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Iraqi authorities have found more than 100 “priceless” Assyrian artefacts plundered from ancient ruins hidden in an Islamic State leader’s house in Mosul.

The discovery was made in the Az-Zirai neighbourhood in eastern Mosul, which the special forces troops recently recaptured from Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil).

Photographs released by the National Security Service on Thursday show more than a dozen clay pots, a handful of large vases, “Palace Ware” pottery and a hand mill, among other smaller pieces.

Historians and archaeologists have confirmed the objects date back thousands of years to the Assyrian Empire.
Assyrian artifacts discovered in an Isil commander's house in Mosul
Credit: Mosul Eye

They said they were almost certainly dug up from the nearby Nineveh Ruins site as well as Nimrud - the Assyrian Empire’s ancient capital - which was under the control of Isil militants for two years until the site was liberated in November.
A selection of the relics found in a home in Mosul
Credit: Iraqi government handout

Nimrud was a capital of the Assyrians, one the ancient world’s earliest and most ferocious empires. Known at the time as Kalhu, the city was the seat of power from 879-709 BC, an era when Assyrian armies expanded out across the Levant.

It was first excavated in 1945 by a British-Assyrian team, which described it as the most beautiful site in the Middle East.

“During a tour of homes in the former Christian area of Mosul, the army received a tip off from a local resident,” Talib al-Maa’mari, an Iraqi parliment member, told reporters.

“When the special forces searched this one house, which was being used by an ISIS emir, we were surprised to find many priceless artefacts. But one in particular is very special - it was quite an incredible find.”

Commenting on the haul, Prof Eleanor Robson, chair of the British Institute for the Study of Iraq, told the Telegraph: “They are genuine Assyrian antiquities. Now we can be confident that excellent staff are on the case.”

Isil documents found in the abandoned house show the Islamist group kept a record of each of the items, along with an estimated price each relic could reach.

For years Isil has been smuggling genuine, as well as fake, artefacts out of Iraq through their territory in Syria and out through the Turkish border at the Bab al-Hawa crossing.