Archaeologists excavating at Tell Nabī Yūnus in Mosul, Iraq have discovered what could be the largest lamassu (winged bull statue) yet found. It was unearthed in the throne room of the palace of the Assyrian king Esarhaddon. The lamassu would have originally stood to a height of 20 feet (6 m); other lamassu discovered from ancient Assyria, such as those currently housed in the British Museum and the Louvre, are only about 11.5 to 13.8 feet (3.5 m to 4.2 m) tall. In 2014, ISIS took over the area and began to destroy the nearby shrine of the Tomb of Jonah. They dug tunnels in the area, looting the antiquities discovered underground. When the Iraqis regained control of the area, they found the remains of a previously unknown palace in the tunnels dug by ISIS. The site has been excavated since 2018 by Heidelberg University (Heidelberg, Germany) and Iraq’s State Board of Antiquities and Heritage. These excavations have exposed parts of Esarhaddon’s palace, and have recovered cuneiform tablets from the reigns of Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, and Ashurbanipal, as well as artifacts that may have been taken from Egypt and the southern Levant as spoils of war. Esarhaddon (Ezr 4:1–2), as well as his father Sennacherib (2 Kgs 18–19; 2 Chr 32; Isaiah 36–37), and his son Ashurbanipal (Osnappar; Ezr 4:9–10) are all mentioned in the Bible.
Source: https://www.heritagedaily.com/2025/09/neo-assyrian-winged-bull-could-be-largest-ever-found
Original report of the discovery of the palace: https://biblearchaeology.org/current-events-list/3443
Read more BREAKING NEWS articles here: https://biblearchaeology.org/current-events-list
