The Iraq War & Archaeology Archive 24

Almost all are accessible for free (or after a free registration) on the internet. Each time, I try to draw attention to the most relevant tidbits of information, esp. things that were not mentioned before; occasionally, I provide some comment. The usual warning applies: many links become defective with time. Inclusion in the list does not in any way mean that I necessarily agree with the opinions expressed in an article. But for a few exceptions, the occasional photos and figures accompanying reviewed articles are just hotlinked images on other web sites, in other words: do not download them or request permission to publish them from me, for I do not own the copyright to them in any way! Please do contact the rightful owners if you would like to use them for publication purposes. Finally, for the sake of convenience, all articles and so on are assumed to have been published on US web sites unless indicated otherwise.

N. Banerjee, "Once Looted and Forlorn, An Iraqi Symbol Revives," in The New York Times, March 31, 2004: "For hours, Enrico Bertassole and Grazia de Cesare, two members of an Italian restoration team working in the Iraq Museum, rubbed and rubbed at pieces of the Warka Vase, ... Suddenly Mr. Bertassole stopped and turned his simple tools acetone, water and cotton swabs over to Ehab Abbas, an Iraqi newly hired by the museum to be trained in restoration." "The museum has been closed for much of the last 24 years, shuttered during wars and sanctions. And it will probably be closed for at least another two years as it undertakes an overhaul of everything from the roof to the exhibitions." "Mr. George said that 14,000 artifacts were looted from the museum's collection of 500,000 to 600,000 objects. To date, nearly 4,000 have been returned or recovered in Iraq." [mentions others recovered abroad and then] "Still, some 6,000 or 7,000 objects remain missing." [this doesn't take into account that the crosscheck with the inventory is far from finished; also, this and other journalists misunderstand the 14,000 total to mean the number of initially stolen artifacts where it is actually the number of definitely still missing artifacts]; "... on one recent March day, the Syrians gave Mr. George three compact discs with information on Iraqi antiquities they had confiscated. 'There is a group of American military police and Iraqi police working together on antiquities and they are always following leads,' said Mr. George, ... 'Almost every day, we get something back.'" [I am happy to hear: from other sources, it sounds like this kind of activity has almost come to a standstill]; "Moreover, the Italians have been asked by the museum to restore three important artifacts, including the 5,000-year-old vase broken in the mayhem." [so the original plan to have the Warka Vase restored in Italy has been discarded, see La Repubblica of the ARTS (Italy) July 23, 2003 and Bailey October 11, 2003]; "The museum has few restorers and those who work there are chemists and artists by training, not professional conservators. During the lean years under United Nations sanctions after the Persian Gulf war, the museum was shut off from the world. Foreign colleagues could rarely come to Iraq. Even periodicals were scarce. That, in turn, has affected the ability of the museum staff to care for artifacts by the best methods possible, said Alessandro Bianchi, an art historian with the Central Institute of Restoration of the Italian cultural affairs ministry. The museum has asked the Italians to work on ivory artifacts black with mold after they were stored in a basement that was once flooded. The Italians will also restore a terra cotta lion's head from the Old Babylonian period smashed by vandals after the war, a stone head severed by looters in 1997 from a statue near the town of Mosul and then chopped into pieces, and the Warka Vase. In the process, they will train the Iraqis."
"Archeologi italiani in missione a Baghdad," in ANSA.it (Italy), March 31, 2004: for a month, a group of Italian archaeologists led by Dr. Giovanni Pettinato will be in Iraq to make a first assessment of the condition of the cuneiform artifacts in the National Museum in Baghdad; they will catalog (text and photo) the more than 100,000 cuneiform tablets and publish them on the internet
"Jordan Ready to Return Stolen Antiquities to Iraq," in Yahoo! News, online, March 30, 2004: "... more than 700 stolen antiquities that were seized from smugglers, ... were well preserved, scientifically documented ..." "[Jordan's D]epartment [of Antiquities] has sent a compact disc with pictures of the artifacts to the Iraqi authorities renovating the National Museum in Baghdad ..." "[Director General] Khreisha said Jordan had previously handed to Iraq 1,000 pieces of antiquities. It was not clear from where in Iraq the artifacts had been stolen."
