Istanbul. Three clay tablets with the writings of Assyrian soverign were found 14 meters below ground level by the Italian-Turkish archaeological mission in collaboration with Unibo (University of Bologna). “I’ve built, I opened new waterways, increased grain production, reinforced doors with bronze hinges, increased the size of granaries, formed an army with 50 wagons, 200 horses, three thousand foot soldiers … and I made the people happy and confident in itself “. These are the words from Sargon II, the Assyrian king who at the end of the 8th century BC built an empire in the Middle East, in the Fertile Crescent-Moon, winning Samaria, Damascus, Gaza, Karkemish and the Hittite city-states in 717 that once stood on the Euphrates, where today lies the border between Syria and Turkey. It is here where is words, once lost in time, came to light thanks to the latest discoveries by the archaeological mission launched in 2011 by the University of Bologna together with Turkish universities in Istanbul and Gaziantep. The excavation project was led by prof. Nicolo Marchetti. (9Colonne)
