Hajiyah cave

Hajiyah cave is located in wooden country on the left flank of the Berat Dagh mountain. The shelter is just to the left of Bia village, situated in a valley which opens out at Bekhme village at the exit of the Greater Zab from the Bekhme gorge.

Braidwood and Howe found the rock shelter Ishkaft Hajiyah at the urging of the Directorate General of Antiquities. The shelter itself is 7-12 meters wide and extends 24 meters into the rock. Its opening fronts to the south, while none of the interior is fully dark during daylight. Water is available at a spring on the opposite flank of the valley, nearly half a mile away. There was no significant deposit yielded by the shelter, but a trench midway down the talus slope in front of it exposed a Zarzian-type flint-tool industry with an admixture of Islamic and pre-Islamic sherds. The size of the shelter itself is reflected by Braidwood and Howe's remark, "it is by far the most truly cavelike of any of our sites."