Kurdish Identity Predates Place Names Across Historic Great Kurdistan

Archaeological excavations across the broader Kurdistan region point to thousands of years of uninterrupted settlement, with findings in ancient sites such as Najaf and Kirkuk indicating that local communities persisted despite political changes. The evidence is presented as part of a wider case for the continuity of the region’s population over time. The endurance of festivals such as Newroz over thousands of years, despite changes in religion, is described as one of the clearest signs of cultural continuity. The article also says that farming and nomadic ways of life in mountainous terrain were sustained in similar forms for centuries, reinforcing the permanence of the region’s population. Place names in the area are said to preserve traces from periods before Arabic, Turkish and Persian influences, highlighting the depth of the region’s cultural layers. Together, these archaeological and historical markers are cited as evidence that Kurdish identity predates many later linguistic and political changes in the region.