By Agence France-Presse , January 07, 2025 11:03 PM
NIMRUD,
IRAQ — A decade after jihadists ransacked Iraq's famed Nimrud site,
archaeologists have been painstakingly putting together its ancient
treasures, shattered into tens of thousands of tiny fragments.
Once
the crown jewel of the ancient Assyrian empire, the UNESCO-listed
archaeological site was ravaged by Islamic State (IS) fighters after
they seized large areas of Iraq and neighboring Syria in 2014.
The
precious pre-Islamic artifacts destroyed by the jihadists are now in
pieces, but the archaeologists working in Nimrud are undaunted by the
colossal task they face.
"Every time we find a piece and bring it
to its original place, it's like a new discovery," Abdel Ghani Ghadi, a
47-year-old expert working on the site, told AFP.
Artifacts smashed into pieces
More
than 500 artifacts were found shattered at the site, located about 30
kilometers (19 miles) from Mosul, the city in northern Iraq where IS
established the capital of their self-declared "caliphate."
Meticulous excavation work by Iraqi archaeologists has already yielded more than 35,000 fragments.
The
archaeologists have been carefully reassembling bas-reliefs, sculptures
and decorated slabs depicting mythical creatures, which had all graced
the palace of Assyrian King Ashurnasirpal II nearly 3,000 years ago.
Seen
from above, the pieces of the puzzle gradually come together. Shards of
what was a single artifact are placed side by side, protected by sheets
of green tarpaulin.
Bit by bit, the image of Ashurnasirpal II
appears on one bas-relief alongside a winged, bearded figure with curly
hair and a flower on its wrist, as the restoration brings back to life
rich details carved in stone millennia ago.
Another artifact shows handcuffed prisoners from territories that rebelled against the mighty Assyrian army.
Partially
reconstructed depictions of lamassu — an Assyrian deity with a human
head, the body of a bull or a lion and the wings of a bird — lay on
their side, not far from tablets bearing ancient cuneiform text.
"These
sculptures are the treasures of Mesopotamia," said Ghadi. "Nimrud is
the heritage of all of humanity, a history that goes back 3,000 years."
A 'complex operation'
Founded 15,000 years ago as Kalhu, Nimrud reached its peak 4,000 years later and was the second capital of the Assyrian empire.
Propaganda
videos released by IS in 2015 showed jihadists destroying monuments
with bulldozers, hacking away at them with pickaxes or exploding them.
One of those monuments was the 2,800-year-old temple of Nabu, the Mesopotamian god of wisdom and writing.
IS fighters wreaked havoc at other sites too, like the once-celebrated Mosul Museum and ancient Palmyra in neighboring Syria.
The
jihadist group was defeated in Iraq in 2017, and the restoration
project in Nimrud began a year later, only to be interrupted by the
COVID-19 pandemic and restart in 2023.
Mohamed Kassim of the
Academic Research Institute in Iraq told AFP that "until now, it has
been a process of collection, classification and identification."
About
70% of the collection work has been completed at the Assyrian palace
site, with about a year's worth of fieldwork left before restoration can
begin in full force, said Kassim, noting it was a "complex operation."
His
organization has been working closely with Iraqi archaeologists,
supporting their drive to "save" Nimrud and preserve its cultural
riches, through training sessions provided by the Smithsonian
Institution with financial support from the United States.
Kassim
said that the delicate restoration process will require expertise not
found in Iraq and "international support" due to the extent of the
"barbaric" destruction in Nimrud.
"One of the most important
ancient sites of the Mesopotamian civilization," according to Kassim,
Nimrud is a testament to a golden age of "the art and architecture of
the Assyrian civilization."
The site was first excavated by
archaeologists in the 19th century and received international
recognition for the immense lamassu figures that were taken to Europe to
be exhibited in London's British Museum and the Louvre in Paris.
Other artifacts from Nimrud have been on display in Mosul and Iraq's capital Baghdad.
The site has also attracted figures like British author Agatha Christie, who visited there with her archaeologist husband.
On
a recent tour of Nimrud, Iraq's Culture Minister Ahmed Fakak al-Badrani
hailed the "difficult" work carried out by archaeologists there,
collecting broken pieces and comparing them to drawings and photographs
of the artifacts they attempt to reconstruct.
The vast destruction
has made it impossible, at least for now, to ascertain which
antiquities were stolen by IS, the minister said.
And the process will take time.
Badrani
said he expects that it will take 10 years of hard work before the
marvels of King Ashurnasirpal II's palace can be seen again, complete.
