{"id":3671,"date":"2014-10-10T15:23:01","date_gmt":"2014-10-10T19:23:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/website\/?p=3671"},"modified":"2024-12-21T12:08:27","modified_gmt":"2024-12-21T17:08:27","slug":"erbil-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/erbil-revealed\/","title":{"rendered":"Erbil Revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/website\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/ebril-750x400.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3664\" src=\"http:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/website\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/ebril-750x400.jpg\" alt=\"ebril-750x400\" width=\"750\" height=\"400\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The 100-foot-high, oval-shaped citadel of Erbil towers high above the northern Mesopotamian plain, within sight of the Zagros Mountains that lead to the Iranian plateau. The massive mound, with its vertiginous manmade slope, built up by its inhabitants over at least the last 6,000 years, is the heart of what may be the world\u2019s oldest continuously occupied settlement. At various times over its long history, the city has been a pilgrimage site dedicated to a great goddess, a prosperous trading center, a town on the frontier of several empires, and a rebel stronghold.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.archaeology.org\/exclusives\/articles\/2363-%20kurdistan-erbil-excavations\">Read the article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 100-foot-high, oval-shaped citadel of Erbil towers high above the  [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archaeology"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Erbil Revealed &#8226; Andrew Lawler<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The 100-foot-high, oval-shaped citadel of Erbil towers high above the northern Mesopotamian plain, within sight of the Zagros Mountains that lead to the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.archaeology.org\/exclusives\/articles\/2363-%20kurdistan-erbil-excavations\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Erbil Revealed &#8226; Andrew Lawler\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The 100-foot-high, oval-shaped citadel of Erbil towers high above the northern Mesopotamian plain, within sight of the Zagros Mountains that lead to the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.archaeology.org\/exclusives\/articles\/2363- kurdistan-erbil-excavations\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Andrew Lawler\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AndrewLawlerAuthor\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AndrewLawlerAuthor\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-10-10T19:23:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-12-21T17:08:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/ebril-750x400.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"AndrewLawler\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"AndrewLawler\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.archaeology.org\\\/exclusives\\\/articles\\\/2363-%20kurdistan-erbil-excavations#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/erbil-revealed\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"AndrewLawler\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/cbc9a5140b6f2e4922d45f0726e70022\"},\"headline\":\"Erbil Revealed\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-10-10T19:23:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-12-21T17:08:27+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/erbil-revealed\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":98,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/cbc9a5140b6f2e4922d45f0726e70022\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.archaeology.org\\\/exclusives\\\/articles\\\/2363-%20kurdistan-erbil-excavations#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/website\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/10\\\/ebril-750x400.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Archaeology\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/erbil-revealed\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.archaeology.org\\\/exclusives\\\/articles\\\/2363-%20kurdistan-erbil-excavations\",\"name\":\"Erbil Revealed &#8226; Andrew Lawler\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.archaeology.org\\\/exclusives\\\/articles\\\/2363-%20kurdistan-erbil-excavations#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.archaeology.org\\\/exclusives\\\/articles\\\/2363-%20kurdistan-erbil-excavations#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/website\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/10\\\/ebril-750x400.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-10-10T19:23:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-12-21T17:08:27+00:00\",\"description\":\"The 100-foot-high, oval-shaped citadel of Erbil towers high above the northern Mesopotamian plain, within sight of the Zagros Mountains that lead to the\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.archaeology.org\\\/exclusives\\\/articles\\\/2363-%20kurdistan-erbil-excavations#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.archaeology.org\\\/exclusives\\\/articles\\\/2363-%20kurdistan-erbil-excavations\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.archaeology.org\\\/exclusives\\\/articles\\\/2363-%20kurdistan-erbil-excavations#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/website\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/10\\\/ebril-750x400.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/website\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/10\\\/ebril-750x400.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.archaeology.org\\\/exclusives\\\/articles\\\/2363-%20kurdistan-erbil-excavations#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Erbil Revealed\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Andrew Lawler\",\"description\":\"Andrew Lawler is author of four books\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/cbc9a5140b6f2e4922d45f0726e70022\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/cbc9a5140b6f2e4922d45f0726e70022\",\"name\":\"AndrewLawler\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/content\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/02\\\/ST-LawlerJacketPic-1x1.jpg\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/content\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/02\\\/ST-LawlerJacketPic-1x1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/content\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/02\\\/ST-LawlerJacketPic-1x1.jpg\",\"width\":1920,\"height\":1920,\"caption\":\"AndrewLawler\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/content\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/02\\\/ST-LawlerJacketPic-1x1.jpg\"},\"description\":\"Andrew Lawler is author of three books, Under Jerusalem: The Buried History of the World\u2019s Most Contested City, The Secret Token: Myth, Obsession, and the Search for the Lost Colony of Roanoke, a national bestseller, and Why Did the Chicken Cross the World?: The Epic Saga of the Bird that Powers Civilization. As a journalist, he has written more than a thousand newspaper and magazine articles from more than two dozen countries. His byline has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, National Geographic, Smithsonian, and many others. He is contributing writer for Science and contributing editor for Archaeology. Andrew\u2019s work has appeared several times in The Best of Science and Nature Writing.