T. Pitock, "4,000 Years Later, Babylon Still Magical," in The Miami Herald, March 28, 2004: "Visiting Babylon -- the ancient seat of Mesopotamia where the enslaved Jews had wept by its waters after the First Exile six centuries before the Common Era -- had been high on my to-do list. Though Judaism is less important to the history of Iraq than Iraq is to the history of Judaism, the connection runs for four milleniums. The legendary site of the Garden of Eden is in Iraq, as is Ur, where Abraham was born and lived. In Sura and Pembedita, the Babylonian Talmud, which defined much of modern Judaism, was compiled. Jonah fled Nineveh, the great northern city of Mesopotamia. Babylon, the great southern city, was where Daniel, Ezekiel and Ezra knew both trials and triumphs." "Hadi, a bespectacled archaeologist whose English was almost as incomprehensible as the ancient clay tablets with wedge-shaped writing scattered all over the site. 'The Gate of Ishtar!' he announced. The gate is a 1980s replica -- the real one is in Berlin -- but, then, much of the place looks pretty Disney, only with real mice." "'For the captives who were brought [to Babylon] from Jerusalem, it must have been like going from Des Moines to New York City,' says Erle Leichty, curator emeritus of the Babylonian section of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology ..." "... the ruins of Nebuchadnezzar's central palace. Hadi, who excavated this particular spot himself, ..."
"15 000 irakische Kunstschätze immer noch vermisst," in Swissinfo (Switzerland), March 27, 2004: in Amman, Donny George said that there are still at least 15,000 artifacts missing from the National Museum and it could be more as they haven't finished the crosscheck with the inventory; he thanked the Jordanian and Syrian authorities for their assistance in countering the smuggling of antiquities; Iran, Turkey, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have been asked for assistance too [obviously, these countries have been approached many times before, without much success so it appears; Syria on the other hand is for the first time that I remember mentioned as helpful)
Ph. McIntosh, "Iraqi Museum Specialists Receive Training in U.S. State's Harrison says U.S. committed to working with people of Iraq," in The Washington File, online, March 25, 2004: "The participants -- 15 men and seven women -- specialize in such areas as museum management, conservation, education, exhibition design, and archeological excavation at the Iraq National Museum in Baghdad and at museums in Najaf, Diala, and Babylon." "... Hayat Jar-Allah, curator of the Museum of Diala, ... the Iraqi museum specialists have visited active archeological sites at Jamestown, Virginia, site of the first permanent European settlement in what is now the United States, and at St. Mary's City, the site of the first capital of the State of Maryland. They also traveled to Philadelphia, where they toured the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and previewed the museum's exhibition, 'Treasures from the Royal Tombs of Ur.'" "The Iraqis are spending the majority of their time in Washington, where the Smithsonian Institution has organized two weeks of hands-on practicums at its museums and its laboratories. These sessions focus on exhibition security, conservation, collections management, museum administration, and education and public programs. Ala'a Hussein Jasim Hasan, a specialist in documentation and restoration of traditional houses at the Iraq National Museum, ..." "Faysal Mohammad Saleh Habeeb, an archaeologist at the Museum of Diala who prior to the war was excavating tablets dating from 1850 B.C. at a site called Tel Asmer, ... is learning valuable information about 'how to deal with many different kinds of materials -- wood, bones, pottery -- ways to store them using special materials that will not react with the artifacts, how to register them so researchers and archaeologists can get easy access to artifacts in storage, and ways to transport artifacts, especially when sending exhibits from place to place.'" "... Maryam Omran Mossa, a curator at the Babylon Museum." "The Iraqi museum specialists will conclude their stay in the United States with a trip to New Mexico, where they will tour the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe and visit Bandelier National Monument in Los Alamos, an archaeological site featuring Native American pueblo dwellings."

