Erected at the entrance to the ancient city of Khorsabad, some 15 kilometres (10 miles) north of the modern city of Mosul, the sculpture shows the Lamassu, an Assyrian deity with a human head, the body of a bull and the wings of a bird
A 2,700-year-old alabaster sculpture of the winged Assyrian deity Lamassu was found largely intact despite its large dimensions. Image: Zaid-Al-Obeidi / AFP©
A dig in northern Iraq has unearthed a 2,700-year-old alabaster sculpture of the winged Assyrian deity Lamassu, which was found largely intact despite its large dimensions.
Only the head was missing and that was already in the collection of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad after being confiscated by customs officers from smugglers in the 1990s, the dig's French leader Pascal Butterlin said.