Athar Alrafedain

The research deals with the most prominent civilizational achievements in the Metal Stone Age in prehistoric sites in Mesopotamia, and also deals with the most important cultural roles in this era that preceded the Early Dynastic Period.

Qoynajik hill is of cultural importance, as it includes the palaces and temples of the Assyrian kings. That is why it attracted the first excavators, starting with the British Consul Claudius Rich, who drew an accurate map of the city of Nineveh and conducted scattered excavations in the hill in 1820. His writings on the antiquities of Iraq, especially Quynajik Hill, stimulated European governments, as France sent Paul Emile Botta." To excavate in Nineveh in 1842, followed by Henry Layard, the British prospector, and his assistant, Hormuzd Rassam, in 1845, whose excavations continued until 1851. Because of the importance of his discovery, which adorns the British Museum, the English excavators continued their excavations in this hill, which was characterized by randomness, Until the prospectors corrected their course when Leonard Kink took over, and followed by Campbell Thompson and Max Mallowan.