An excavation in northern Iraq ended up revealing an Assyrian deity “never so great”, according to the archaeologists who intervened.
An archaeological excavation in the northern Iraq revealed a sculpture more than 2,700 years old of a winged Assyrian deity, which was found with the body intact although the head was stolen decades ago by looters.
The head was stolen by smugglers in the 1990s and was found in pieces, but was reconstructed by the National Museum of Iraq.
“I have never unearthed something so big in my life.”he related Pascal Butterlin, the French archaeologist who led a mission of European and Iraqi experts.
The statue has impressive dimensions, measures 3.8 by 3.9 meters, weighs 18 tons and is made of gypsum alabaster. It represents a deity known as lamasu which has a human head, the body of a bull and wings.
butterlin He explained that usually only in Egypt or Cambodia are pieces of this size found.
“The attention to detail is incredible”highlighted this professor of archeology of Middle Eastern Antiquity from the Sorbonne University.
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A work from the reign of Sargon II
The sculpture was erected during the reign of Assyrian king Sargon II – who ruled between 722 and 705 BC – to protect an ancient city that was about 15 kilometers from where Mosul is, in northern Iraq, he indicated. butterlin.
In mythology, “it was one of the monsters that was dominated and tamed” and it was placed at the entrance to cities to protect it, the expert indicated.
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Source: Ambito
