Thanks to the @antiquity.ac.uk team for making this cool video summarising our recent paper, featuring drone footage from the steppe hero @peterjbrown.bsky.social himself!

Our work, led by @dl-arch.bsky.social and Miljana Radivojević on the Bronze Age site at Semiyarka (NE Kazakhstan) published today in @antiquity.ac.uk

In this article, our Honorary Fellow in Archaeology @peterjbrown.bsky.social sheds new light on the story of the Zanj rebellion – a slave revolt that took place in the late 9th century in southern Iraq. Peter and his team have unearthed the timelines. Read more 👉 www.durham.ac.uk/research/cur...

My piece in The Conversation @africa.theconversation.com based on our recent article in @antiquity.ac.uk Read the original article here: doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

Earthworks cover southern Iraq, built by slave labour during the Early Islamic period A slave rebellion was thought to have caused their abandonment, but new research suggests other factors, such as Mongol invasion and the plague, were responsible 🏺 #Archaeology Learn more 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

Did enslaved people build the monumental agricultural earthworks of Early Islamic Iraq? #MedievalMonday 🏺 Scientific #archaeology sheds light on the impact of the Zanj rebellion, Mongol invasion, plague and climate change on the Iraqi landscape. Learn more 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

Around 1,200 years ago in what is now Iraq, enslaved people who were forced to build a vast canal system defied authority and rebelled www.livescience.com/archaeology/...

NEW Did a slave revolt cause the decline of medieval farming in southern Iraq? 🏺 New dates suggests earthworks in the region stayed in use following the 9th-century-AD Zanj rebellion, questioning the traditional historical narrative. Learn more 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

More coverage of our recent research in @antiquity.ac.uk Read the original paper here: doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

The Shatt al-Arab floodplain, an agricultural system outside of the Iraqi city of Basra, was likely dug by enslaved Africans exploited by the Abbasid Caliphate in the 9th century A.D. archaeology.org/news/2025/06/05/enslaved-africans-built-ancient-agricultural-system-in-southern-iraq/

A fascinating and highly thought provoking volume!

🏺 Recent research suggests that thousands of earthen ridges and canals in the Shatt al-Arab floodplain outside Basra in Iraq, part of an ancient agricultural system, were constructed with slave labour during the early Islamic period associated with the 'Zanj rebellion'. #Archaeology #Iraq

📰 Discovery of over 7000 earthworks in southern Iraq offers fresh insight into slavery during the early Islamic Period #AntiquityResearch #ArchaeologyNews via @arcdurham.bsky.social‬ www.durham.ac.uk/news-events/...

New dating of ridges in southern #Iraq show the agricultural system developing not only in the 800s, but until the 1200s This was the landscape at one point worked by the Zanj, slaves from sub-Saharan Africa whom I talked about in my @archumanities.bsky.social book The Medieval Persian Gulf

Coverage of our article published in @antiquity.ac.uk. Full paper available here: doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

News article on our new paper www.independent.co.uk/news/science...

A slave revolt, Mongol invasion, spread of plague and climate change. Find out how agricultural features in southern Iraq can teach us about all of these in this great thread, then check out the new Research Article in Antiquity 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

Our latest article is out today. It describes results of remote sensing and OSL dating of archaeological earthworks near Basra in Iraq. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Our new article published today in @antiquity.ac.uk focuses on interesting archaeological landscape features in southern Iraq. Groups of long linear earthen ridges sit on the banks of the Shatt al-Arab river in the Basra region, north of the shores of the Gulf… 🧵