Out of these gold items, the treasures that have received the most attention from modern historians are her seal (in the form of a necklace) and her golden crown.

What caused the stress and disruption is impossible to determine, but possible explanations include deficiencies in hormones or nutrition, infectious disease or tumors.

[3] Nimrud had been made the capital of Assyria in the reign of Ashurnasirpal II (r. 883–859 BC), who was also responsible for constructing the Northwest Palace.

[15] Burying the queens in a sealed chamber beneath the floor of the palace, rather than together with their husbands in Assur (the empire's ceremonial and religious capital), was not due to a lack of respect.

[16] Hama was buried in a bronze coffin, which was later found placed against the east wall of the antechamber (entryway) to the chamber housing the sarcophagus of Mullissu-mukannishat-Ninua, the queen of Ashurnasirpal II.

[11] Alongside the crown are also a large amount of jewels and gems and various other golden objects, such as cups, leaves, brooches, rings, anklets, bracelets, bowls and pots.

[21] The crown, rings, bracelets and other wearable treasures were worn by Hama upon her burial and she was most likely buried on her side with her knees tucked in.

This is indicated by the presence of an unusual assortment of funerary items, including seals and a gold cup depicting scenes of a king doing battle, suggesting that palace officials scrambled to assemble whatever they could get.

[24] The tomb of Hama, and those of the other queens, were uncovered during excavations at the Northwest Palace of Ashurnasirpal II in Nimrud in the late 1980s, by the Iraqi Department of Antiquities.

[25] 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.

[30] In 2015, the historian Yasmina Wicks even spoke against identifying the occupant of Coffin 2 as Hama: she did not believe the pendant was strong enough evidence, since it did not necessarily have to be buried with the person whose name it bore.

Coffin 2 also contains another inscribed object, a seal of the eunuch Ninurta-idīya-šukšid, a servant of Adad-nirari III, but the bones could be ruled out as belonging to him since they were from a young woman.

[9] Other Assyriologists, including McGuire Gibson,[30] David Kertai,[30] Eckart Frahm[12] and Frances Pinnock[4] have found Spurrier's identification of the bones to be convincing.

[30] In conjunction with her study, Spurrier put together a small exhibit at the Robarts Library of the University of Toronto, called "Finding Hama: On the Identification of a Forgotten Queen Buried in the Nimrud Tombs."

[29] Portions of the Northwest Palace, including Hama's bronze coffin, were destroyed by Islamic State fighters in 2015 using barrel bombs.