in 2017, salih began to document the destruction to the monuments in nineveh. beneath the nabi yunus shrine, her team found that isis had dug tunnels and broken into a hitherto unknown palace in search of antiquities to plunder and sell. worried about the structural integrity of the walls, isis had left the area untouched. salih discovered a cuneiform inscription of esarhaddon, dating back to about 672 bc. the king's name does not appear in the inscription, but phrases separately identified with him do, and it describes his reconstruction of babylon, previously destroyed by sennacherib, his father. the team also found statues of an assyrian goddess sprinkling the "water of life" on her devotees. in contrast to previously known reliefs in which figures were depicted in profile, these were in frontal pose. salih also discovered two alabaster lamassu.