Excavations in Iraq have unearthed the remains of a massive relief depicting both the last great ruler of the Assyrian empire and two deities.
The remains -- missed by archaeologists for more than a century -- were found in an earth-filled pit in the throne room of the North Palace of King Ashurbanipal (668-627 BCE) in the ancient city of Nineveh.
The relief, which likely would have weighed some 12 tons, was carved on a massive stone slab 18 feet long by nearly 10 feet tall.
However, the researchers said, the find is remarkable not only for its scale, but also for the scenes that the artwork depicted.
"Among the many relief images of Assyrian palaces we know of, there are no depictions of major deities," said excavation lead and archaeologist Professor Aaron Schmitt of Heidelberg University, Germany, in a statement.
Located near the modern city of Mosul, Nineveh was one of the most-important cities of North Mesopotamia, having become the Assyrian capital in the late eighth-century BCE.
Named after its placement on the citadel mound of Kuyunjik, the North Palace is thought to have been completed around 643 BCE -- and then burnt down not long after, in 612 BCE, when Nineveh was sacked by the Babylonians.
The palace was rediscovered by a British Museum-led archaeological expedition in late 1853 -- during which several large-scale reliefs, now on display in the museum in London, were uncovered.
Schmitt and his colleagues have been conducting excavations on the Kuyunjik mound since 2022, but only recently discovered the new relief, which the team thinks was originally displayed in a niche across from the throne room's main entrance.
The pit in which the fragments of the relief were found was behind this niche, and likely dug in the third- or second-century BCE.
"The fact that these fragments were buried is surely one reason the British archaeologists never found them over 100 years ago," Schmitt said.
King Ashurbanipal -- remembered both for his assembly of a vast library in Nineveh, but also for his sheer brutality against enemy nations and rebellious citizens alike -- is depicted in the center of the relief.
He is flanked by two supreme deities: Ashur, the Assyrian national god; and Ishtar, goddess of fertility, love and war -- and the patron of Nineveh.
They are both each followed by a fish demigod -- who would have granted the king and the gods life and salvation -- as well as a scorpion man with his arms raised.
"These figures suggest that a massive winged sun disk was originally mounted above the relief," said Schmitt.
In the wake of their discovery, Schmitt and his team are continuing their analysis of the relief, with the intention of publishing their results in a scientific journal.
Meanwhile, in tandem with the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage, the researchers are working to put the relief on display to the public in its original location.