(ORDO NEWS) — Archaeologists have discovered in the vicinity of the city of Mosul the ruins of the walls and buildings of the ancient city, which, presumably, was one of the largest settlements in the Mitanni empire. This was announced on Monday by the press service of the German Tubingen University.
The Mittani Empire is a civilization of the ancient Near East. Its population consisted of Hurrians and Semites. The capital, Vashshukanni, was located in the area of the headwaters of the Khabur River in the territory of the modern city of Serekani in Syria.
Mitanni was established as a result of the defeat of the Babylonian Empire by the Hittite-Hurrian alliance in the 16th century. BC e.
Researchers have been excavating at the bottom of the Mosul Reservoir since 2018 and during this time have discovered a city with a Bronze Age palace.
Presumably the buildings were built during the Mitanni Empire (c. 1550-1350 BC). Despite the fact that the city was under water for more than 40 years, the walls of the palace have preserved paintings, and cuneiform tablets on the floor.
In January and February, after another drought, archaeologists began excavations and discovered the previously unknown ruins of the city near the palace.
They also found entire sections of its walls, several high-rise buildings, and five ceramic containers containing one hundred clay tablets. Scholars believe that the architecture is part of the city of Zahiku, one of the largest settlements in the Mitanni empire.
“We discovered several large structures, including an impressive wall with towers in height and thickness, as well as a multi-storey building, which, presumably, played the role of a warehouse or production facility.
This suggests that this city was an important center of the Mitanni empire,” – said the chairman of the Kurdish archaeological organization in Dahuk (Iraq) Hassan Kassim al-Barwari, whose words are quoted by the press service of the University of Freiburg.
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