Cool Finds Archaeologists Unearth an Ancient Relief Depicting an Assyrian King and Rare Deities The artifact was found in Mosul, Iraq, buried in the ancient city of Nineveh Researchers found the stone slab broken and buried in an ancient throne room. Aaron Schmitt In the ruins of the ancient Assyrian metropolis Nineveh, in modern Iraq, researchers have unearthed a rare artifact: a massive stone relief depicting important deities and Ashurbanipal, the last great king of the Assyrian empire that dominated northern Mesopotamia between the 14th and 6th century B.C.E. Nineveh, located in Mosul in northern Iraq, was the Assyrian empire’s urban center, and archaeologists have been researching the site for centuries. In the late 1800s, British researchers explored the city’s North Palace, which was built during Ashurbanipal’s reign, between 668 and 627 B.C.E., and found some large, detailed reliefs. But they didn’t find them all. Since 2022, Aaron Schmitt, an archaeologist at Heidelberg University in Germany, has been leading an excavation of the North Palace. It was beneath the palace’s throne room that his team recently unearthed the rare stone slab carved with the likeness of King Ashurbanipal, as well as two Mesopotamian deities—Ashur, Assyria’s national god, and Ishtar, the goddess of war and sex. Today, Nineveh is surrounded by the Iraqi city of Mosul. Aaron Schmitt “Among the many relief images of Assyrian palaces we know of, there are no depictions of major deities,” Schmitt says in a statement from the university. Though found in broken fragments, the 12-ton relief once measured 18 feet long and nearly 10 feet tall. Researchers have concluded it was carved in the seventh century B.C.E. and originally placed in a niche across from the throne room’s entrance. Likely during the third or second century B.C.E., the relief was mysteriously broken and buried in a pit behind the niche, per the statement. “We have no information on the reasons that led to the relief being buried,” Schmitt tells Live Science’s Kristina Killgrove. “This is quite enigmatic.” At the center of the relief is King Ashurbanipal, with Ashur and Ishtar at his sides. The gods are flanked by fish and scorpion deities. The presence of the latter figures suggest a “massive winged sun disk was originally mounted above the relief,” Schmitt says in the statement. The researchers created a 3D model of the carved slab, digitally adding a reconstruction of its missing left section. A 3D model of the relief portrays the found pieces in dark grey and a speculative reconstruction of the missing piece in light grey. MIchael Rummel Assyria began as a dependency of Babylonia, but it became an independent state in the 14th century B.C.E., some 3,000 years ago, and grew into a major regional power in the historic Middle East. Nineveh, on the banks of the Tigris River, entered a golden age under Assyrian king Sennacherib, who made the city his capital before dying in 681 B.C.E. Later, Ashurbanipal established Mesopotamia’s first organized library in Nineveh. A few decades after Ashurbanipal’s death, the Assyrian empire fell. And several centuries after that, Nineveh was likely settled by Greeks, who may have broken and buried the newly discovered relief. But as Schmitt tells Live Science, Nineveh’s Hellenistic period isn’t well documented. “We do not know if they were negatively disposed towards the Assyrian king and the Assyrian gods,” Schmitt says. “I hope we will be able to get a clearer picture through our future excavations.” Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

In 2022, archeologists unearthed what appeared to be the oldest intact reed boat. It was found buried in a sediment-filled former channel of the Euphrates River, near the ancient city of Uruk, in the Mesopotamian floodplain of what is now Iraq.“The findings provide valuable insights into the utilization of Uruk's waterways, the evolution of its floodplain, and the broader processes that shaped early urbanization in Mesopotamia,” according to the conference paper.Analyzing the Ancient BoatAlthough the researchers had a rough estimate of the era the boat probably hailed from, they had difficulty giving it a more exact date, because its materials were contaminated by bitumen.So, a group of scientists from the German Archaeological Institute turned to different technique, they explained when they announced the boat’s age at a European Geosciences Union meeting. They tapped into multiple materials surrounding it, rather than dating the reeds themselves.“The excavation revealed that the boat was embedded in sand layers, surrounded by fine-grained floodplain sediments that are rich in artifacts and faunal remains,” according to the paper.Understanding the Boat's AgeThat collection of clues meant they could use multiple methods to home in on the boat’s age. On the sediment, they applied a technique to determine when it was last exposed to sunlight. On the bone fragments, they turned to the radiocarbon dating that they had originally intended to perform on the boat itself. And on the ceramic fragments, they used several pieces of archeological evidence to see where they fit on the timeline.Taken together, these pieces of evidence put the boat’s age at about 3,600 hundred years — give or take a few hundred years in either direction. Knowing the boat’s age allows archeologists to put it into context with other discoveries from that era.Mesopotamia SocietyRemnants of comparable craft have been found in Kuwait and Egypt. But unlike them, this Mesopotamian boat remains relatively intact. Archeologists are considering restoring it, but few, if any people, have expertise.Although Mesopotamia, often called the “Cradle of Civilization” is well studied — from the frequency its citizens kissed to the way they recorded business transactions — many mysteries remain — including why its society faded away.Article SourcesOur writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:EGU General Assembly 2025. Timing of the First Mesopotamian Boat Unearthed in a Euphrates Paleochannel near Uruk (Iraq)Before joining Discover Magazine, Paul Smaglik spent over 20 years as a science journalist, specializing in U.S. life science policy and global scientific career issues. He began his career in newspapers, but switched to scientific magazines. His work has appeared in publications including Science News, Science, Nature, and Scientific American.