Field Notes

When Past And Present Collide!

Floods Threaten Ancient Assyrian City

Rising waters from a new dam scheduled to open in 2007 will submerge many of the temples, ziggurats and residences of Ashur, an ancient Assyrian city about 190 miles north of modern Baghdad, Iraq.

The Makhul dam will span the Tigris River, generating electricity and creating a 20-mile-long reservoir that will store water for Iraqi towns and agricultural areas during the dry season. The Iraqis claim that this massive project was necessitated by “hostile” Turkish neighbors who diverted water from the sources of the Tigris.

Massive hydroelectric projects are an accelerating trend in the Fertile Crescent, as developing nations struggle to build their economies. Turkey’s own thirst for reliable 013sources of water and electricity led it to construct the $1.5 billion Birecik Dam (below), which some two years ago drowned Zeugma, a 2,300-year-old Greco-Roman city on the banks of the Euphrates.

Archaeologists had frantically surveyed and excavated many of Zeugma’s villas and mosaics before floodwaters covered much of the site. (See Jessica A. Meyerson, “After the Flood,” AO 03:06)