The Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage (SBAH) initiated excavations at Tell Abu Sheeja in 2007. The site, located seven kilometers from the Iranian border, was partially occupied by the Iraqi military during the Iran-Iraq War and was, therefore, in need of salvage operations. The first season of excavations exposed a temple with stone inscriptions that allow an identification of the site as ancient Pasime, a city that scholars had previously located on the Persian Gulf
