IL MONUMENTO DI PAIKULI (KURDISTAN - IRAQ). RICERCHE E NUOVE ATTIVITÀ SUL CAMPO*

Abstract

The commemorative monument of Paikuli was built by the Sasanian king Narseh (293-302 / 3 AD) next to
the southern pass of the Qaradagh mountain range, about 100 km from the nowadays city of Sulaimaniyah.
The bilingual inscription (Middle Persian and Parthian), originally engraved on two walls of the structure,
specifies both the choice of the site and the historical context related to the monument construction. This
epigraphic evidence represents indeed one of the most significant internal sources on the early Sassanian period.
Since 2006 a joint team of Italian-Kurdish experts carried out research activities focused on the Paikuli
monument and the surrounding area. Both of them are today the object of a new Sapienza scientific project,
which aims to answering the many questions this outstanding site still raises among the scholarly public.
It is in fact in order to enhance the understanding of this context that the current activities are focusing on
the systematic documentation of the archaeological evidence and reconstruction of the Paikuli historical
landscape.