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Matthew Bogdanos

The treasure of Nimrud—more than 1,000 pieces of jewelry, precious stones and ornamentation weighing more than 100 pounds and dating to the height of the Assyrian empire in around 800 B.C.—was recovered from the vault of Iraq’s Central Bank in one waterlogged metal box. The trove was originally discovered in 1988 by Iraqi archaeologists in four graves in Nimrud, and had been in the basement of the central bank for 13 years. Particularly outstanding is a queen’s crown, which is inlaid with gold leaf and decorated with eight winged figures.