Charmo, the Oldest Village for Human Residence and the Place Where Agriculture Began

Charmo Village is one of the historical villages in Kurdistan that was the first place to have implemented agriculture. Its history traces back to 6750 BC. This village is located on a high mountain and it faces a large river that is one of the "Tawuq" River's branches. This village area is about 11000 to 16000 square meters and it is 2500 feet above sea level. This village is located on the right side of the Takye-Chamchamal route and it is about 13 km away from Chamchamal.

The historical monuments of Chamo were discovered by an Iraqi archeologist. Later, oriental archeologists from Chicago University in the US began to search this area for almost 2 years. Finally, 16 levels of monuments were found that were about 20 to 23 feet high. This is why it is known to belong to an ancient neo-stone era. This era is simultaneous to other monuments found in the Middle East.

However, in the higher levels that include five levels, agricultural cultivation zones have been found. "Bridoud" thought that this village had inhabitants for 400 years and later it was abandoned.

Charmo Village revealed many important points about Stone Era revolutions in Kurdistan, Iraq, and the Middle East, because the previous experiences of people can be found. The experts believe that in this village people began to collect seeds to cultivate them for the first time because those seeds were not very different from what could be found in the natural areas at that time. A lot of lentils and peas were found in the jugs that were found in this village that had turned into dust.

This is found in addition to the chestnuts that grew in this area naturally.

Those people who had lived in this village could domesticate animals such as "goats, pigs and sheep". It is clear that sheep had been domesticated much earlier in Charmo but the experts are not sure if cows were domesticated in Charmo or not and it is assumed that this animal must have been hunted with deer and pigs. The remains of these animals in this village are the main evidence that shows they existed here.

Not only in this village snails were found that were one of the food supplies at that time, but they were also found in most of the historical monuments in the Middle East.

At the same time, the farmers in Charmo Village were skilled architects. In the past, people used to make their houses in a circular form but in Charmo, the houses were made in a square shaped fashion. The people built their houses' walls with clay and made their roofs with wood logs. Every room was as large as 4 to 6 meters. And every house had more than one room.

As it is said the villagers were more than 150 individuals in 25 families.

The dishes, spoons, and needles found in this village were made of animal bones. This shows that the people who lived in Charmo had a developed way of making their daily used tools. Finding needles and spinning items indicates that they were able to sew and knit. It means they made their required tools.

Some clay statues were found in this village in the shape of different animals. People in Charmo used to bury their deceased ones inside their rooms. The statue of a pregnant and fat woman was found that was the goddess of nature and it was one of the examples of the Feminine God.

The Kurds have been interested in agriculture since ancient times and have paid great attention to it; even nowadays they are very serious in this field. They possessed fertile lands and made agriculture their economic source. This proves that Kurds have had an ancient history in this region and this village is proof to show that Kurdistan was a populated area from very old ages.

According to the research and as a result of the studies, Charmo is the oldest village in the world where people used to live and sedentism began with them. As the research was still going on, "Matosomoto Fotoshi", the ambassador of Japan in Iraq said: "I found the first clay jar that belonged to 7500 years ago. Our archeologist team found many items daily. It is very important to do archeological research in Kurdistan because the world needs to see that you are an ancient civilization, to inform people where they have come from so that you can establish your history by this evidence. Thus, Charmo is the world's identity generally and it is Kurdistan's identity particularly. It is a part of Kurdistan that is the source of civilization, sedentism, and agriculture."

The monuments found in Charmo can be regarded as a historical and old place and to be made into a touristic attraction. This is very important to be done.

KURDŞOP
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