P. Kamenka, "Reopening of Iraq's National Museum in a Year. Iraqi Culture Minister Says Iraqis Must See National Museum's Treasures First Before They Are Sent Abroad," in Middle East Online, online, March 25, 2004: "'The reopening of the museum will take place within a year to show Iraqis the treasures of Nimrod, which the people have never seen because Saddam Hussein hid them,' [Iraqi culture minister Mufid al-] Jazairi said." "'We could then see them exhibited abroad, Paris could possibly be the first city for such an exhibition,' ..." [first stop: "axis of weasel" HQ; oh irony!]; "Mercilessly ransacked, the museum remains shut, its exhibition rooms barren, glass cabinets smashed, antiquities defaced and the floor thick with dust. Jazairi said it was far too early to reopen the museum as a lot of renovation work is needed, particularly on its security system. 'The Italians and the Japanese are helping a lot with that,' he said. With insurgents launching daily attacks on troops, police and civilians, the authorities fear the museum would make a tempting target were it open. 'Around 15,000 pieces were stolen from this museum, 4,000 of them have been returned from abroad, ... Five hundred were seized in France, 250 in Switzerland, 700 in Jordan, and around 1,000 in the United States,' he said, but was unable to give a better breakdown of the figures. 'Stolen pieces are returned everyday and sometimes we'll get 600 in one hit,' ..." [more detail and explanation about all these numbers would be very nice indeed]; "During Saddam's rule, no exhaustive list was made of the museum's real stock of wealth, making it difficult to calculate what was lost. Officials from the time are also accused of stealing an Assyrian sculpture. ... Arshad Yassin, Saddam's brother-in-law and bodyguard, was allegedly the regime's specialist in trafficking in antiquities." [see also Iraqi Press Monitor February 11]; "The former regime made 'culture its enemy,' Jazairi said. ... as Iraqis were deprived of all culture that 'did not serve to glorify the regime.'"

Photo: "The landmark arch of Iraq's national museum in Baghdad" [AFP]

S. Borja, "Cultural Heritage Institute for Young Iraqi Specialists: A Visit to the Penn Museum," in University of Pennsylvania Almanac, 50, 26 (March 23, 2004): "During Spring Break, the Penn Museum provided a sneak preview of its Treasures from the Royal Tombs of Ur exhibition to museum specialists who work at museums in Iraq." "Our [US Department of State] Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs chairs a government interagency group established one year ago to provide both public and private sector support for the rebuilding of the cultural heritage infrastructure of Iraq ..."

All photos by Marguerite Miller

Photo 1: [no caption; group photo of the Iraqi museum people on visit in the Penn Museum]

Photo 2: "Several of the Iraqi women near a model of an attendant to royalty, created to show how some of the jewelry would have been worn."

Photo 3: "Two Iraqi visitors admiring the Ram in the Thicket, made of gold, silver, lapis lazuli, copper, shell, red limestone and bitumen, ca. 2650-2550 B.C.--one of the 200 ancient Sumarian treasures from the site of Ur in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq)."

Photos 4-7: [no captions]

