For five weeks, 19 March – 24 April 2013, we had the opportunity to conduct research in Iraqi Kurdistan, as part of a collaboration between our Archaeology 3D-project and Prof. Dr. Roger Matthews and Dr. Wendy Matthews’ Central Zagros Archaeological Project (CZAP) (University of Reading, UK). The archaeological research was conducted on a tell-site near Bestansur-I Kon, located southeast of Sulaymaniyah, capital of the Sulaymaniyah Governorate in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The excavation featured interesting Early Neolithic and Neo-Assyrian archaeology.

Providing a challenging case study for our research project, the image-based 3D recording of the excavation was our primary aim. Especially the fine layered stratigraphy present at this type of sites offered us an interesting test case to validate our recording methodology. However, besides the recording of the excavation, we also took the opportunity to experiment with the recording of a series of archaeological objects, including stone tools, clay tablets and a selection of small finds. The resulting dataset counts over 20.000 images, providing new challenges towards the accessibility and management, the post-excavation processing and the proper use, including the (3D)GIS integration, of this huge dataset. Trying to answer these questions, figuring out how we should deal with this kind of dataset and exploring it’s limitations an possibilities will be the main research objectives for the Archaeology 3D-project during the next few months. We hope to present some interesting updates on this work any time soon.

Also, we want to thank the whole project team for five incredible weeks in Iraqi Kurdistan!