Without any kind of official permission, and working under cover of darkness, Rassam had his team dig into the northern corner of the mound. In December 1853, about a week into the excavation, a huge bank of earth collapsed and Rassam heard his men shouting "Suwar!" - images. There, in the moonlight, were stone panels that had been carved more than 2,500 years earlier for the rooms of the Assyrian King Ashurbanipal (who ruled from 668 to 627BC).
That one is right out of Indiana Jones, only better because it's real. What a moment!
Within a couple of decades Nineveh gave way to Babylon, and seven decades later, Babylon to a feller named Cyrus, whose upstart Persian empire would both oppose and nurture what would become Western culture. Great stuff.
Thank the Lord the Europeans “stole” a lot of these artifacts, bringing them safe to European museums (which even 2 world wars didn’t destroy) away from ISIS and other (Muslim) savages.
