Posted on 08/10/2014 5:13:14 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
While the history of civilization is being demolished by war and religious zealots in the rest of Iraq, in the Kurdistan Region archeologists are marveling at a stunning discovery: the remains of a long-lost temple from the biblical kingdom of Urartu, dating back to the 9th century BC.
Kurdish archaeologist Dlshad Marf Zamua, who has studied the columns and other artifacts at the find, told Rudaw these were unearthed piecemeal over the past four decades by villagers going about their lives, digging for cultivation or construction.
But only recently, after the discovery of life-size human statues and the unearthed columns, Zamua realized that the villagers had stumbled upon the temple of Haldi. That was one of the most important gods of Urartu, an Iron-Age kingdom around Lake Van in the Armenian highlands.
The temple was found in the village of Mdjeser, in the district of Bradost-Sidekan, the most northeastern corner of Iraq and bordering Iran and Turkey.
The temple was recorded very well in the Assyrian and Urartian inscriptions, explained Zamua, a doctoral student at Leiden University in the Netherlands who also teaches at Salahaddin University in Erbil.
One of the reliefs depicts the plunder of the temple by the Assyrian King Sargon II in 714 BC, said the researcher, who spent from 2005 to 2012 working on the site.
According to historical evidence and the recently uncovered sites, the ancient city of Musasir, located where Mdjeser is today, was home to Haldis temple...
Zamua also studied eleven human-size statues unearthed in the same area, which he believes are from the Scythian state of the 7th-6th century BC. They were originally erected above the graves of chieftains and warrior leaders.
(Excerpt) Read more at rudaw.net ...
Thanks Hootowl99, and welcome to GGG.
Instead of announcing it he should have buried it. Keep moving. Nothing to see here.
I’m always fascinated by reading about these new finds ..
Thanks for posting.
They had better get it out of there...somewhere safe...ISIS will blow it up and destroy it...
Islam destroys every civilization it comes into contact with!
Recently, the Taliban blows up the Budda statues...
They have blown up historical churches in and around Mosul...
...and if the Nation State Super powers don’t stop and REALLY thin about what they need to do...ISIS and their mindset will be coming to a neighborhood near all of us - real soon!
If they can promise to do something with DC....well....never mind...
My pleasure.
I agree. Thanks for posting. These historical finds are always intriguing and interesting.
All the moderate muslim preachers all over the world have been condemning this, right? Where is CAIR on this? Have they been outspoken?
Wow, Urartu is going way back in that neighborhood.
Wow, Urartu is going way back in that neighborhood.
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