claiming the recent nature of the Kurdish presence in the region, thereby exposing their falsification of the history of this ancient people and revealing their deception of their own populations, given that Kurdistan is the cradle of human civilization.
Kurdistan is the cradle of human civilization based on the ancient artifacts discovered there. The American scientist, Professor Robert John Braidwood, states that the transition from a hunting lifestyle to an agricultural lifestyle occurred in North Kurdistan around 6000–10000 BC. He further adds that the Kurdish people were among the first peoples to develop agriculture and industry, and among the first to leave caves to live in houses containing advanced household tools for daily use. Agriculture and crop development have been present in Kurdistan for 12 thousand years, spreading from there to Lower Mesopotamia, then to Western Anatolia, then to the Iranian Plateau, and reaching North Africa eight thousand years ago, followed by Europe and India. This American scientist adds that many of the crops we know today, such as wheat, corn, and barley, originated from Kurdistan. Regarding industry, the aforementioned professor asserts that the archaeological site “Çayönü,” located in North Kurdistan, can be called the oldest industrial city in the world, as copper is extracted from it to this day, and clay tablets documenting trade exchanges were also found there.
In North Kurdistan, at the “Çayönü” site—which means “New Mountain” in Kurdish—located northwest of the city of Amed (Diyarbakır), artifacts dating back to more than seven thousand years BC were discovered. The number of dwellings ranged between 25 and 50 buildings, and it also contained a storehouse for preserving materials. The archaeologist Robert Braidwood and his excavation team also discovered at this site the oldest piece of cloth in the world, which was woven around 7000 BC. The “Çayönü” site is also considered the cradle of copper manufacturing, as several copper tools dating back to 7200 BC were discovered there (British Observations on Iraq in the Year 1797, translated by Dr. Khalid Farooq Omar, Arab House for Encyclopedias, Beirut, First Edition, 2000).
In South Kurdistan, in the “Zarzi” cave located near the headwaters of the Little Zab River and on the mountain slopes opposite Surdash, artifacts dating back to the Late Paleolithic era were found by the archaeologist Dorothy Garrod, and these artifacts are more than 12 thousand years old (Dr. Jamal Rashid and Dr. Fawzi Rashid Ahmad: Ancient History of the Kurds, Erbil, Dar Al-Hikma for Printing and Publishing, 1990, page 27). In the “Hazar Merd” cave located near the city of Sulaymaniyah, this scientist found primitive flint toolmaking, and her discoveries indicated that there was an increasing trend toward reliance on plant products, and that the cave dwellers knew agriculture and animal domestication (Seton Lloyd: Mesopotamia, translated by Dr. Sami Said Al-Ahmed, Baghdad, Dar Al-Rasheed, Iraqi Ministry of Culture and Information, 1980, page 22). Finds dating back to the Paleolithic era were discovered in the two aforementioned caves.
Furthermore, in 1928, the archaeologist Robert Braidwood from the University of Chicago discovered stone tools in the “Hazar Merd” cave dating back to the Middle Paleolithic era (one hundred thousand years BC), which are a collection of stone artifacts made by the human species known as “Neanderthal” (Dr. Taqi al-Din al-Dabbagh and Dr. Walid al-Jadir: Prehistoric Eras, Baghdad, Baghdad University Press, 1983).
