Nimrud: Northwest Palace of Assurnasirpal II
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- Опубликовано: 24 окт 2023
- The Iraq Heritage Stabilization Program and Penn Museum began work at Nimrud in 2022. There were several main goals, chief among them to help the Iraqis rebuild after the ISIS destructions of 2015/2016. Of course, another goal was to learn more about the Neo Assyrian people who originally built the site and lived in it.
I joined early in 2023 and worked mainly in the Ishtar Temple. But I took a lot of video footage around the site, especially in association with making the initial maps of the citadel and especially the areas where we were working. In this video, I visit the Northwest Palace and talk about its history.
This large palace was excavated in the 19th and 20th centuries by many different archaeologists, then reconstructed in the 1950s-1970s as a tourist site. In 2015, however, ISIS planted barrel bombs and destroyed it. For an interesting virtual version of the reconstructed palace, see this Metropolitan Museum video: • Digital Reconstruction...
The Smithsonian Institute has been locating the fragments of the original relief sculptures that were still in the palace when it was destroyed (both originals and copies were present in the reconstruction). They have covered them in place and mapped their locations, with the eventual plan of reconstructing as many of the destroyed reliefs as possible.
In mid-2023 the Iraq State Board of Antiquities and Heritage began intense cleanup of the NW Palace in preparation for rebuilding, but when I made this video it was largely in the same state it was after the explosion. After cleanup is completed, we will help them with plans for rebuilding the palace as a place to visit once more. 
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It is such a horror what so few can do to destroy the work of so many, from the original builders to the archeologists who worked so hard to bring real history back to a people. So that they could see where they come from.
Thank you for taking us along.
Reconstructing this will be the work of many lifetimes. You are right though, it MUST be done. No one can be allowed to erase history.
I winced when I saw the destruction. Such a shame; I hope you are able to recover more as time goes on.
It's really wonderful to "be there" with you and see these things -- and also to know that the Smithsonian has been working on those broken sculptures.
In the heart of ancient lands, where history stands tall,
Rises the grand palace, Ashursirpal II. Nimrod reborn, through hands that mend, A testament of glory, where past and present blend. Stones whisper tales, of a king’s mighty reign,
Crafted with care, in sun and rain. Echoes of history, through halls so wide,Reviving the splendor, where legacies reside. In awe we stand, at the rebirth we see, A tribute to heritage, and human legacy. Rebuilding Nimrud, with passion and art, Honoring the past, from the depths of the heart. Long live "Ashuria"
Thanks. I really appreciate the before and after shots. I remember one of my NT lecturers talking about a site in Turkey (I think) where the city was excavated, and during the off season the local residents showed their appreciation by incorporating the ancient stones into the building of new homes and so on.
This is a painful reality all over the globe, only rendered sensible if you've ever witnessed what it takes to wrest stone from the earth and shape it into units for building. Or how many trees must be felled, seasoned, and chopped up to feed the kilns that bake bricks. Saxons built from the Roman ruins of Britannia, Normans from Saxon and so on. Venerating the history of others is a luxury of industrialized civilizations. Just sayin'.
I'm so glad you and the team you are working with are working to restore/rebuild/preserve historical sites that have been damaged like this. And I'm thankful you're showing us around!
That's a terrible crime against our shared history. Thanks for being there, for helping out.
3:12 "I understood that reference!" In all seriousness though, it's just so sad that something that probably took many people working together to build something they hoped would stand the test of time can be destroyed by one lunatic with a bomb. :(
Bloody iconoclasts.
I'm sure an omnipotent eternal being can put up with a few temporal sites that aren't all about Him.
-reads the Bible...
Oh. Scratch that.
Hope the site will be reconstructed one day.
Good luck to everyone involved with the project!
It's so strange that some group could feel so threatened by the remains of an ancient civilisation that they decide the only thing to do is to try an expunge all evidence of it. And then record that, and send it out as propaganda, as if to say "look how good we are! We're ignorant and will do anything to stay so!"
I wish you and all the others engaged in the project the very best in your efforts to preserve and restore what you can. This is, I suppose one of many reasons why buried artifacts should sometimes remain so.
Thank you
Great video. Though, for me, I would have liked to see more close-ups of that carpet of greenery. I am not familiar with the flora of Iraq. Those who destroy history (or ban books) are hoping to doom us to repeat it.
I was there a few months ago when I was helping to excavat Ninive North Palast as student and it made me almost tear up seeing what they smashed
Another very interesting look into your work. Thank you sir!
I’m Assyrian and I’m direct descendant to ancient Assyrians 🙏
5:40 Did they ever do genetic analysis on the bones? and if not, why? is it because the heat there damages the genetic material?
Follow-up question: is there any work available on ancient DNA from Mesopotamian sites? Or are there any plans to do such work?
The bones at Nimrud I mentioned were found in the 1950s and the 1990s. In those times it wasn't possible to do ancient DNA analysis. I believe the bones were reburied somewhere, though some may be in the Iraq National Museum.
There are increasing attempts to do genetic analysis on bones found in modern excavations and in museums, but it is relatively expensive and can require special permissions. For example, we at the Penn Museum tried (with the help of David Reich at Harvard and his project on ancient DNA) to analyze DNA from the Ubaid period skeleton we have from Ur. Unfortunately, there was no sequence-able DNA found. This appears to be because of the condition of the soil at Ur, which is alkaline and wreaks havoc on bone. Sequence-able DNA was found in much earlier bones from farther north, such as at Hotu Cave and Shanidar, where the soil is different and bones better preserved.
I don't know of a work that summarizes current progress on Mesopotamian aDNA, only that most projects would like to be able to do it. We had permission to gather a few samples from Ur recently, but those samples are still awaiting permission to be taken out of Iraq to be analyzed.
@@artifactuallyspeaking Thank you for the detailed reply! Let's hope that there will be more luck with both funding and soil in the future.
@@artifactuallyspeaking Thank you for taking your time to answer 🙏☺️
Such tragic destruction 😢
So, it is a bucket of holy water that the figure is holding! I have seen thumbnails for videos that claim it is some rather outre item. I have not watched these videos, but the captions to the thumbnail claim everything from a purse (the Assyrians were drag queens? I think not!), to some weapon of mass destruction (this from the Atlantis \ Lemuria \ Mu crowd). Amazing what people will believe.
I liked the Agatha Christie connection
What a horrible shame to destroy so much
The host identify themselves ' Artifactually Speaking". Clever cover up, for perhaps "artificially speaking"?
When it's mentioned how much damage has been done in recent times to these sites that contained the magnificent products of so many people in the ancient past and then how much work was done to try to restore them into something resembling their original shape, and about how they were destroyed yet again by people with malicious intent and no appreciation of their own ancient ancestors, it makes my blood boil. It's this kind of maniacal worship of gods that there is no evidence of them even ever existing that we need to always be wary of. Ancient people whose adoration for their god or gods was just as faithful anyone else's were able to create beautiful monuments for their deities from the strength of their devotion, and then modern followers of a different god have been able to destroy it all in a matter of hours. It's just so engaging and disgusting. So much loss of artisanship and beauty, and so much disrespect for the people whose descendants they are. How can they think this is right?
It is such as shame. Why did nobody protected that site?
It was overrun by ISIS and until they were expelled forcefully, no one could stop them. They took the site in 2015 and weren't expelled until 2017.
See the comments an done realizes how easily the general audience on RUclips is convinced about who really blew theses great structures up.
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