Archaeologists find artifacts from the old empire in northern Iraq during the restoration of a historic site destroyed by Islamic State. According to an archaeologist, these are 2,700-year-old rock paintings with war scenes and trees from the Assyrian Empire.
The carvings on marble slabs were discovered in Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, where experts are working to restore the site of the ancient Mashki Gate, which was destroyed by Islamic State militants in 2016.
Islamic State conquered large parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014 and waged a campaign of systematic destruction of museums and archaeological sites priceless in their zeal to erase history. Some of the earliest cities in the world were located on the territory of present-day Iraq. Thousands of archaeological sites are scattered across the land, once home to Sumerians, Babylonians, and Assyrians.
Eight murals
The Mashki Gate was one of the largest gates of Nineveh, an ancient Assyrian city in the historical region of Mesopotamia. Fadhil Mohammed, the head of the restoration work, said the team was surprised to discover eight murals with inscriptions, decorative drawings and writings.
“It appears from the writings that these murals were built or created during the reign of King Sennacherib,” Mohammed added, referring to the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire who reigned from 705 to 681 BC. The discovered carvings include a fighter preparing to shoot an arrow and palm trees.
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