The Paikuli Project began in 2006, after the 2nd Gulf war, under the direction of the applicant. At the time, it was run by IsIAO on the behalf of MAECI, in 2011, it came to be hosted by Sapienza-DiSA; in 2018 it won its first grant in the framework of the program "Grandi scavi d'Ateneo". Since the beginning, activities implemented in the Kurdish region of Iraq included both a scientific core - the study of the archaeology and epigraphy of the region - and a capacity building component, fostering best practices in the institutions dealing with cultural heritage.
Activities included in this proposal focus on the site of Paikuli, a monument built by the Sasanian king Narseh (293-302 CE) carrying a long and historically important bilingual inscription. The first season of excavation, in 2006, was accompanied and followed by several documentation campaigns, both on-site and at the Slemani Museum. In 2012, in order to create an archaeological map of the area, the project started an intensive survey of the entire valley where the Paikuli complex lays.
In the 2018 spring campaign the topographic documentation of the site and its environs was began and carried out to a significant extent in order to prepare the ground for a more in depth understanding of the site, through detailed on the ground archaeological surveys and stratigraphic excavations. In the 2018 campaigns the focus was on the documentation of the blocks laying about on the Paikuli hill and on topographic survey. The 2019 spring campaign has seen the start of stratigraphic excavation, while in June 2019 and in collaboration with MAECI and the Department of Antiquity of Sulaimaniyah, the Sapienza team opened at the Slemani Museum a new exhibition gallery to preserve and display to the inscribed blocks from Paikuli. Because of the pandemic emergency, 2020 activities focused on the implementation of digital archives and GIS, which was done in Italy. Once emergency will be over, field campaigns will start again.
The archaeological investigations planned to take place in 2020 and 2021 (A) intend to shed light on the structure of Narseh's monument through extensive archaeological excavation in different areas surrounding the tower itself. This kind of investigation has never been carried out before, except to a limited extent by our team. As suggested by the trenches already excavated, the stratigraphic excavation of the site will provide a wealth of new information on the context. This approach will be integrated by a detailed study of the building materials and related construction techniques (D). Likewise, petrographic analysis (E) can reveal the mineralogical and chemical composition of the limestone from which the blocks are carved, trying to understand if there is a selection of stone types employed for the different architectural elements and to monitor the weathering of surfaces. The overall static situation of Narseh monument will be analysed, with the aim of verifying its original static conditions and trying to understand the reasons of its collapse and prevent further damage.
The study of the inscription (C), further revealing the layout of blocks, will allow for a better understanding of the structure itself.
Topographic activities to be carried out in the parallel with the study of the sources (B; F), aim at studying the relation between wider site, royal complex and territory. All concurring activities are meant to have a remarkable impact on a more in-depth understanding of many yet unsolved questions.
Architectonic materials have been catalogued to a good extent in previous campaigns, nonetheless the precise plan of the monument and the role played by the different constituent parts cannot be fully understood at present stage. A more detailed study of the identified blocks, their features and differing shapes will lead to an innovative understanding, suggesting an alternative idea of the Paikuli 'tower', not an isolated monument, but the pivotal part of a ceremonial complex comparable to other Iranian royal spaces. In a broader perspective, the project exerts a noteworthy impact on the academic debate that, in the last decade, saw an increasing interest towards cross-cultural interactions characterizing royal sites in the area stretching from the Mediterranean world to Central Asia (Canepa 2015, 2018; Gnoli and Muccioli 2014; Sinisi 2017). Recent documentation campaigns on structural and decorative pieces and the five high-relief busts representing the king, highlighted inconsistencies in Herzfeld's reconstruction (Herzfeld 1924: 6). Such evidence led to a reconsideration of Narseh's figurative program that stressed the importance of this rare specimen of Sasanian sculpture in relation to the royal visual language. This line of research will be continued (Colliva and Terribili 2017). Today, the comprehensive study of the decorated pieces -stepped battlements, moulded blocks, three-quarter columns with huge, bell-shaped bases, etc.- adorning both the walls and their summit cornice deliver a new idea of the complex. The working technique used by Sasanian stonemasons may suggest the presence of royal ateliers that should allow comparisons with similar sites in the Iranian heartlands.
In spite of substantial losses, the inscribed blocks still preserve a striking linguistic and cultural legacy. Previous campaigns allowed us to identify 42 blocks and fragments of the bilingual inscription still lying on the site. These newly-studied blocks not only provided remarkable linguistic and historical data (Cereti & Terribili 2014) but also offered significant evidence for the comprehension of the architectural structure (Terribili 2016; Cereti, Colliva, Terribili 2019). In 2020 activities focused on the systematization of MAIKI digital archives and on GIS implementation providing important tools supporting the scientific research on the Paikuli complex and its landscape. The project of restoration of the five royal sculptures and the making of a new exhibition space at the Slemani Museum will dramatically enhance the visibility of the Paikuli Project and will rise attention to this remarkable site. Likewise, it will have a long-lasting impact on the Kurdish civil society and on the promotion of best practices in the field of Cultural Heritage preservation. It should be stressed that the main innovative aspect of the program lays in its interdisciplinarity; the Project involves experts from different fields such as archaeology, topography, hard sciences, history and epigraphy to reach a new understanding on a monumental complex that counts among the most important witnesses to the early history of the Sasanian Empire. Eventually, the involvement of local communities through fieldwork, dissemination and public archaeology actions, carried out in tight collaboration with local institutions, will foster a deeper awareness of the site importance among the community and support its safeguarding and enhancement.