Dr. Tobin Hartnell and his student Assistant Zhulian Sharifi organized a field trip for over 100 AUIS students to learn about Assyrian culture from the Syriac Museum in Ainkawa, a special neighborhood in Erbil. The museum boasts a large ethnographic collection of art and technology including agricultural tools, clothing, and weapons, in addition to a small but important exhibit about Iraq's first newspaper and Assyrian contribution to Iraqi Kurdistan's music and popular culture. The Syriac museum is located near an ancient tepe (archaeological mound) that boasts one of the earliest urban districts of Erbil (Arbela, Kurdish Hawler). In the afternoon, the students visited the ancient spiritual site of Mt. Safeen in Shaqlawa.
