Two winged bulls dating from the Assyrian empire have been discovered in a labyrinth of narrow underground tunnels that ISIS jihadists dug in east Mosul to plunder artifacts and hawk on the black market.
The marauders who dug the tunnels to loot priceless artifacts from the Tomb of the Prophet Jonah unwittingly exposed an ancient palace, and the bulls.
The extremists dynamited the revered shrine in northern Iraq in July 2014 as they searched for antiquities to sell on the black market. Their underground labyrinth was discovered when Iraqi troops recaptured east Mosul in January.
But as fighting continues to boot ISIS from Mosul, it will be a race against time to save the archaeological treasures.
“We fear it could all collapse at any time,” burying the treasures, Nineveh province’s antiquities chief Layla Salih told Agence France-Presse. “There are cave-ins in the tunnels every day.”
Salih said the artifacts from the eighth century BC hail from the palace of King Esarhaddon. Two mural sculptures in white marble show the winged bulls with only the sides and feet showing.
The tunnels lead to bas-reliefs with cuneiform inscriptions and two mural sculptures of four women’s faces from the front.
“These finds are very important. They teach us more about Assyrian art. In general, their sculptures show people in profile, whereas here we have women face on,” Salih told AFP.
The extremists’ evil handiwork in 2014 was evident as shocking images were circulated online, such as the destruction of the ancient city of Nimrud.
In the Mosul region alone, “at least 66 archaeological sites have been destroyed, some of them transformed into parking lots. Muslim and Christian places of worship have suffered massive destruction, thousands of manuscripts have disappeared”, Iraq’s Deputy Culture Minister Qais Rashid told a UNESCO-organized conference in Paris last month.
Salim Khalaf, a ministry official, said at the forum that more than 700 archaeological items had been sold on the black market.
But the marauding thugs were unable to remove all of the treasures in east Mosul for fear of a collapse.
Iraqi officials found 107 pottery items in a house near Mosul that were in good condition and most likely exhumed from the tunnels of Nabi Yunus, the Prophet Jonah, AFP reported.
The priority at the site is to figure out a way to stabilize the tunnels and save the hill from a collapse, Salih said.
“The security situation in the eastern sector of Mosul is still unstable. There’s fear of (ISIS) drones and terrorist attacks,” she said. “We need foreign expertise, but to have that, security must be improved.”