The Ziyaret Tepe Archaeological Project is a joint undertaking between the University of Akron, Sweet Briar College, the University of Munich, Cambridge University and the University of Helsinki. Scholars and students from over a dozen countries participate each summer in the excavations at Ziyaret Tepe.

The ancient mound at Ziyaret Tepe comprises two distinct areas: the high mound, or citadel, and the lower town, or suburbs. The high mound rises 22 meters above the surrounding modern agricultural fields and is approximately 3 hectares in extent. The lower town was surrounded by a fortification wall and covers an area of 29 hectares.

Our work has explored both the high mound and the lower town and has expanded off-site looking at the regional environment and the impact of the ancient Assyrian city of Tushhan on the upper Tigris River valley.

While Ziyaret Tepe did not achieve urban status until the Assyrian period, smaller settlements on the same location take the history of the site back to at least the early part of the Early Bronze Age, c. 3000 BC. Excavations on the high mound in Operation E show a long occupation stretching over some two and half millennium BC. Ziyaret Tepe has been largely abandoned since the end of the 6th century BC.