The (Shanidar) cave is considered one of the most famous archaeological caves of the prehistoric eras in the Near East and the Western Asia region, as this cave is regarded as one of the oldest agricultural settlements in the world (Dr. Taqi al-Din al-Dabbagh and Dr. Walid al-Jadir: Prehistoric Eras, Baghdad, Baghdad University Press, 1983, pages 136–140). In “Shanidar” cave, the first Neanderthal human skeleton was found, dating back to the (Mousterian) Paleolithic era, which traces back to approximately fifty thousand years ago (Dr. Ahmad Sousa, Civilization of the Valley of the Two Rivers Between Semites and Sumerians, Baghdad, Dar Al-Rasheed, 1980, page 377). Professor Ralph S. Solecki discovered four human skeletons with Neanderthal characteristics in Shanidar cave between the years 1953 and 1957 (A. O. L. Vilchevsky: The Kurds: The Origin and Ethnographic History of the Kurdish People, translated by Dr. Ahmad Othman Abu Bakr, Shams Kurdistan Magazine, Issue 86, Baghdad, 1984). This cave is located in the Zagros Mountains at the northwestern edge of the Bradost range in South Kurdistan. Tests conducted by specialists indicate that the first settlement of Neanderthals in Shanidar cave took place 100 thousand years BC.
At the (Barda Balka) site located northeast of Chamchamal in South Kurdistan, numerous stone tools, mostly in the form of hand axes, were found dating back to the Paleolithic era, i.e., about (one hundred thousand years ago) (Dr. Ahmad Sousa, Civilization of the Valley of the Two Rivers Between Semites and Sumerians, Baghdad, Dar Al-Rasheed, 1980, page 352; Dr. Jamal Rashid and Dr. Fawzi Rashid Ahmad: Ancient History of the Kurds, Erbil, Dar Al-Hikma for Printing and Publishing, 1990, page 62).
An archaeological expedition from the University of Chicago, led by archaeologist Robert Braidwood, excavated the archaeological village of Jarmo, located at the foot of the Zagros Mountains east of the city of Kirkuk. The archaeological expedition concluded that ancient humans built a settled agricultural village in Jarmo more than 9000 years ago (Dr. Jamal Rashid and Dr. Fawzi Rashid Ahmad: Ancient History of the Kurds, Erbil, Dar Al-Hikma for Printing and Publishing, 1990, page 28), and between 100 and 150 people lived in this village. Artifacts were also found indicating that the ancient inhabitants of the village domesticated certain animals such as goats, sheep, and dogs, and that they cultivated wheat, barley, and peas to feed themselves and their animals (Abdul Fattah Ali Yahya: Kurdistan, Cradle of the Civilization of the Modern Era, Karwan Magazine, Issues 96 and 70, Erbil, 1988).
In West Kurdistan, in the (Dederiyeh) cave located near the village of “Burdj Abdalo,” a Japanese archaeological mission in 1992 discovered the bones of a five-year-old child dating back to one hundred thousand years ago. These recent discoveries proved that the region serves as the home of the first human lineage, and flint remains and a bone belonging to a prehistoric human from the Neanderthal period were also found there (Babi Reber: A Look at the Past and Present of Mount of the Kurds, Matin Magazine, Issue 29, pages 111–114).
In East Kurdistan, in the “Bisitun” cave located near Kermanshah, as well as in the “Tamtama” cave located near Lake Urmia, tools made of flint were found by the American anthropologist Carleton Coon in 1949. These tools resemble those discovered by Dorothy Garrod in the (Hazar Merd) cave, indicating that those who inhabited these caves belonged to the same type of humans—meaning that there was a common relationship between the groups that produced those cultural artifacts {Dr. Sami Al-Ahmed and Reza Jawad Al-Hashimi: History of the Ancient Near East (Iran and Anatolia), Baghdad, Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, page 39 (Publication date of the book is not mentioned)}.
The English Orientalist Professor Edward Browne states that the artifacts discovered in Susa in Elam are estimated to be around 20 thousand years old. This professor adds that if excavations in Susa continue, they will undoubtedly lead to the discovery of tools and objects even older than those already discovered (Edward Browne, A Literary History of Persia, translated by Ahmad Kamal al-Din Hilmi, Part One, Kuwait, 1984, page 185).
Note: The main source relied upon in writing this section is the article by historian Othman Yosefi, a researcher at the University of Tehran, entitled {History of Kurdistan (In Light of Archaeological Discoveries)}.
To learn about the artifacts discovered in Kurdistan in detail, the article mentioned in the link below can be reviewed:
