Baghdad – Paikuli is a symbol monument of Iraq. It is located in Iraqi Kurdistan, in the province of Suleymaniyah, in the highlands close to the Iranian border. Paikuli represents a milestone in the history of the country, going back to the Sasanian period of III-VII century AD. The monument, rich in bilingual epigraphic inscriptions, is in poor conditions. Since 2006, Italy has been in the field to document, protect and train. For the past decade, the Italian Cooperation has promoted two preservation and enhancement projects dedicated to the artistic heritage of the region, which allowed to save and catalog the limestone blocks, translate the inscriptions of the monument and discover the bust of the Sassanid king Narseh, found, scanned and reconstructed in 3D technology by the Italian team of experts in the field. The restoration works, of extraordinary importance to reconstruct the history of Mesopotamia, have been assigned to the University of Rome La Sapienza. (9Colonne)