A.H. Joffe, "Museum Madness in Baghdad," in The Middle East Quarterly, 11, 2 (Spring 2004): "Seizing upon tiny bits of available information, Western archaeologists created their own narrative of events [about the looting of the National Museum in April 2003] and aggressively promoted it through the world media. That narrative revealed nothing about what had happened at the museum. It told everything about the prejudices and biases of its authors." [talk about the pot calling the kettle black; see the rest of this article]; "In this account, U.S. authorities had been explicitly warned of the danger to the museum prior to the war. They deliberately neglected to stop the looting and were possibly complicit in it. The archaeologists' narrative told a moralizing tale of culpability and guilt and heaped it upon U.S. policymakers and forces, even as the battles raged. No analogy was too far-fetched, from the thirteenth-century Crusader sack of Constantinople to the Mongol destruction of Baghdad." [a lot of hyperbole indeed, some archaeologists are emotional people all right]; "There was only one problem: this saga had no connection to reality." [now that's a lie!]; "Over time, the truth trickled out, and it was less dramatic than the tale of the 'sack of Baghdad' told by the archaeologists. Though severe, the looting of the museum was far less devastating than originally represented. Western scholars of ancient Iraq, who already had a long record of silence about the crimes of Hussein and the Baath Party [where is it written that archaeologists are to be first of all political agents? also, e.g., the Reagan administration was all too eager to do business with Saddam Hussein, even sent Mr. Rumsfeld as an envoy!], compounded their ignominy in April 2003 by irresponsible distortions [irresponsible? no: based on reports from normally reliable newspaper journalists and photographs of empty galleries; distortions? no: that assumes intent] and unwarranted [were we archaeologists supposed to wait till there was possibly nothing left of the Museum, till it was burnt to the ground maybe?] extrapolations. The years of silence gave way to a spasm of anti-coalition hysteria [insults don't win arguments], some of it genuine [calling me and my colleagues idiots doesn't cut it either], much of it self-serving." [of course, The Middle East Quarterly has nothing but the noblest of intentions, without any political agenda having very little to do with archaeology...]; "Among archaeologists, Saddam Hussein developed a reputation as a faithful steward of Iraq's archaeological heritage." ["faithful steward," yeah, right, and what about the "reconstruction" of Babylon and other megalomanical pseudo-archaeological projects? Joffe makes it sound as if one has to be in love with a country's leader in order to work in a country: not true]; "'Saddam has a conscious sense that he belongs to a history going back to ancient times,' Oleg Grabar of Harvard University said. 'He believes he is in that grand tradition, so destroying it does not fit in with his self-image.'" [proof that Saddam = megalomania, yes; proof of Mesopotamian archaeologists' bowing before the mighty Saddam, no; Grabar is a Byzantine specialist by the way, very little to do with Iraq]; "As recently as 2001, a Western reporter visited the Iraq National Museum and was told by one of its officials, Donny George (also the foremost spokesman of Iraqi archaeology), that Hussein read his reports and returned them with careful notes in the margins." [same megalomaniacal and deluded behavior by Saddam, proof of survival instinct of George under harsh circumstances; who are we to condemn him for telling an anecdote (which can actually be interpreted both as flattery and clever ridicule) to a Western journalist?]; "For foreign archaeologists, including Americans, Hussein's obsession with antiquity created ideal working conditions. They enjoyed close relations with Iraqi authorities, zealous protection of their sites, and plenty of logistical support. The Iraqis kept all finds, but the archaeologists took them home in the form of publications, tenure, grants, and professional fame. Access meant success, and no one was so bold or foolish as to speak unpleasant truths publicly about Hussein's Iraq." [there is some truth to this, sure]; "In fact, working in Iraq could be quite agreeable. While in Baghdad, Americans were often the guests of the British School of Archaeology, which maintained what an American archaeologist described as 'a beautiful expedition house.... Many archaeologists, both British and foreign, enjoyed the warm hospitality, great food, and excellent library of this residential facility.' The ruthless politics of the dictatorship did not impinge." [again, this is silly: digging in Iraq or Syria or ... is not a romantic, agreeable endeavor but, in the real world, hard and tedious work with little or no time for socializing]

