<home # start here # guides # builds # services # shop # about # categories>

Nemrik 9 is one of the most important early Neolithic settlements in the Upper Tigris / Kurdish foothills zone of northern Iraq (Dohuk Governorate). It spans a long sequence from the late PPNA into the early/middle PPNB (9800–8200 BC), and is crucial for understanding how round-house villages evolve toward more complex Neolithic settlement systems in the eastern Fertile Crescent.

It is a tell (multi-layer settlement mound), almost 2 hectares in size. It was excavated by the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology (University of Warsaw)
Stefan K. Kozłowski, Karol Szymczak during the Saddam Dam salvage project in 1985–1987.

Architecture begain in the PPNA, it went from round into a more evolving village system
PPNA. circular mudbrick houses, semi-subterranean floors, internal benches and hearths and postholes for roof supports; and
PPNB. More regularized circular buildings, increasingly planned layouts and early hints of internal compartmentalization.
Key point. Still not fully rectangular like later PPNB in the Levant and Anatolia. It became famous because it shows round-house villages becoming more architecturally complex before full rectangular domestic standardization

Nemrik 9 is one of the clearest PPNA/early PPNB sites with courtyard-like shared spaces, clustering of houses around open areas, special activity zones and collective construction behaviour
Some interpretations suggest semi-communal architecture and shared exterior spaces used for processing, gatherings, or ritual activity. But there are no monumental “Göbekli Tepe like” enclosures. Communal life is village-scale, not ceremonial megastructure scale

Farming shows plants: einkorn & barley
Key findings (including dental calculus and charred remains) were wild einkorn wheat (Triticum boeoticum) and wild barley (Hordeum spontaneum). Legumes: bitter vetch, peas, lentils, pistachio and other wild tree resources. Cereal microfossils show C3 cool-season grasses (wheat/barley family) but early phases are not fully domesticated agriculture yet.

Sequence
Late Epipalaeolithic. Mobile foragers;
PPNA. Wild cereal harvesting, early cultivation signals and sedentary settlement begins; and,
Early PPNB. Clearer domestication trends, more systematic cereal use and early animal management intensifies.
Farming at Nemrik is a gradual transition, not a sudden “agricultural revolution.”

Faunal evidence includes: wild gazelle and deer; boar and other forest edge game
Early sheep/goat presence (low frequency early on), and increasing importance of caprines in later phases.

Early phases = hunting dominant
Later phases = proto-pastoral shift begins
Full Neolithic herding expands later in Zagros/Upper Mesopotamia system

Nemrik 9 is a true multi-phase tell, not a single-occupation site
The main structure has 3 major settlement phases (older, middle, younger). Each phase contains building remains, occupation layers and surface pavements or ash layers. So Nemrik shows long-term repeated village rebuilding over centuries.

The site has been studied by Stefan K. Kozłowski (University of Warsaw), and Karol Szymczak. Using research tradition of the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology (PCMA) “Saddam Dam salvage archaeology” program
With later interdisciplinary work (zooarchaeology, archaeobotany and lithics). The Polish Neolithic Near East research tradition (PCMA Warsaw), integrated into a broader Near Eastern PPNA/PPNB studies.

Obsidian and flint networks
Nemrik is part of a major Upper Mesopotamian exchange corridor. Obsidian sources were eastern Anatolia (Lake Van region). But there are potentially multiple volcanic sources distributed via trade networks. Hasan Dag was about 800km west (488 miles).

There is abundant local flint/chert
Obsidian was probably used selectively (high value material).

Major finds included: Early village/social organization, Rich symbolic material culture, Transition economy evidence, and architecture evolution
Early village social organization: clustered round houses and shared outdoor spaces.
Rich symbolic material culture: carved stone objects, especially bird head sculptures and human/animal figurines.
Transition economy evidence: wild to managed cereals, and hunting to early herding. Plus, an architecture evolution, round houses becoming more structured and planned.

In the upper Tigris the early Holocene weather had more moisture than today, there was more mixed woodland-stepe landscape, ecological diversity, and climatic variability
More moisture than today. Stronger seasonal rainfall, more reliable rivers and springs;
Mixed woodland. Steppe landscape, oak–pistachio woodland belts nearby, grassy open zones for grazing;
High ecological diversity. Cereals in valley floors, nuts in uplands and game in forest-steppe edges; and
Climatic variability. Short dry/cold oscillations (early Holocene instability) but overall more productive than modern semi-arid conditions.
Nemrk was an ideal setting for early sedentary village.

Nemrik 9 represents a long-lived PPNA to early PPNB village in the Upper Tigris region where round-house architecture, shared courtyard spaces, wild einkorn and barley use, early caprine management, and symbolic sculpture all coexisted. During the transition from foraging to farming in a wetter and more ecologically diverse early Holocene landscape.

References: Kozłowski, S.K. & Szymczak, K. (Nemrik 9 excavation reports, Paléorient / Sumer publications);
Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology (PCMA Warsaw excavation archives);
Willcox, G. (early cereal domestication studies, Fertile Crescent);
Sołtysiak et al. (bioarchaeology and dental calculus studies); and
Nesbitt (archaeobotany of northern Mesopotamian PPNA sites).