An archaeological dig in northern Iraq found it. It is a more than 2,700-year-old sculpture of a gigantic Lamassu. What is this about? Of a protective Assyrian deity. It is almost intact, except for the head of the sculpture. The enormous winged bull unearthed in Iraq gained great notoriety. Especially due to the vandalism suffered by many of these statues in countries in the region.
Unpublished discovery
The winged bull body is intact. However, the human head of this legendary hybrid being was stolen in the 1990s by looters. The head was later found in pieces. After this, the National Museum of Iraq was in charge of rebuilding it.
The statue has truly impressive dimensions. It measures 3.8 by 3.9 meters, weighs 18 tons and is made of gypsum alabaster. The winged bull represents a deity known as ‘lamassu’. This deity has a human head, the body of a bull and is adorned by two wings.
“Is awesome. “I had never unearthed something so big in my life,” said Pascal Butterlin. He is a French archaeologist. It was he who led a mission of European and Iraqi experts. Butterlin added details about these types of discoveries, which were collected by Agence France Presse. He comments that only in places like Egypt or Cambodia are pieces of this size usually found. That is why it is a monumental find in the area.
Protection
“The attention to detail is truly incredible,” said this archeology professor. He works in the area of Middle Eastern Antiquity at the Paris I Sorbonne University.
The sculpture was erected during the reign of the Assyrian king Sargon II. This king ruled between 722 and 705 BC. What was the purpose of the enormous winged bull unearthed? Protect an ancient city that was about 15 kilometers from where Mosul is in northern Iraq, Butterlin said.
