The Hazar Merd Cave Revisiting Project forms part of the Last Neanderthals ERC Synergy Grant, an interdisciplinary research initiative aimed at reconstructing human evolutionary history between approximately 60,000 and 30,000 years ago.

In May 2025, renewed excavations were initiated at the Hazar Merd cave complex. These excavations represent the first systematic re-investigation of the site since its original exploration by Dorothy Garrod in 1928, making Hazar Merd one of the earliest Palaeolithic sites excavated in the Zagros Mountains. Garrod’s pioneering work identified a stratified sequence comprising four major archaeological layers, spanning the Lower, Middle, and Upper Palaeolithic, as well as later Bronze Age occupation.

Although groundbreaking for its time, the early excavations were conducted prior to the development of modern excavation techniques, absolute dating methods, and detailed paleoenvironmental analyses. Hazar Merd Cave is located in the Sulaymaniyah (Slemani) district of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, within the central Zagros Mountains, a region widely recognised as a key biogeographic and cultural corridor linking the Levant, Mesopotamia, and the Iranian Plateau.

The site lies approximately 178 km southeast of Shanidar Cave, one of the most iconic Neanderthal sites in Southwest Asia. Its geographic position makes Hazar Merd particularly significant for investigating Neanderthal settlement patterns, mobility, and adaptation within the Zagros foothills. The renewed excavations aim to reassess the site’s stratigraphy using modern methodologies, establish a robust chronological framework, and recover new archaeological, faunal, and sedimentary data.

By doing so, the project seeks to clarify the role of Hazar Merd Cave in broader regional processes, including Neanderthal persistence, population dynamics, and potential interactions with incoming modern human groups during the Late Pleistocene.