Mithraeum of Duhok

TNMM 171

In late August, the Director of Antiquities in Duhok (a.k.a. Dohuk or Dahuk) in Kurdish Iraq, Hasan Ahmed Qassim, announced his institution had unearthed a Zoroastrian temple of Anna Hita. The same brief article is reproduced in several publications and is not very easy to understand, e.g., ’[i]t is also said that it was a Metherani temple.’ By ’Metherani’ is meant ’Mithraic.’ The legend of the accompanying photo reads: ’The newly discovered Zoroastrian Temple near Jar Ston Cave near Duhok; The picture shows the inside of the cave. Photo: Kurdish Globe.’ This leaves unclear whether the picture shows the Jar Ston cave or one of the sanctuaries of the Zoroastrian temple. The temple is ’made up of five sanctuaries, three of which were carved into rock, with the remaining two having been constructed from stone blocks.’ This temple’s architecture is unique but its Zoroastrian character was confirmed by the presence of Anna Hita’s holy star, evidence of fires, fireplaces and ’holy sand stores [?] found nearby.’ No date is given. The religious affiliation is not addressed much either. This is not my forte, I’m afraid. For some information on Zoroastrianism, a religion going back to at least the time of the Achaemenid empire and still surviving in India and the US, see for instance Malandra. I do not know how the Mithraic element fits in. Also, Zoroastrianism has in Kurdish Iraq contributed to the sect of the Yezidis, present since at least the Islamic era (see Izady). I’ll leave it to experts in this field to clear these matters up.

A temple built by followers of Mithraism, a mystery cult that flourished throughout the Roman Empire from the second to third centuries A.D., has been discovered in Iraq’s northern Duhok province.

The temple, which consists of three parts, lies in the Badri Mountains in eastern Duhok, and includes a place for prayer facing the sun, the province’s antiquities director, Hassan Ahmed Qassim, said in a statement to the website of President Jalal Talabani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party.

“This discovery is important in helping to understand and learn the region’s history, and the important stages it passed through,” Qassim was quoted by Aswat al-Iraq newspaper as telling a news conference at Duhok University.

A temple affiliated with the Mithra religion, considered the first of its kind in the region, was discovered on the Matal Mountain of Baadri district, 45 km east of Duhuk, said the province’s archaeological director.