History is a black box, illuminated only by our faulty recollections and incomplete historical records. Things are so easily lost to time, from individuals and events to entire cities. What little information we do have about our own past sometimes reveals, or at least suggests, the existence of lost civilizations. From Atlantis to El Dorado, explorers have spent generations hunting for cities which might never have existed. Even those which might have existed have, over the centuries, been swallowed up by the world and hidden from view.
Natounia was one such city. Known only from a handful of coins, archaeologists were fairly confident it had been a real place — ancient peoples weren’t in the habit of minting money just for the fun of it — but any hint of its location was shrouded. Now, thanks to advancements in mapping technologies, it might have been found at the mountain fortress of Rabana-Merquly.
Michael Brown from the Institute of Prehistory, Protohistory and Near-Eastern Archaeology of Heidelberg University, along with Iraqi colleagues Kamal Rasheed Raheem and Hashim Hama Abdullah, uncovered the ancient city in the Zagros mountains with the help of drone mapping. Their findings were published in the journal Antiquity.
Parts of the city were uncovered in 2009, but the rugged terrain and dense coverage prevented researchers from seeing the full complexity of the settlement. They had originally believed it to be an isolated building with a few smaller out-buildings nearby.
“It’s pretty rugged terrain and difficult hiking. You have to hike up a little bit, fly around with the drone and map a section, but then you’re out of range. So, you have to hike up again and map a little more, over and over,” Brown told SYFY WIRE.
All the disparate mapping images were then gathered and processed, building a complete map of the area. Ultimately, researchers found a vast complex surrounded by a perimeter wall running roughly four kilometers.
“The perimeter wall is a mixture of cliff, towers, and walls. The comparison I always use is Helm’s Deep from Lord of the Rings. It’s pretty much that, but real. It’s a naturally defensible mountain, which I’m sure is why they chose it. Then, inside the wall are all sorts of diversified structures,” Brown said.
While the settlement would have served as a fortress, easily defensible from any adversaries, Brown and colleagues believe it had other more peaceful functions as well. Inside the walls are a number of buildings which indicate it might also have been a common point of trade and maybe even a pilgrimage destination. It’s possible, though unconfirmed, that the city also houses a unique alter to the goddess Anahita. During one of the team’s expeditions, the site was hit with heavy rains and a temporary waterfall formed in the middle of the complex. Researchers think that might have been by design.
“This is quite speculative, but in Zoroastrian religious practices, which would have been predominant in that area 2,000 years ago, there was a goddess called Anahita who could manifest as a waterfall. There’…….
Source: https://news.yahoo.com/helms-deep-did-drones-finally-235640179.html