Iaba, Banitu and Atalia

The bones discovered in the Nimrud tombs have been the subject of paleopathological research since the 1990s, which has made it possible to gain some insight into the lives and health of the ancient queens.

[15] In 1998, Stephanie Dalley proposed that both Iaba and Atalia were actually names of Hebrew origin[15] and speculated that they were both princesses of the Kingdom of Judah, from the same royal family.

[20][b] Dalley also argued that the inter-marriage of the Assyrian and Judean royal families could help explain why Sargon II's successor Sennacherib (r. 705–681 BC), who warred against Hezekiah of Judah, in his inscriptions refer to Hezekiah as "strong and mighty", highly unusual epithets for the Assyrians to bestow upon an enemy.

[21] Dalley's arguments have met with both support and opposition and the idea that the names were Hebrew has also been independently forwarded by Simo Parpola.

[15] The tomb containing the remains of the queens was uncovered during excavations at the Northwest Palace of Ashurnasirpal II (r. 883–859 BC) in Nimrud in the late 1980s, by the Iraqi Department of Antiquities.

[23] While excavating portions of the residential quarters of the Northwest Palace in 1988, an unevenness of the floor was noted and soon, the chamber of tombs below was discovered.

[23] The finds relevant to Iaba, Banitu and Atalia were discovered in and around the stone sarcophagus in the chamber designated Tomb II.

[12] Most scholars assume that the two bodies belong to Iaba, clearly the original occupant of the tomb, and Atalia, the latest name that appears on the inscribed objects.

Even if limiting the gap between the two burials to 20 years, Iaba and Banitu could then only be the same person if Atalia died very late in Sargon's reign.

In 2017, Keiko Yamada and Shigeo Yamada questioned this hypothesis by wondering if it was really likely that Sargon's queen would be buried together with the queen of Shalmaneser, whom Sargon had deposed and by pointing out that the hypothesis that Iaba and Banitu were the same person was based solely in one of several possible interpretations of the meanings of their names since no inscription otherwise designates them as the same and the two names do not appear together on any of the objects.

[33] In full, the inscription reads:[29][36] By the name of Shamash, Ereshkigal and the Anunnaki, the great gods of the earth, mortal destiny overtook Iaba, the queen, in death, she went to the path of her ancestors.Whomever, in the future, be it a queen who sits on the throne or a palace lady who is a concubine of the king, removes me from my tomb, or puts anybody else with me, and lays their hand upon my jewelry with evil intent or breaks open the seal of that tomb, above (earth), under the rays of the sun, let their spirit roam outside in thirst, below in the underworld, when libations of water are offered, they must not receive with the Anunnaki as a funerary offering any beer, wine or meal.

Though it has thus in the past been suggested, first by Muayyad Said Damerji in 1999, that Iaba and Atalia were mother and daughter, it would not have been appropriate for Sargon to marry his sister,[33][d] and there are no other known cases of incestuous marriages in ancient Assyria.

Across the seventeen different individuals found, common health issues include stiff joints, childhood illness, headaches, allergies and colds.

The interior of her skulls suggests that she had suffered from several minor brain tumors, probably the result of neoplastic meningitis.

[40] The upper skeleton in the sarcophagus, smaller than the lower one[17] and typically identified as Atalia,[29][41] had by far the most health issues of any of the seventeen individuals buried in the tombs at Nimrud.

[29] Like the other queen, Atalia appears to have died aged approximately 30–35,[5] and her body was after death for unknown reasons[e] roasted or smoked for several hours (at a temperature in the range 150–250 °C; 302–482 °F) before being wrapped in a shroud.

Problems were not limited to the teeth; both her frontal sinuses exhibit evidence of inflammation and though she was at most 35 years old at the time of death, several of Atalia's vertebrae, as well as her ankle joints, hips, shoulders and knees show signs of mild arthritis.

Atalia's vertebrae show some features that may suggest that she was suffering from the early stages of Scheuermann's disease, which eventually produces a "hunchback".

Because Atalia's teeth exhibit linear enamel hypoplasia, it is evident that she at some point in her childhood suffered from a severe long-term illness.

A number of stone amulets found in Tomb II contain spells meant to protect against head pain.

That year, the ruins of the Northwest Palace were destroyed by the Islamic State and the Mosul Museum was also attacked, leaving the fate of the royal remains unclear.