Acknowledgments

We are very grateful to our colleagues in the antiquities organization of the Kurdistan Regional Government for their assistance and encouragement. In the Directorate-General of Antiquities, we are particularly grateful to Kak Kaifi Mustafa (Director-General) and Kak Mala Awat (Abubakir Othman) (former Director-General) for their support. In the Erbil Department of Antiquities, we are thankful for the invaluable support of Kak Nader Babakr and his staff.

We greatly appreciate the support provided by Kak Qubad Talabani, former KRG Representative, Washington, D.C.; and the extensive assistance supplied by Kak Najat Abdullah, director of culture and community of the KRG Representation in Washington, D.C., in acquiring our excavation permit and in many other areas.

We are also grateful for support from the National Science Foundation (grant BCS-1156171), the Johns Hopkins University, the University of Northern Colorado, the National Geographic Society, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, GardaWorld International Protective Services, and the Arthur and Isadora Dellheim Foundation.

The project is indebted to Jason Ur for calling attention to the potential for investigating Kurd Qaburstan, providing advice on initiating a field project in Kurdistan, and sharing the EPAS surface collection data from Kurd Qaburstan. Among our friends and colleagues in Erbil, we would especially like to thank David Michelmore for his generous hospitality, Manhal Shaya and Zagros Ako for their superb assistance with logistical and administrative issues, Paul Sutphin and Joseph Pennington, U.S. Consuls-General, and Jinnie Lee, Kim Krhoutek, Kari Paetzold, and the rest of the staff of the Consulate-General for their help. We are also very grateful to Julian Allen, Nicholas Bennett, Jessica Giraud, Kathryn Hanson, Jessica Johnson, Abdullah Khorsheed, Konstantinos Kopanias, Maria Grazia Masetti-Rouault, and Olivier Rouault for their advice and assistance.