Dohuk, Iraq - A Kurdish archaeological expedition announced
on Thursday that it had found a small statue of the ancient Egyptian
pharaoh Tutankhamen in northern Iraq, a Kurdish news agency reported.
Hassan Ahmed, the director of the local antiquities authority,
told the Kurdish news agency Akanews that archaeologists had found a
12-centimeter statue of the ancient Egyptian king in the valley of
Dahuk, 470 kilometres north of Baghdad, near a site that locals have
long called Pharaoh's Castle.
He said archaeologists from the Dahuk Antiquities Authority
believe the statue dates from the mid-14th Century BC.
Ahmed said the statue of Tutankhamen showed 'the face of the
ancient civilization of Kurdistan and cast light on the ancient
relations between pharaonic Egypt and the state of Mitanni.'
The kingdom of Mittani occupied roughly the same territory
spanning Syria, Iraq, Turkey, and Iran in the 14th Century BC that
many Kurds now hope will one day form an independent Kurdistan.
'Historical information indicates familial and political ties
between Mittani and Egypt,' Ahmed said.
'The discovery of this statue shows us that the name of Pharaoh's
Castle, was not invented out of vacuum, but rather arose out of
historical fact,' Ahmed told Akanews. 'This calls for strengthening
archaeological research ties between the territory of Kurdistan and
the Arab Republic of Egypt.'
Your Talkback on this Story