An ancient palace has emerged from an Iraqi reservoir after water levels dropped. The water levels dropped down because of a drought.
A lack of rain and the release of water through the Mosul Dam to relieve dry conditions has led to the Mittani Empire site being revealed.
The site was flooded when the Mosul Dam was built in the mid-1980s before archaeologists were able to examine it.
ecause of the conditions, a team from Germany and Iraqi Kurdistan have been able to perform an archaeological dig – discovering several rooms, inscribed clay tablets and wall paintings.
Cuneiform writing on one of the tablets indicates the palace site, called Kemune, dates to the Middle Bronze Age, about 1800 BC.
Kurdish archaeologist Hasan Ahmed Qasim said: “The find is one of the most important archaeological discoveries in the region in recent decades.
“We discovered the site… in 2010 when the dam had low water levels… but we couldn’t excavate here until now.”
Comment