What is left of the Assyrian remains following the liberation of Mosul and the surrounding region?

26 August 2017

In mid-July, after three years of occupation by ISIS, the city of Mosul in Iraq was officially liberated. A colleague and friend, a long-standing dean of the University of Mosul, told me on 17 July that he had returned to his home with his family, and that he would be ready to resume teaching at the university in September. Here, then, is a real gesture of hope: life must go on even in a city which has been reduced to rubble.

The following week, 450 Assyriologists from all over the world met up at Marburg, in Germany, for the 63rd International Association for Assyriology meeting. For the first time, an important delegation of Iraqi colleagues participated at the meeting, including some officials from the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage, some professors from the University of Bagdad, and various members of the Bagdad Museum management team. They delivered a report on the current state of the ruins in the Mosul region. The report was prepared by a group of British Assyriologists, who had visited the scene, in conjunction with an UNESCO commission.

For the record, after capturing Mosul on 9 June 2014, and having destroyed the Nebi Yunus mosque built on the supposed site of the tomb of Jonas, and having brought to light the never completed Assyrian palace built by Esarhaddon (680–669), in the spring of 2015 the jihadists posted online some video footage showing the dynamiting of the north-western palace at Kalhu (modern day Nimrud) built by Ashurnazirpal II (883–859). And so we have learnt that 80% of the ancient ruins of Kalhu have been destroyed!

Kalhu was without doubt one of the best preserved Assyrian capitals, and many of the bas-reliefs adorning the walls of Ashurnazirpal II’s palace were still in situ, giving visitors to the site a good idea of Assyrian splendour. Following the archaeological excavations, a wall made from clay bricks was built to strengthen and support the bas-reliefs carved from blocks of hard stone. The propaganda video distributed by ISIS gave the impression that all of the ruins of the palace had been blown up by the explosive charges placed along the relief-adorned walls. The impressive cloud of dusk thrown up by the explosion actually derived from the destruction of the aforesaid modern wall. In some places, the collapse of modern structures protected the ancient bas-reliefs. Elsewhere, the blast from the explosion shattered them along ancient, pre-existing fracture lines. The fragments ended up on the ground, from which they were gathered up and carried away to the neighbouring villages, and subsequently reported once the zone was liberated. The only damage of real consequence was that done by the jihadists using pneumatic drills on some bas-reliefs and monumental statuary. The video posted online turned out to be footage edited for propaganda purposes.

Following an assessment of the site’s condition, a security barrier was erected, and the area placed under 24-hour surveillance. The securing of the zone was accompanied by a plan for the restoration of the ruins, under the aegis of UNESCO; the plan will be presented at a conference for the donors, scheduled to be held in Paris in September. The restoration of the ruins of Kalhu is part of a development and reconstruction programme to be carried out over a period of ten years for the benefit of the liberated zones. In addition, several countries, such as Germany, the United Kingdom and Japan, have already invested their expertise and resources for the safeguarding of Iraq’s cultural heritage.

The conservation and restoration of the majority of the bas-reliefs of Kalhu’s north-western palace should not allow us to forget that since the Gulf War of 1991 we have witnessed the systematic pillage and destruction of ancient sites, monuments and antiquities. A Spanish colleague has compiled an inventory of more than three thousand cuneiform tablets dating from the twenty-first century BCE sold on the Internet since 1991. He has observed an upsurge in the international market since 2003, with a peak in sales occurring between 2007 and 2009, and strong activity seen between the years 2013 and 2015. The looting of antiquities has existed for years, but the phenomenon is new in that it has become institutionalised, and also because today responsibility is boldly claimed for acts of destruction and such acts are broadcast through media (i.e. video footage posted on the Internet). For this reason, it is more important than ever to work to find solutions for the protection and preservation of the cultural heritage of the ancient Near East.