On an ancient site in Iraq, reconstruct “treasures of Mesopotamia” destroyed by ISIS

On the site of Nimrod, the jewel of the Assyrian empire in Iraq, archaeologists have found tens of thousands of fragments, remains of an ancient palace destroyed by jihadists. A colossal challenge awaits them: putting together bas-reliefs and sculptures of mythical animals.

After its rise to power in 2014, the Islamic State (IS) group took possession of Nimrod, where its fighters pulverized temples and palaces around thirty kilometers from Mosul, the former jihadist capital in northern Iraq.

Some 500 bas-reliefs and slabs of all sizes were shattered, as well as several lamassu, these fabulous bulls or winged lions with human faces which decorated the palace of the Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II, almost 3,000 years old.

Thanks to careful excavations, more than 35,000 fragments have already been collected by archaeologists on this site which Iraq plans to include on the UNESCO world heritage list.

“Each time we find a piece and it is put back in its original place, it’s as if we made a new archaeological discovery,” expert Abdel Ghani Ghadi, 47, told AFP.

Seen from the sky, the pieces of the puzzle begin to come together. The fragments belonging to the same vestige are arranged side by side, protected by green tarpaulins.

Despite the relentlessness of the jihadists, we recognize on a bas-relief Assurnasirpal II alongside a winged angel with a beard richly sculpted with small curls, a flower chiselled on the wrist.

On another, handcuffed prisoners from rebellious regions subdued by the Assyrian army.

Lying on their sides, we also find partially reconstituted lamassu, as well as walls covered with cuneiform writing.

– “Treasures of Mesopotamia” –

“These sculptures are treasures of Mesopotamia (…). Nimrod is a heritage for all humanity, a history that goes back 3,000 years,” enthuses Mr. Ghadi.

Founded in the 13th century BC, Nimrod was home to the second capital of the Assyrian Empire. The city reached its peak in the 9th century BC, when it was called Kalkhu (or Kalhu).

In 2015, IS propaganda videos showed jihadists destroying certain monuments with bulldozers, pickaxes or explosives, including the temple of Nabû, 2,800 years old and dedicated to the Mesopotamian god of wisdom and writing.

A carnage similar to that perpetrated at the Mosul museum or in Palmyra, in neighboring Syria.

After the rout of ISIS in Iraq in 2017, rehabilitation work at Nimrod began in 2018, but was interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, before resuming in 2023.

“So far, it is a process of collection, classification and identification,” Mohamed Kassim of the Academic Research Institute in Iraq (TARII) told AFP.

His organization liaised with Iraqi archaeologists who had benefited, thanks to American funding, from training from the Smithsonian Institute to “save” Nimrod and preserve his remains.

To date, 70% of the collection work has been carried out in the ruins of the Assyrian palace. It will take twelve months to complete them in full before starting the actual restoration, a “complicated operation”, he admits.

– Picking up the pieces –

The restoration will require “foreign expertise” and “international support”, as “the destruction was carried out in a barbaric manner”, he adds. A blow to the heart of “one of the most important ancient sites of Mesopotamian civilization”.

Nimrod “testifies to the art and architecture of Assyrian civilization, at a time when its artistic production reached peaks,” he recalls.

Excavated in the 19th century, Nimrod acquired international fame when immense lamassu were brought to the British Museum in London, or to the Louvre in Paris.

Other artifacts from the site — where British author Agatha Christie stayed with her second husband, an archaeologist — were on display in Mosul and Baghdad.

Visiting Nimrod, the Minister of Culture praised the “difficult effort” of his archaeologists to put together the broken pieces, comparing what they had on hand with “drawings and photos”.

He recalls that the destruction makes it impossible for the moment to identify the antiquities stolen by IS.

To put the pieces together, his teams will need “additional expertise” and “financing”, he pleads.

“We need special products, specific to archeology, to put back together these fragments that have been broken,” explains the manager.

His prognosis: about “ten years” of work before seeing the entire palace remains again.

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