BEIRUT (AP) — Declassified U.S. satellite spy images from the 1970s have led a British-Iraqi archaeological team to what they believe is the site of a 7th-century battle that became decisive in the spread of Islam throughout the region .

The Battle of al-Qadisiyah was fought in Mesopotamia – in present-day Iraq – in the 630s AD. between Arab Muslims and the army of the Persian Sassanid dynasty during a period of Muslim expansion. The Arab army was defeated and continued its march into Persia, now Iran.

A joint team of archaeologists from Durham University in the UK and Al-Qadisiyah University came across the site while conducting a remote sensing survey to map the Darb Zubaydah, a pilgrimage route from Kufa in Iraq to Mecca, in Saudi Arabia, built more than 1,000 years ago. . The findings were published Tuesday in the journal Antiquity.

While mapping the route, the team noticed that a site about 30 kilometers (20 miles) south of Kufa in southern Iraq’s Najaf province—a desert area with scattered farmland—had features that closely matched the description of the battle of -Qadisiyah. site described in historical texts.

William Deadman, a specialist in archaeological remote sensing at Durham University, said satellite imagery from the Cold War era was a tool commonly used by archaeologists working in the Middle East because older images often show features that have been destroyed or altered and would not be shown. on current satellite imagery.

“The Middle East has developed so much in the last 50 years, both agricultural expansion and urban expansion,” he said. Some of the distinctive features of the al-Qadisiyah site, such as a distinctive moat, were “much cleaner and clearer” in images from the 1970s, he said.

A ground survey confirmed the findings and convinced the team that they had correctly identified the site.

The key features were a deep ditch, two fortresses and an ancient river, said to have once been seen by Persian elephant-mounted troops, said Jaafar Jotheri, a professor of archeology at Al-Qadisiyah University who is part of the team who made the discovery. The investigation team also found pottery shards consistent with the time period in which the battle took place.

Jotheri said Iraqis of his generation who grew up under Saddam Hussein were all familiar with the battle in detail, down to the names of the generals on both sides.

The battle at the time had political overtones – Iraq was engaged in a devastating war with Iran for much of the 1980s. Saddam saw the Battle of Qadisiyah as a harbinger of victory for Iraq.

Like most children growing up in that era, Jotheri said he watched a popular film about the battle multiple times because it was in regular rotation on television.

In the post-Saddam era, al-Qadisiyah became something of a political test. Iraqis’ views of the battle vary depending on their feelings toward Iran, which has expanded its influence in the country since the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq that toppled Saddam.

“There is a political and religious context to this battle, because now of course we have religious differences, ethnic differences, political differences in Iraq, and we read or see everything based on our … differences,” Jotheri said. But he added: “We all agree that it is a very important battle, a decisive one, and we all know about it.”

The team plans to start excavating the site next year, Jotheri said.

The discovery comes as part of a larger project launched in 2015 to document endangered archaeological sites in the region.

It also comes at a time of a renaissance in archeology in Iraq, a country often called the “cradle of civilization” but where archaeological exploration has been stymied by decades of conflict that have halted excavations and led to the looting of tens of thousands of people. of artifacts.

In recent years, excavations have resumed and thousands of stolen artifacts have been repatriated.