Choga Gavaneh Ziggurat Mound (Islamabad-e Gharb)
Choga Gavaneh · Chogha Gavaneh · Chopo Gavaneh ziggurat · Islamabad mound
Old Babylonian to Kassite (Middle Bronze)·Kassite / Highland Zagros·🇮🇷 Kermanshah Province, Choga Gavaneh — Islamabad-e Gharb plain (Chamchamal), Iran
About
About Choga Gavaneh Ziggurat Mound (Islamabad-e Gharb)
Western Zagros mid-2nd millennium ziggurat mound at Choga Gavaneh (Islamabad plain) — 60×60 m squared mudbrick platform ~15 m high with niched façade, devoted to storm god? Isolated highland ziggurat c. 1800–1600 BCE (Middle Bronze / Old Babylonian–Kassite horizon) with Kassite pottery and dedication to god? Excavated by Kamyar Abdi's Islamabad Archaeological Project (University of Michigan/Chicago, 1998–2001). Later Iron Age (Median) reoccupation with burnt pithoi. Only intact Zagros highland ziggurat after Sialk and Giyan; demonstrates Kassite mountain shrine network between Babylonia and Sialk.
Why it mattersOnly highland Kassite-period ziggurat firmly excavated; bridges lowland Mesopotamian ziggurats (Kish, Borsippa) to Central Plateau (Sialk).
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Owner god — Adad or Zagros storm deity
- 02Link to Kassite Babylonian expansion
Theories
- 01Kassite mountaineers built highland replica of Babylonian Nippur
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c. 1800–1600 BCE (Middle Bronze, Kassite-associated)
- Period
- Old Babylonian to Kassite (Middle Bronze)
- Culture
- Kassite / Highland Zagros
- Builders
- Kassite/highland polity
- Purpose
- Highland ziggurat shrine (storm god)
- Abandoned
- c. 1600 BCE (then Iron Age reuse)
- Rediscovered
- 1998 (Kamyar Abdi Islamabad survey)
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
c. 1800–1600 BCE (Middle Bronze, Kassite-associated)
Initial construction
c. 1061 CE
Abandonment
On the ground
Structures & features
34.0844° N · 47.4556° E · 1330 m · 2 mapped features
Choga Gavaneh ziggurat mass
ziggurat60 m square mudbrick ziggurat mound 15 m
34.0844° N · 47.4556° ENiched facade east
facade2 m projection niched plaster wall
34.0845° N · 47.4558° E