Following looting by Daesh, Iraqi archaeologists are said to have discovered an Assyrian palace under the Jonah shrine in Mosul, Iraq.
Inspection of the destruction of the tomb of Jonas, destroyed by Daesh, in Mosul, the former Nineveh (Iraq). It is under these ruins that tunnels were discovered leading to an unknown Assyrian palace.
Unexpected. While coming to Mosul (Iraq) to check the condition of the tomb of the Prophet Jonah, destroyed by the terrorist group Daesh, Iraqi archaeologists were surprised to discover… the remains of an unknown Assyrian palace. The jihadists, who then occupied this site, had indeed destroyed with explosives in July 2014 the tomb of Nabi Younous, also known in the Bible under the name of the prophet Jonas. According to information from the British daily The Telegraph dated February 28, 2017, the remains discovered in the eastern part of the city, liberated since mid-January 2017, would be those of a building dated from the VII th century BC built by Sennacherib, king of Assyria from -705 to -681. This ruler is known for his great works undertaken in Nineveh, the capital of the empire, on which is built the current city of Mosul.
Illustration from the 19th century, restoring a palace of King Sennacherib, in Nineveh. © Mary Evans / Sipa
It was by taking the tunnels dug by the jihadists to loot the site that the archaeologists found themselves faced with these remains from one of the oldest cities in Mesopotamia. Iraqi archaeologist Layla Salih announced the discovery of a marble wall bearing a cuneiform inscription dated 672 BCE, dating back to the time of King Assarhaddon, son of Sennacherib. Iraqi officials fear that scores of treasures have been stolen by Daesh and will soon end up on the black market, hence their call for Interpol intervention. Safeguarding the treasures of Iraq's cultural heritage was precisely the theme of an International Coordination Conference held in Paris, under the auspices of Unesco, on February 23 and 24, 2017, in the presence of experts from all over the world, which aimed to examine the state of cultural heritage in the recently liberated areas of Iraq.
Today, the western part of Mosul, the country's second city, is still in the hands of jihadists, which Iraqi forces supported by an international coalition are trying to recover.