Archaeologists in northern Iraq have discovered the remains of a huge villa, royal gardens and other structures buried deep underground in what was once ancient Assyrian capital of Khorsabad, reveals a new magnetic study.
The international team of researchers used a magnetometer in unusually harsh conditions to detect the city’s 2,700-year-old water gate, possible palace gardens and five large buildings, including a 127-room villa that is twice the size of the White House. The previously unknown structures challenge the idea that Khorsabad was never developed beyond a palace complex in the 8th century BC, according to the American Geophysical Union (AGU). statement.
“All this was discovered without a search,” Jörg Fassbindergeophysicist at the Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich, first author of the research presented December 9 during the AGU 2024 annual meetingsaid in the AGU press release. The research has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal.
“The remote mapping work done by Fassbinder and his team is extremely important. The magnetometer creates a more complete reconstruction than traditional test trenches and does not cause any damage to the site.” Sarah Melvillea historian specializing in the Neo-Assyrian Empire who was not involved in the Khorsabad investigation, told Live Science in an email.
The Neo-Assyrian emperor Sargon II began building his giant new capital — initially called Dur-Sharrukin, meaning “Sargon’s Fortress” — in 713 BC. But Sargon died in 705 BC, perhaps before the occupation and completion of the capital. Sargon II’s son and successor, Sennacherib, then moved the capital to the city of Nineveh, and Khorsabad was abandoned and forgotten for over two millennia.
More than 25 centuries later, French and American archaeological missions in the 1800s and 1900s respectively unearthed the Khorsabad Palace, including the iconic “Lamassu” statues of winged bulls with human heads that are now at the Louvre. Beyond the palace and the 1.7 km by 1.7 km city walls, the layout of the ancient capital remained a mystery and archaeologists believed it to have been left unfinished. In 2015, Khorsabad was looted by the Islamic Stateand archaeologists were only able to resume work at the site when the Islamist militant group largely withdrew from the region in 2017.
Fassbinder’s team carried out their remote sensing operation in 2022. Instead of mounting the magnetometer on a vehicle or drone, which could have attracted unwanted attention, Fassbinder and a fellow researcher carried the device by hand. 33 pounds (15 kilograms) back and forth above the sky. buried capital. They worked for seven days, covering 2.79 million square feet (0.3 square kilometers), which is still less than 10% of the site.
“Every day we discover something new,” Fassbinder said in the release.
“Surprisingly, the large amount of data available on Assyrian capitals comes almost exclusively from the study of official monumental architecture, primarily spaces and designs associated with the king.” Daniele Morandi Bonacossian archaeologist at the University of Udine in Italy who specializes in the ancient Near East and was not involved in the investigation, told Live Science in an email. “Therefore, it is often impossible to gain insight into the lives of other inhabitants, or even to confirm the existence of additional residents in Assyrian capitals.”
He noted that the new research “seeks to fill this important gap in our understanding,” including studying urban structures in addition to the palace complex.
Ultimately, the results of the new survey suggest that Khorsabad was a prosperous capital, developed far beyond what had previously been assumed. It remains to be seen whether archaeologists will now shed light on structures detected remotely.