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By Philip Elmer-DeWitt

The ancient city now called Nimrud, located in what is present-day Iraq, was once the military capital of one of history's fiercest empires. When word first leaked out this summer that Iraqi archaeologists had discovered a major find at the site, scientists around the world were immediately intrigued. The reports told of remarkable archaeological treasures, including royal tombs heaped with gold jewelry of exquisite quality. But reliable information about the site was virtually impossible to obtain. The Iraqis refused to grant visas to the press or let any outsiders photograph the jewelry.

Until now. Through a series of extraordinary turns of fate, and by the good graces of Iraq's Department of Antiquities, TIME has obtained exclusive access to both the Nimrud site and the treasures uncovered there -- including some 57 kg (125.6 lbs.) of gold jewelry never before shown outside Iraq. The find, which was made by Muzahim Mahmoud Hussein, head of the Iraqi team at Nimrud, has turned out to be, by all accounts, one of the most important in modern times. John Curtis, an archaeologist from the British Museum, describes the treasure of Nimrud as the most significant archaeological discovery since King Tutankhamen's tomb was uncovered in Egypt in 1922.

Because the treasure includes booty captured during Assyrian raids, the discoveries may shed light on other cultures as well. But beyond its scientific importance, the jewelry is stunning in its own right. Some of it displays craftsmanship that puts even Van Cleef's to shame. There is an intricate crown woven from fine gold strands; a flask carved flawlessly from a solid block of crystal; a pair of heavy cuffs set with stones that look like large, startled eyes; a playful necklace festooned with teardrop pendants. "It sets a magnificent standard," says Georgina Herrmann, an archaeologist at the British Institute of Archaeology. "The workmanship would be difficult to duplicate today."

The Assyrians, who first rose to power about 17 centuries after the unification of Egypt, swept out of the fertile valley of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to conquer much of the Middle East, from roughly 900 B.C. to 612 B.C. They were known for their ferocious cruelty. In addition to their biblical role as the oppressors of Israel, there was the testimony of Ashurnasirpal II, an Assyrian king of the 9th century B.C. who boasted in cuneiform inscriptions of having rebellious chieftains impaled on stakes, dismembered and skinned alive. Ashurnasirpal made Nimrud, known in the Bible as Calah, his capital. The fortress city on the banks of the Tigris was dominated by an elaborate palace and a towering ziggurat and was populated in part by peoples subjugated during military campaigns.

Nimrud's glory ended abruptly in 612 B.C., when the Assyrians, badly overextended, were taken by surprise by the combined armies of the Medes, the Babylonians and the Scythians. Nimrud was overrun. The palace caught fire, and its ceilings collapsed. Over time, the Tigris changed course, and the glorious ziggurat was reduced to a formless mound.

The jewelry uncovered this year gives a new perspective to the Assyrian empire's brutish reputation. "What is surprising is the amazing variety," says Herrmann. "It is not just the gold, but the different colors and the use of polychromatic stones." Agrees Curtis of the British Museum: "It revolutionizes the idea we have of the Assyrian court. No one knew they ^ possessed this kind of wealth or that the craftsmanship could be so fine."

The Nimrud find is especially interesting because it was made in sands that had been sifted and resifted by some of the world's most accomplished treasure hunters. Nimrud created a scientific sensation in the 1840s, when the British archaeologist A.H. Layard uncovered the lamassu, colossal, winged bull-men that guarded the palace entrances. One hundred years later, the site was extensively re-excavated by Max Mallowan, whose mystery-writing wife Agatha Christie kept an office at the Nimrud Digs House and composed portions of an Hercule Poirot novel, Murder in Mesopotamia, at the site.

But the mysteries of Nimrud were far from solved. Last year, exploring an inner room of the palace, a team of laborers stumbled across a tomb that contained a small collection of necklaces, earrings and gilded pins. In February, Muzahim was granted permission to extend the explorations. Last April, digging near the spot where Christie plotted her thriller, he found what looked like a piece of pavement. When he and his workers cleared off the dirt, they uncovered a small ceramic pipe resembling an air vent. The "pavement" turned out to be the arched roof of a small rectangular tomb. Inside: a dusty sarcophagus. "I pried the top off with an iron bar," says Muzahim. "There was more dust inside, but when I held up the light, it was reflected back into my eyes by the gold."

Much of that gold turned out to be priceless jewelry draped around the skeleton of a young princess named Yabahya, tentatively identified as the daughter of one of Assyria's most renowned and feared kings, Sargon II. Nearby, still more jewelry and gold ornaments were piled. Mingled with the dried bones were dozens of delicately sculpted gold rosettes, scattered like flowers over the body of the dead princess.

In July, digging a few yards from the original find, Muzahim discovered the roof of another tomb and sarcophagus, which contained only dust. But near the sarcophagus were three bronze containers filled with 22 kg (48.5 lbs.) of gold -- more than 440 pieces in all. From cuneiform clues, archaeologists believe these jewels represent the private collection of an Assyrian queen, perhaps the wife of Ashurnasirpal himself.

Now that the full magnificence of the Nimrud find is known, Muzahim is intensifying his search, hoping to find the tombs of Nimrud's all powerful kings. The hunt is not without its dangers, however. Only after opening Princess Yabahya's grave did Muzahim's team decipher the ancient cuneiform curse inscribed on a marble tablet: "If anyone lays hands on my tomb . . . let the ghost of insomnia take hold of him for ever and ever."

With reporting by William Dowell/Nimrud