#BrightInsight
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"The only thing more bizarre than a 16ft, or nearly 5-meter tall statue, depicting a 5 legged human headed Bull with Wings, (which btw, was carved out of one massive piece of stone, and weighing some 40 Imperial tons, or 80 THOUSAND POUNDS). – Yes, the only thing stranger than this statue and the few others like it, is how and where they found them…Buried and consumed in earth, almost as if they were devoured by some sort of Cataclysmic mud-flood like event. These spectacular, yet ominous Winged-Bull sculptures are known as the Lamassu, and are among the remnants of the Assyrian Empire which made up the heart of #Ancient #Mesopotamia, or commonly referred to as, the Fertile Crescent. And I have to say that, the only thing more bizarre than the statues themselves, or how and where they found them, - is the deliberate, continued, and systematic destruction of Ancient #Iraq. Which let’s not forget, just so happens to be the very land that has long been referenced as the so-called, ‘The Cradle of Civilization’, the very place where the #Sumerians emerged."

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=V8y7_pVX30E

The Queen of the Night

#art from #Mesopotamia, Old #Babylonian era, 1800-1750 BCE

Irregular rectangular-sided monument recording Esarhaddon's restoration of Babylon; possibly black basalt; carved symbols on the upper surface. Height 8.5 inches.

The stone is not local to Mesopotamia. The irregular shape of the object suggests that it was cut from a naturally rounded piece of stone. The inscription is incomplete.
Neo-Assyrian era, c. 670 BCE, Mesopotamia, Iraq. (The British Museum, London) [+]

#stone #basalt #mesopotamia #history

#Lady #Head #Mask #Warka #Ancient #Uruk #Sumeria #Archaeology #History #Iraqi #National #Museum #Looting #April2003 #Baghdad #Iraq #Mesopotamia #Our #World

The Mask of Warka, also known as the 'Lady of Uruk' and the 'Sumerian Mona Lisa', is one of the earliest representations of the human face.

Marble

Date: ca. 3000 B.C.

IRAQ

On this day one can't help but think of the looting of the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad / April 2003.

When the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, the National Museum of Iraq (where the Mask of Warka was stored) was thoroughly looted. The Mask is thought to have been taken between April 10 and 12 of that year, along with forty other pieces, including the Vase of Warka and Bassetki Statue.

This is one of the pieces that was stolen and later recovered.

We are also reminded of the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas by the Taliban in Afghanistan / March 2001.

Archaeologist McGuire Gibson of the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute said, "People don't understand that Iraq is more important than Egypt in world heritage. The whole country is an archaeological site."