French archaeologists made a spectacular discovery during excavations in Iraq: they came across a huge, 3.8 by 3.9 meter large and largely intact sculpture of an Assyrian deity. He has never made such a large discovery, says project leader Pascal Butterlin of the Sorbonne University in Paris.
Normally something like this only happens in Egypt or Cambodia. The 2,700-year-old and approximately 18-ton sculpture stood as symbolic protection at the gates of the ancient city of Khorzabad, which is located about 15 kilometers north of the current metropolis of Mosul. It depicts the Assyrian protective demon Lamassu – a winged bull with a human head. The attention to detail was “incredible,” the archaeologist enthused on Wednesday.
According to Butterlin, only the head was missing. It was stolen in the 1990s, but customs officials later seized it from smugglers and handed it over to the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad, where it is now part of their collection, the archaeologist said.
Villagers hid the fuselage from IS
The fact that the rest of the statue has now appeared is thanks to the residents of what is now the village of Chorzabad, Butterlin said. They hid the protective demon’s body in 2014 before fleeing to government-controlled areas from the advancing jihadist militia Islamic State (IS). According to the researchers, this would have saved the statue from destruction.
Source: Krone
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