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/AndrewLawlerAuthor\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.linkedin.com\\\/in\\\/andrew-lawler-9b5a064a\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/LawlerAndrew\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.youtube.com\\\/channel\\\/UCsliIwdDC_wPYE01Se2zzAw\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Erbil Revealed &#8226; Andrew Lawler","description":"The 100-foot-high, oval-shaped citadel of Erbil towers high above the northern Mesopotamian plain, within sight of the Zagros Mountains that lead to the","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.archaeology.org\/exclusives\/articles\/2363- kurdistan-erbil-excavations","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Erbil Revealed &#8226; Andrew Lawler","og_description":"The 100-foot-high, oval-shaped citadel of Erbil towers high above the northern Mesopotamian plain, within sight of the Zagros Mountains that lead to the","og_url":"https:\/\/www.archaeology.org\/exclusives\/articles\/2363- kurdistan-erbil-excavations","og_site_name":"Andrew Lawler","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AndrewLawlerAuthor","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AndrewLawlerAuthor","article_published_time":"2014-10-10T19:23:01+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-12-21T17:08:27+00:00","og_image":[{"width":750,"height":400,"url":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/ebril-750x400.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"AndrewLawler","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"AndrewLawler","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.archaeology.org\/exclusives\/articles\/2363-%20kurdistan-erbil-excavations#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/erbil-revealed\/"},"author":{"name":"AndrewLawler","@id":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/#\/schema\/person\/cbc9a5140b6f2e4922d45f0726e70022"},"headline":"Erbil Revealed","datePublished":"2014-10-10T19:23:01+00:00","dateModified":"2024-12-21T17:08:27+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/erbil-revealed\/"},"wordCount":98,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/#\/schema\/person\/cbc9a5140b6f2e4922d45f0726e70022"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.archaeology.org\/exclusives\/articles\/2363-%20kurdistan-erbil-excavations#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/website\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/ebril-750x400.jpg","articleSection":["Archaeology"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/erbil-revealed\/","url":"https:\/\/www.archaeology.org\/exclusives\/articles\/2363-%20kurdistan-erbil-excavations","name":"Erbil Revealed &#8226; Andrew Lawler","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.archaeology.org\/exclusives\/articles\/2363-%20kurdistan-erbil-excavations#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.archaeology.org\/exclusives\/articles\/2363-%20kurdistan-erbil-excavations#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/website\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/ebril-750x400.jpg","datePublished":"2014-10-10T19:23:01+00:00","dateModified":"2024-12-21T17:08:27+00:00","description":"The 100-foot-high, oval-shaped citadel of Erbil towers high above the northern Mesopotamian plain, within sight of the Zagros Mountains that lead to the","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.archaeology.org\/exclusives\/articles\/2363-%20kurdistan-erbil-excavations#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.archaeology.org\/exclusives\/articles\/2363-%20kurdistan-erbil-excavations"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.archaeology.org\/exclusives\/articles\/2363-%20kurdistan-erbil-excavations#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/website\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/ebril-750x400.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/website\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/ebril-750x400.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.archaeology.org\/exclusives\/articles\/2363-%20kurdistan-erbil-excavations#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Erbil Revealed"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/","name":"Andrew Lawler","description":"Andrew Lawler is author of four books","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/#\/schema\/person\/cbc9a5140b6f2e4922d45f0726e70022"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/#\/schema\/person\/cbc9a5140b6f2e4922d45f0726e70022","name":"AndrewLawler","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/ST-LawlerJacketPic-1x1.jpg","url":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/ST-LawlerJacketPic-1x1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/ST-LawlerJacketPic-1x1.jpg","width":1920,"height":1920,"caption":"AndrewLawler"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/ST-LawlerJacketPic-1x1.jpg"},"description":"Andrew Lawler is author of three books, Under Jerusalem: The Buried History of the World\u2019s Most Contested City, The Secret Token: Myth, Obsession, and the Search for the Lost Colony of Roanoke, a national bestseller, and Why Did the Chicken Cross the World?: The Epic Saga of the Bird that Powers Civilization. As a journalist, he has written more than a thousand newspaper and magazine articles from more than two dozen countries. His byline has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, National Geographic, Smithsonian, and many others. He is contributing writer for Science and contributing editor for Archaeology. Andrew\u2019s work has appeared several times in The Best of Science and Nature Writing.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AndrewLawlerAuthor","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/andrew-lawler-9b5a064a\/","https:\/\/x.com\/LawlerAndrew","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCsliIwdDC_wPYE01Se2zzAw"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3671\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}