Declassified 1970s-era US spy satellite images have led archaeologists to the site of a historic battlefield that ended in a bloodbath 1,400 years ago in Iraq.
They compared the imagery taken during the Cold War era with historical text of the Battle of al-Qadisiyah, finding the location in about 20 miles south of Kufa in the Najaf Governorate.
A six-foot-long structure was observed in the black-and-white photos, matching ancient accounts that led researchers to uncovering a deep trench, two fortresses and an ancient river that was once crossed by a elephant-mounted Persian troop.
The investigation also found pottery shards consistent with the time period when the battle took place.
The site, in what was previously known as Mesopotamia, was where the Sassanid Persian and Arab army fought in the Battle of al-Qadisiyah that ended the Muslims prevailing.
The Sassanids lost more than 20,000, while the Muslims lost more than 10,000.
The battle took place around 637AD and was a crucial victory for the Arab Muslims in expanding Islam beyond Arabia.
Dr William Deadman, archaeologist for the UK’s Durham University, said: ‘This discovery provides a geographical location and context for a battle that is one of the founding stories of the expansion of Islam into modern-day Iraq, Iran and beyond.’
The image, taken in 1973, was declassified in 2022 for for archaeological and historical research. Researchers used the photo and historic text to uncover the location of the ancient battlefield
The image was captured in 1973 by the HEXAGON ‘Search & Spotter’ satellite, which deployed over the Middle East during the Arab-Israeli war.
The US became heavily dependent on oil from the region, which saw an increase during the conflicts.
After the Iraqis signed a treaty with the Soviets in April 1972, however, US officials ‘particularly in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)’ agreed that the threat from Baghdad warranted attention with the use of spy satellites.
The image used by Durham University, along with archaeologists at the University of Al-Qadisiyah, was declassified in 2022 specifically for research.
The team stumbled across the site while undertaking a remote sensing survey to map the Darb Zubaydah (DZ), a pilgrimage route from Iraq´s Kufa to Mecca in Saudi Arabia built more than 1,000 years ago.
They found that a site some 20 miles south of Kufa in Iraq’s southern Najaf province – a desert area with scattered plots of agricultural land – had features that closely matched the description of the al-Qadisiyah battle site described in historic texts.
Those included the double wall feature, possibly a canal, which linked a square fortress on the desert fringe and a large settlement associated with a linear fortification system on the edge of the floodplain.
Two previously unlocated DZ waystations, al-Qadisiyyah and al-‘Udhayb, were also identified during this survey.
The team identified two waystations, al-Qadisiyyah and al-‘Udhayb, which were previously only known through ancient text
Pictured is a close up of what appeared as a mound in the photo, but was once a fortress used in battle
‘These historic sites are best known from texts describing one of the most famous battles of the early Islamic conquests,’ the team shared in the study published in in the journal Antiquity.
The Sasanian dynasty ruled the region after it was founded in 224A, but became the last Persian imperial dynasty after the Muslim victory in the Battle of al-Qadisiyah.
They had a caste system with four classes: priests, warriors, secretaries, and commoners.
The Arab Army was part of the Rashidun Caliphate, which was led by the first four successors of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad.
The group were excellent fighters, using shock troops, flanking maneuvers, mounted archery, sieges, reconnaissance, raids, and horse breeding.
The rise of Islam and Arab conquests, which aimed to expand the new Islamic Caliphate, sparked conflict among the two nations.
‘The Middle East has developed so much in the last 50 years, both agricultural expansion and urban expansion,’ Dr Deadman said.
‘Some of the distinguishing features at the al-Qadisiyah site, such as a distinctive trench, were ‘much more pristine and clear’ in the 1970s images.’
