Archaeologists in northern Iraq, working on the Mashki and Adad gate sites in Mosul that were destroyed by Islamic State in 2016, recently uncovered 2,700-year-old Assyrian reliefs. Featuring war scenes and trees, these rock carvings add to the bounty of detailed stone panels excavated from the 1840s onwards, many of which are currently held in the British Museum. They stem from the ancient city of Nineveh which, for a time, was likely the most dazzling in the world. There is evidence of occupation at the site already by 3,000 BC, an era known as the late Uruk period. But it was under King Sennacherib (705-681 BC), son of Sargon and grandfather of Ashurbanipal, that Nineveh became the capital of Assyria, the greatest power of its day […] So it was that Nineveh became synonymous with Assyrian power. When it subsequently fell to a coalition of Babylonians and Medes in 612 BC, the Israelite prophets, whose societies had suffered greatly under Assyrian aggression, could not contain their glee. The biblical book of Nahum contains an extensive prophecy about the fall of Nineveh. The book of Jonah, meanwhile, recounts that Jonah was sent to that city in order to warn the inhabitants of the dire consequences of their depravity… (READ MORE)

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