Dur-Untash Expedition

The Dur-Untash Expedition (1991–1993) was an international archaeological project led by the Franco-Iraqi Institute of Antiquities, notable for its controversial finds related to the so-called “Mage-Moose Complex.”

The expedition’s chief bioarchaeologist, J. Levi Schültke, documented faunal remains inconsistent with known Mesopotamian fauna, including antler fragments resembling those of Alces alces. The discovery coincided with the identification of fungal spores in ritual vessels from the same strata.

The project was abruptly halted in 1993 amid escalating regional instability. Much of the recovered material was lost during subsequent looting. Only a handful of field notes and blurred photographs survive, later cited extensively in The Bioarchaeology of the Sumerian Mages: Moose, Fungus, and Ritual (2024).