Historian May Have Cracked 2,700-Year-Old Temple Symbols Mystery

A late 19th century drawing of the eagle and bull symbols found on temples in the ancient Assyrian city of Dūr-Šarrukīn, located in modern-day Iraq. A historian has proposed a novel interpretation of the meaning behind the mysterious symbols.

A historian may have deciphered the meaning of a mysterious set of symbols found on temples in an ancient city built around 2,700 years ago.

The symbols, made of glazed brick, were used to decorate the façades of temples in Dūr-Šarrukīn, which briefly served as the capital of Assyria, a major civilization of ancient Mesopotamia.

The city, located at the site of present-day Khorsabad, a village in northern Iraq, was constructed during the reign of King Sargon II, who ruled the Assyrian empire from 721 B.C. until his death in 704 B.C. After the king’s death, his son and successor relocated the capital, and Dūr-Šarrukīn was eventually abandoned around a century later when the Assyrian empire fell, having never been completed.

The “mystery” symbols from the temples at Dūr-Šarrukīn consist of a series of five images—a lion, a bird (taken to be an eagle, raven, crow or hawk), a bull, a fig tree and a plow. This sequence was found in multiple locations. It also sometimes appeared in a shortened form—lion, tree, plow.

It was long suspected that the symbols had some sort of symbolic meaning, but the images have baffled experts for around a century, and there is no consensus regarding their interpretation.

Now, Assyriologist Martin Worthington of Trinity College Dublin, who specializes in the languages and civilizations of ancient Mesopotamia, has proposed a novel explanation for the images in a paper published in the Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research.

Worthington argues that the images symbolize specific constellations in the night sky while also representing Assyrian words whose sounds “spell out” Sargon’s name in the ancient language when read in order. This works for both the long and short versions of the symbol sequence.

Worthington said the combination of these two traits suggests the symbols’ intention was to immortalize the king’s name in the heavens while also associating him with the ancient Mesopotamian gods Anu and Enlil, whom the constellations in question were linked to.

“The effect of the five symbols was to place Sargon’s name in the heavens, for all eternity—a clever way to make the king’s name immortal. And, of course, the idea of bombastic individuals writing their name on buildings is not unique to ancient Assyria,” Worthington said in a press release.

“The study of ancient languages and cultures is full of puzzles of all shapes and sizes, but it’s not often in the ancient Near East that one faces mystery symbols on a temple wall,” he said.

The researcher’s explanation is the latest in a series of interpretations of the symbols, but Worthington said the study provides strong evidence for his hypothesis.

“I can’t prove my theory, but the fact it works for both the five-symbol sequence and the three-symbol sequence, and that the symbols can also be understood as culturally appropriate constellations, strikes me as highly suggestive,” he said. “The odds against it all being happenstance are—forgive the pun—astronomical.”

Ancient Mesopotamia, which was centered in modern-day Iraq and the surrounding regions, had a major role in world history, having hosted several significant civilizations, including the Assyrians, Babylonians and Sumerians.

“This region of the world, which includes present-day Iraq and parts of Iran, Turkey and Syria, is often referred to as the ‘cradle of civilization.’ It is where cities and empires were born, and its story is a huge part of human history,” Worthington said.

Do you have a tip on a science story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about archaeology? Let us know via [email protected].

Start your unlimited Newsweek trial