I hope they are able to excavate that. There is so much ancient history in Iraq. And Iraqis tell me that Christians were there first. There doesn't seem to be any animosity to Christians among the regular Iraqi people - just the fanatics and terrorists (which tend to be one and the same.)
Yes - these would be the Chaldean Catholic Christians. The name Chaldean comes from one of the ancient groups that lived in Mesopotamia, an area now known as Iraq.
Chaldeans are not Arab. They have been Christians since the first century. Chaldeans traditionally spoke Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus. Aramaic is still chanted in parts of their Divine Liturgy, as in that of the Maronite and Syro-Malankara Catholic Churches.
Wow! I’d love to dig there...it appears to be very significant, I’d say...