Villa twice the size of the U.S. White House revealed at ancient Assyrian capital
A magnetic survey at Khorsabad, once the ancient Assyrian capital, has revealed the remains of a huge villa (with 127 rooms), royal gardens, the city’s water gate and five large buildings.
"The site, dating back 2,700 years, was originally established as Dur-Sharrukin, or “Fortress of Sargon,” by Neo-Assyrian Emperor Sargon II in 713 B.C.
The Neo-Assyrian emperor Sargon II began building a new capital city, named after himself, in the desert of what is now Iraq. For a long time, archaeologists believed that this ambitious project had only just begun when it was abandoned, leaving behind nothing but the remains of a building site. However, a recent survey of the site challenges that notion. The city did indeed flourish outside the palace, as evidenced by visualizations of data from a precision magnetometer that reveal hitherto undiscovered structures and infrastructure inside the city walls.
Sargon II died a few years after work began on Dur-Sharrukin (“Fortress of Sargon”), now called Khorsabad. His son quickly set up his own capital in the city of Nineveh, and for the next 2,500 years, Sargon II’s building project was largely forgotten. In the 1800s, French archaeologists rediscovered the site."
The ancient leather armor, datable to 786-543 BCE, was originally made of about 5,444 smaller scales and 140 larger scales, which, together with leather laces and lining, had a total weight of 4-5 kg.
Taking its name from the Assyrian word for “peace,” Shiluh is Turkey’s largest commercial Assyrian-style winery. It is based in Midyat, about 100 km from Mardin in southeastern Turkey, and carries on the winemaking tradition of Christian Assyrians in a modernized way.
We think of ancient civilisations as operating very differently from the way our economy works today. Yet the Assyrians, around 3,000 years ago, began the basis of modern capitalism, in a region spanning most of modern-day Iraq, eastern Syria and southeastern Turkey.
Her name was pressed into clay 4,300 years ago. Her works were only fully translated into English in 2023. Enheduanna, high priestess, poet, and daughter of the world's first empire builder, is the earliest named author in human history. Most people have never heard of her.
After an attack on a synagogue in a Detroit suburb, the Assyrian-owned Shenandoah Country Club opened its doors to shelter families and staff, earning praise for the Assyrian community’s solidarity with Detroit’s Jewish community.
For the ancient Assyrians, emotions were felt differently in the body. A new analysis of Akkadian texts suggests happiness was linked not to the heart but to the liver, offering fresh insight into how Assyrians understood emotions and the human body.
Professor Dr. Artur Margulov, an Assyrian from Ukraine, has conducted unique archival research on Assyrians in Ukraine, tracing their journey from World War I refugees to victims of Soviet repression and the lasting impact on their community today.
A court in Brussels has sentenced Assyrian Paulus Sati, a Chaldean Archdeacon legally known as Atheel Sati, in connection with a major organized crime case in Belgium.
Leman Altuntaş
