Priceless relief stolen from Assyrian palace found
Nineveh - Assyria - Iraq
01-07-2010
Iraqi police have found a portion of a magnificent relief that was stolen from an Assyrian palace in the ruins of ancient Nineveh close to Mosul.“This is an original piece which belongs to the palace of Sennacherib near (modern) Mosul,” said head of the antiquities office in the Province of Nineveh of which Mosul is the capital. Karim Ismael said the piece, which he described as “priceless”, was on its way to be smuggled abroad despite its massive weight of more than 250 kilograms.
Sennacherib initiated massive building projects in Nineveh, creating the largest city at the time. The remains of his fabulous palaces still distinguished by two major mounds of Kojunjik and Nebi Yunus, are among Iraq’s most attractive ancient landmarks. His building projects at Kojunjik, which situated almost in the heart of modern Mosul, has been excavated extensively. The digs have revealed massive statues and slabs with beautiful reliefs depicting Sennacherib’s achievements and victories.
Ismael said the smugglers had removed the best part of one of the reliefs still on show at Kojunjik and were about to ship it abroad.“We thank the security forces for their efforts,” he said. The mound of Kojunjik was turned into a site museum to display the greatness of Assyria. It was very well protected and taken care of before the 2003-U.S. invasion. Antiquities officials say the mound has attracted droves of illegal diggers and many of the artifacts on show there have disappeared.
The Assyrians had three more capitals besides Nineveh. Nimrud, a few kilometers south of Mosul was the empire’s military capital, where scientists have harvested some of Mesopotamia’s richest antiquities. Nimrud was also turned into a big site museum adorned with relief slaps and statues of marble, but the place is said to be in shambles now.
Left unprotected is Ashur, Assyria’s religions capital, close to the Iraqi district of Shirqat, which is part of Nineveh Province. Ashur had a site museum with thousands of artifacts, most of them were stolen in the 2003-U.S. invasion aftermath. Without proper protection, many of its artifacts are reported to have been stolen or disfigures. Asked about the remains of Assyria, most of them located within the administrative borders of Nineveh Province, Ismael said, “Protection, surveys and care were possible prior to 2003. But after this year, acts of theft, smuggling and illegal digging soared”.He said there were about 6,000 ancient mounds in the province of Nineveh and that it was extremely difficult to protect them.
Azzaman
