4 ancient antiques unearthed in Duhuk

DUHUK / IraqiNews.com: The Duhuk Archeological Department announced on Sunday that it has unearthed four pieces of antiquities dating back to the second century BC, according to the department chief. “Religious and national seals belonging to an ancient dynasty that ruled Kurdistan during the second century BC were discovered,” Hassan Ahmed Qassem told IraqiNews.com news agency. “These four seals, made of a special type of earthenware, are showing relief inscriptions of an ancient god in the area,” he added. A week ago, the department has announced that a Pharaonic bust of the ancient Egyptian god Akhenaton dating back to the year 1333 BC was found near this area. Duhuk, also spelled Duhok , Dohuk Dehok , or Dahok ; is a city in the far northern part of Iraq to the borders with Turkey. Lying 460 km north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, it has about 500,000 inhabitants, mostly consisting of Kurds and Assyrians. According to some sources, the name “Duhuk” comes from Kurmanji Kurdish meaning “small village.” Circled by mountains along the Tigris river, Duhuk, the third province with Iraq’s Kurdistan region, has a growing tourist industry. Its population grew extremely since the 1990s as the rural population moved to the cities. Since the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the United States, Duhuk and Iraqi Kurdistan in general have remained the only safe places for foreigners. AmR (S)/SR 2