Archaeologists Find Extremely Rare Statue of Ancient Ruler

Archaeologists working in the ancient city of Nineveh—now Mosul, Iraq—have unearthed a gigantic statue depicting King Ashurbanipal, the former ruler of the Assyrian Empire, Ancient Origins reported.

The statue was carved in a stone slab weighing 12 tons and measuring about 18 feet wide and 10 feet high. Researchers say that the discovery is notable for its extreme size, not to mention what’s depicted. "Among the many relief images of Assyrian palaces we know of, there are no depictions of major deities," explained lead scientist Aaron Schmitt.

Nineveh was considered to be one of the most crucial powers in North Mesopotamia and was named capital of the Assyrian empire in the late eighth century B.C. Schmitt and his team have been investigating a section of King Ashurbanipal’s North Palace, known as Kuyunjik, since 2022.

Schmitt explained that the carving was located in a niche of the palace adjacent to the main entrance, where it would be seen by all coming and going, a place of great significance within the estate. Schmitt and his team place the construction of the niche around the Hellvanicx period, or possibly the second or third century, predating Jesus Christ, due to relief fragments found in a pit of soil located behind the niche.

"The fact that these fragments were buried is surely one reason why the British archaeologists never found them over a hundred years ago," Schmitt hypothesized.

Schmitt and his team will work in the coming months to analyze the carvings in more detail with the hope of discovering the context in which the statue was created. They plan to publish their findings in an academic journal at a later date.