The Submerged Archaeological Sites of the Mosul Dam Reservoir Evaluating Emergence Patterns with a New Cost-Efficient Tool

Abstract

Resource extraction projects, on a par with major events such as natural catastrophes and armed conflicts, herald alteration to or destruction of both natural and cultural landscapes. Dam construc-tion, in particular, has become a topic of pivotal concern in modern archaeological discourse on the Middle East, since it represents one of the major threats to cultural heritage as a whole (Marchetti et al., 2020, and Eidem, 2020 with further references). Thus a single event may involve the intentional obliteration of hundreds of archaeological signatures. Most of them will never resurface, while oth-ers face a different destiny in that they periodically re-emerge due to annual or other cyclical water fluctuation processes. The destruction of such sites is ongoing, and a constant assessment of the damage is necessary, alongside planning documentation and maintenance strategies. This paper addresses this issue by proposing a new set of tools for the management of contiguous terrestrial and lacustrine cultural zones and, more widely, a new paradigm for their future safeguarding.