The Pergamon Museum in Berlin, presented on Friday archaeological objects restored after being destroyed by bombing in World War II.
Over nine years, archaeologists have reassembled 25 000 pieces of material belonging to 40 giant statues, taken from a temple in the ancient settlement of Tell Halaf in what is now northern Syria.
“Thousands of pieces had to be closely bonded with epoxy,” he told Reuters Nadja Cholidis, project leader.
The researchers used historical photographs to identify the fragments and reconstruct the sculptures and objects, 3,000 years old. Cholidis said it is probably the largest restoration of its kind ever undertaken by a museum.
The images of sphinxes, lions and gods were found a century ago by German adventurer and diplomat Baron Max von Oppenheim, and caused a sensation when they came to Europe. Baron exposed them to a private museum in Berlin between 1930 and November 1943 when an allied bombing destroyed the place. The fire roasted artifacts of basalt, and water used to douse the flames caused the material to splinter into a thousand pieces.
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