What’s in a name?

I often get asked who gets to name archaeological sites. The answer is, “it depends”. Many large sites with either standing architecture or large mounded accumulations of occupational debris creating notable monuments (Kurdish, girdi) in the flat Erbil Plain have names stretching back centuries. Other sites have names commonly used by the locals but rarely put onto maps. The decision about naming a new, otherwise unnamed, site often falls to either the Directorate of Antiquities and Heritage, or to the landowner, or to the archaeologist.

Only one of the seven Sebittu sites actually had a name when I started work here in 2022, Girdi Tandura. It is the only site with a prominent tell and it is immediately adjacent to the village of Tandura. Tandur means ‘bread oven’, so literally ‘Mound of the Oven’.

The mound at Girdi Tandura.

In previous seasons, we established the names of two other sites: Kharaba Tawus (lit. ‘Ruins of the Peacock’) and Sirawa (lit. ‘Place of Garlic’) by asking local landowners or an official called a mukhtar, an Arabic title left over from the Ottoman Empire that denotes the head of a village or a small region. We commonly call on the mukhtar of the region just to let them know we are working here with permission and to ask that our equipment not be disturbed.

This season we have two new site names, both provided by landowners. Site #285 is now called Qazi Gol (lit. Qazi’s Pond, Qazi being a personal name). Qazi Gol is a low-lying spot near the western edge of Site #285 which we are told often fills with water, but not in September after many months of no rain.

The other name is Kharaba Farsa Kuzhraw for Site #292. This name literally translated, I am told by Rafeeq, means ‘Ruins Where Farsa was Killed’. Specifically this name is applied to the location of a water well on the site. I inquired about who Farsa was and got several possible answers. Farsa might have been a recent or historical individual, or Farsa may refer more generically to a horseman in the military. Perhaps it is reference to some specific fight or battle. My sources failed to clarify; perhaps nobody knows the answer.

When I submit my final report to the General Directorate later this week, I believe the names will be made formal, unless there is an objection. With thousands of nameless archaeological ruins, there is not a huge concern with what’s in a name. Except that I find it is easier to remember a name than a serial number, so I would very much like to all the Sebittu sites to be on the map with a locally-acceptable designation.