Largest lamassu discovered in Mosul

What may be the largest recorded Neo-Assyrian winged bull (aka lamassu) has been uncovered at Tell Nabi Yunus in Mosul, Iraq, the famed ancient city of Nineveh. Located in the remains of the throne room built by King Esarhaddon (681-669 B.C.), the lamassu is six meters (20 feet) high, towering over the renown examples at the British Museum and the Louvre which reach between 3.5 and 4.2 meters (11.5-13.8 feet) in height.

According to [Iraq’s Minister of Culture, Ahmed Fakkak al-Badrani], the palace’s architecture includes multiple adjoining halls leading to the throne room, each guarded by lamassu pairs at their entrances. Archaeologists believe the newly revealed statue was one of a matching pair flanking the main gate to the throne hall.

This is not the first lamassu to be uncovered at the site. A smaller specimen was found in the 1990s on the left side of the palace, measuring just under four meters. In 2021, Iraqi authorities announced the discovery of another large winged bull, though smaller than the new find. The most recent excavation, however, has brought to light the largest ever recorded, making the site a focal point for the study of Assyrian monumental sculpture.

Son of the Sennacherib and father of Ashurbanipal, Esarhaddon became one of the most powerful rulers of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. He was appointed heir by his father, even though he was the youngest son, and had to fight his elder brother to claim his throne after his brother assassinated their father. He was an able general, conquering Egypt and Syria and increasing the size of the Neo-Assyrian Empire to its greatest extent in his brief decade of rule.

Inscriptions found at Nebi Yunus dating to the reign of Sennacherib (705-681 B.C.) and Esarhaddon indicate it was built by the former as a military palace astride the southwest wall of the city facing the Tigris River. It was used as a royal residence, armory, stables, barracks, parade ground where horses, mules, chariots and equipment were mustered for battle. Archaeological remains of courtyards, workshops, administrative offices and barracks have been found, and on the other side of the building, a throne room suite and state apartments decorated “in the Hittite style,” as an inscription of Sennacherib’s describes it. Esarhaddon added significantly to the palace and its courtyards, expanding the residential area so that it was comparable in size to the other residential palaces.

Peter Nicholas, an archaeologist at Heidelberg University, told the Iraqi News Agency (INA) that excavation teams also uncovered numerous cuneiform tablets inscribed with the writings of kings Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, and Ashurbanipal–three of the most prominent rulers of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Additional artifacts appear to represent spoils of war taken from Egypt and the Levant, offering a richer picture of Assyria’s far-reaching campaigns.

Nebi Yunus was revered for millennia as the tomb of the Prophet Jonah. In early Christian times, there was a church on the site, and records mention the Jonah Mosque there already in the 10th century. There was also a small village and an associated cemetery, so even as Nineveh began to be excavated in the 19th century, Tell Nebi Yunus was not available to archaeologists. Only a few limited digs were allowed between homes, and one notable excavation by the Ottoman governor Helmi Pasha which uncovered the entrance to the throne room.

In July of 2014, the mosque was blown up by Islamic State. Claiming the mosque had become “a place for apostasy, not prayer,” they demolished the tomb, cleared all of the rubble and graded the site flat, ensuring that it could never be reconstructed. The destruction above must have caused damage to the Neo-Assyrian layers below, and the Islamic State’s greed to fund their wars and terrorism with the cultural patrimony of the locations under their control caused even more damage. They tunneled under the mosque seeking out saleable antiquities to loot, even as they pretended to destroy everything contrary to their faith.

The Institutes of Assyriology and Ancient Near Eastern Archaeology at Heidelberg University in cooperation with the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage began a new project of excavations in 2018. They began exploring IS’ looting tunnels. In 2019, the project expanded to excavate and preserve the Assyrian remains of Nineveh, including the Nebi Yunus mound.

* This article was originally published here