Masnaa

Masnaa

Masna’a

• Project name:

  Haditha Dam Salvage Project

• Site type:

  Lithic site

  Location:

  Iraq
  Near the Haditha Dam on the Euphrates
  Mesopotamia

  Dating:

  – Lower Paleolithic (500,000–200,000 BC)
  – Middle Paleolithic (200,000–40,000 BC)
  – Upper Paleolithic (40,000–10,000 BC)

Most interesting finds:

– Lower Paleolithic hand axes and pebble tools belonging to the oldest finds in Iraq
– Levallois and Mousterian tools

History of research:

Dates of PCMA research:

1981–1983

Type of research:

Excavations

Project directors:

Stefan Karol Kozłowski
Waldemar Chmielewski

Partners:

– Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology of the University of Warsaw
– Directorate of Antiquities of the Republic of Iraq

Description of site and research results:

Complex of mainly Paleolithic sites located in the meander of the Euphrates, where a sequence of Pleistocene river terraces was preserved. The oldest Lower Paleolithic tools are single finds from secondary deposits. The richest assemblage of finds dates to the Middle Paleolithic and is related to the material of Levallois and Mousterian type from the Levant and the Syrian Desert and to the finds from the Shanidar Cave.