Damage Assessment of Iraq’s Past: Archaeological Heritage Management on the Rania Plain, Iraqi Kurdistan

This paper advocates an increasing focus on damage assessment, monitoring and adaptation to the impact of urban development on archaeologically rich regions. As a case-study of the wider Middle East, this discussion focuses on archaeological strategies for damage assessment, monitoring and handling archaeological cultural resources on the Rania plain in the Kurdistan autonomous region of northeast Iraq. The pressures of modern development, with extensive infrastructure development, rapid expansion of population settlements and a hydro-electric dam, whose waters inundate a substantial proportion of the plain, make the recording of valuable cultural heritage a demanding task.