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The Assyrian Renaissance

Archaeologists return to Nineveh in northern Iraq, one of the ancient world’s grandest imperial capitals

An illustration from the 1849 Nineveh and Its Remains depicts Assyriologist Austen Henry Layard’s early excavations.N ineveh’s Adad Gate, which is located along one of Mosul’s main roads, has stood as perhaps the most visible symbol of the ancient city’s past glory. The text describes some of Sennacherib’s military campaigns as well as the construction of his royal palace and other buildings.Marchetti’s team, which has mainly limited its investigations to compromised areas of the site, such as those adjacent to a six-lane road that was intentionally dug through the ancient city by the Islamic State, has now excavated in more than 20 new locations. Scholars working with a wide-ranging multidisciplinary venture called the Land of Nineveh Archaeological Project (LoNAP) are investigating 1,200 square miles of terrain in the Duhok region of Iraqi Kurdistan, the first extensive fieldwork that has taken place in the area in nearly a century.

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