Archaeology and the ancient names of the old cities under Sulaimani in the light of the cuneiform & Classical records and the archaeological evidence
Authors:   Archeology Department, College of Humanities, University of Sulaimani, Marif Dilshad Aziz 
Published: May 2021

This paper deals with the ancient settlements in the plain where the city of Sulaimani found in 1874 A.D. In his book (Babylonian Problems) Lane (1923) proposes that modern Sulaimani built on the long-lost city of Celonae that was mentioned by the Roman historian Quintus Curtius Rufus (1st century A.D.) in his book "Histories of Alexander the Great.” Also, the Kurdish historian Amin Zeki in his book (The History of Sulaimani)1951, agrees with Lane, and he suggests that the name of modern Sulaimani’s name perhaps derived from the same name of Celonae. Many other historians and archaeologists repeat the same identification. In this paper, we investigated this identification, and we found that the city of Celonae was mentioned only once by the Roman historian Quintus Curtius Rufus (1st century A.D.) in his book "Histories of Alexander the Great,” he refers to the journey of Alexander the Great from Susa to Ekbatana, according to Rufus, on his way, Alexander camped in Celonae. We suggest a new identification for the Celonae Town in the northern edges of Garmian district at the foot or on the top of one of the mountains of the modern Qaradagh ranges, because, Alexander took the road from Susa to the north then east crossing the city of Sittake on the Tigris near Celucia/al-Madain, then moving to other cities along the road to the direction of the north-east, camped in Celonae, then moved to the east and reached Bagastana (Behistun) and after wards to Ecbatana, the capital of the Median Empire in (modern Hamadan). We found also, that the Assyrian royal inscriptions refer to a mountain called Siluna, the Assyrian king Adad-Narari III (811-783 B.C.) in his campaign on Namri and Media, after crossing the Lower Zab toward the east, first he mentions the mountain Siluna, where the sun rises, then he occupied Namri and crossed the other lands in the east to reach Media, and since Namri was the land of the Kassites (in the post-Kassite period) located in the area of Sangaw-Garmian-Qaradagh-Bamo ranges, we can conclude that the mountain Siluna and the city Celonae were located in the same place somewhere in Qaradagh ranges. In the base of the above-mentioned evidence, we can reject the previous identification of Celonai with modern Sulaimani. On the other hand, in this paper we discussed other identifications of modern Sulaimani with ancient cities and towns mentioned in the cuneiform records, for instance, Radner (2017), suggests that the Zamuan capital city of Arrakdi of the Lullubu people located under modern Sulaimani, but this is not a proper identification, because the city of Arrakdi was mentioned in the cuneiform records three times, and in all records they refer to the point that the city located beyond a roughed mountain, the Annals of Ashurnasirpal II refers that the city located at the foot of the roughed mountain Lara, and this mountain should be modern Lare mountain in the east of Shabazher district far east from modern Sulaimani. Also, the cuneiform tablet that was discovered in Sitak in Sharbazher district and that tablet also refers to Arrakdi. Also, we found that Spiser linked the village of Uluba (Ulubulagh) now it is a district in the southern east of Sulaimani, with the Lullubian City of Lagalaga, this identification only based on the similarities between the two toponyms. On the other hand, Abdulraqeeb Yusuf, suggests that the old village of Daragha, which is now a district in the eastern part of Sulaimani derived from the Zamuan city Dagara of the Lullubies, this identification also not appropriate one, because the village and district named after the name of a nobleman called Mr. Dara Agha, and there is no archaeological ruin in this district as well. The city of Sulaimani was built on an area where a huge archaeological Gird/Tell existed, the Babanian princes built their palace on this artificial hill and the administrative buildings to the east of it, when they dug for the foundations, they discovered coins, a stone with unknown script, and many jars, some of them big jars contained human skulls. In 2005, when the modern building Kaso Mall constructed on the northwest of the hill, we found two seals date back to Jamdet-Naser = Nineveh V period, and Ubaid potsherds, and some bull skulls, their horns cut with a sharp instrument. This evidence indicate that the city was built on a settlement date back to the 5th-4th millennium B.C. Other archaeological discoveries in Girdi Kunara and Girdi De Kon in the western part of the city at the bank of Qiliasan and Tanjero rivers, in Kunara many cuneiform tablets discovered there, we can link these sites also with the Lullubies in the third & second millennium B.C.