TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Archeologists have discovered an ancient city called Idu in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq. Various inscriptions and works of art reveal the palaces that flourished in the city throughout its history a thousand years ago.

Located in the valley on the northern bank of the lower Zab River, the city becomes part of history when agricultural technology first emerged in Middle East. A village called Satu Qala now lies on the location.

Cinzia Pappi, an archeologist from Leipzig University in Germany said the city might have been under the Assyrian Empire control and used to administer the surrounding territory. The city gained its independence as the empire' power declined and it established its own government for 140 years until the Assyrians re-conquered it.

The name of the ancient city was revealed when researchers received an inscription from a villager with the city’s name engraved on it during a survey in 2008. Excavations were conducted in 2010 and 2011, and the team reported its findings in journal Anatolica.

"Very few archaeological excavations had been conducted in Iraqi Kurdistan before 2008," Pappi wrote in an email to LiveScience. Conflicts in Iraq over the past three decades have made it difficult for archeologists to work there.

The effects of recent history are evident on the mound. In 1987, Saddam Hussein's forces attacked and partly burnt the modern-day village as part of a larger campaign against the Kurds, and "traces of this attack are still visible," Pappi said.

LIVESCIENCE | GABRIEL TITIYOGA