--- I could go on and on: this article is full of accusations based on a few kernels of truths, many half-truths, lots of innuendo and some outright distortions and falsehoods. It starts that way and never really deviates from this path. Mr. Joffe is very bitter indeed: Mesopotamian archaeologists and their ilk almost seem like a dangerous, treacherous bunch of dictator-loving and crypto-communist elitists, don't they? Most of all, this diatribe serves to steer away from any political responsibility for the cultural disaster that did take place (the looting of the Museum, the burning of the National Library) and that is still ongoing (the looting and destruction of archaeological sites)–how convenient! I don't discern a lot of interest in the Iraqis themselves in all this, beyond the Ba'ath atrocities. Iraqi people deserve better than Saddam: yes, yes, yes! They deserve to be heard, lead a decent life and not be used as mere pawns in the Culture Wars of the US. "Western archaeologists speak the language of scholarly authority, pacifism, and universalism. Stone's statement [about needing to kill some looters to send a message; certainly way over the top and not shared by most colleagues I know] revealed an underlying truth: the profession only values high culture in its most rarified form and is entirely possessed with its role of mediating the meaning of objects to a high-brow Western audience." [heaven forbid: those archaeologists are intellectuals! crucify them!!!]; "Working in a wretched totalitarian country was a conscious choice for archaeologists as it was for businessmen." [not true: if you want to excavate Mesopotamian sites, only Iraq and Syria will do, both police states; for a businessman, money can be made anywhere in the world]; "Iraq purchased most of its weapons from Russia and France, sophisticated electronics from the United States, and germ samples from all over the world. Profit is its own excuse, and those who armed and supported Iraq have much for which to answer." [hear, hear!]; "But archaeologists submitted paperwork to the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage, knowing full well that staff lists would be vetted by Iraqi intelligence. European and American Jews, among the pioneers of Mesopotamian archaeology during the first half of the twentieth century, were systematically excluded from participation, as they still are in Syria and Saudi Arabia. No one protested." [I personally know of Jews having excavated in Syria; foreign excavations of any kind in Saudi Arabia are almost non-existent; it would not surprise me at all that Iraq tried to enforce such a racist policy; but, to my knowledge, unless an archaeologist was an Israeli citizen only (in which case there was no possibility of working in Iraq or Syria), the common practice was to check off "Christian" on official forms and avoid public displays of religion in general; despiccable though such a policy is, it pales in comparison to the barbaric political persecutions inside Ba'athist Iraq of Iraqis of all religions]; and by the way: contrary to what is suggested by Joffe, there has not been any job explosion in Mesopotamian archaeology that I know of: I'm still for hire...

S. Mansfield, "Queen of the Night Comes Into the Light," in The Scotsman (UK), March 20, 2004: "... the Queen of the Night, a 4,000-year-old Mesopotamian terracotta goddess, ... This weekend, she will leave her permanent home at the British Museum to make her first appearance in Scotland at the Burrell Collection - the start of a series of UK 'weekend breaks'. Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum, said: 'She is quite demanding in her travel arrangements. Like all celebrities, she prefers to travel incognito. Her suite will be prepared for her, and she has her entourage. We hope she’ll be very happy with her suite at the Burrell.'" [I guess when you don't have any archaeological context to explain an artifact, it is only natural to resort to "artistic license"]; "A special case has been made to transport her. On arrival at her destination, it will become the base on which she is displayed. However, Frances Carey, the head of national programmes at the British Museum, ... said the 19-inch-tall goddess is remarkably strong. 'She has to travel flat, with jolting minimised as much as possible, but she is made of baked clay, which is actually a very robust substance." "The Queen of the Night, originally known as the Burney Relief, was brought to Britain in the 1920s, when Iraq was under British rule."

Photo: "Dominique Collon, British Museum curator of ancient Near East, places the goddess on display at the Burrell Collection. Picture: Donald MacLeod"

N. Jauker, "'Das ist nur die Spitze des Eisbergs'. BZ-Interview mit dem Rheinfeldener Archäologen Clemens Reichel, der in Chicago eine Datenbank erstellt," in Badische Zeitung (Germany), March 20, 2004: interview of Clemens Reichel who together with Chuck Jones has created and is constantly improving and expanding the University of Chicago's online database of the artifacts in the National Museum in Baghdad: he estimates that 7 to 10,000 pieces are still missing but stresses that it's hard to know for sure because the museum archive was destroyed and even under normal conditions an inventory of a museum of this size takes a year or so

Photo: "Clemens Reichel Foto: Chicago Mag." [man of steel!]

M. Pfefferle, "Viele Kunstschätze sind für immer verloren. Ein Jahr nach dem Irakkrieg hat sich das Nationalmuseum von den Plünderungen keineswegs erholt - auch die Raubgrabungen lassen sich kaum eindämmen," in Badische Zeitung (Germany), March 20, 2004: Dr. Margarete van Ess says that exhibiting the Treasure of Nimrud was a blunder as now everyone knows where the precious jewels are stored (in the Central Bank); the article still mentions the Swiss freeports and the laundering of stolen art and antiquities by storing them there for 5 years: however, Switzerland did adopt new legislation just recently which puts an end to the excesses of this system (see Lalande February 27)

Photo: "Trotz militärischer Kontrollen: Die Raubgrabungen im Irak gehen weiter. ... Fotos: Universität Chicago/Hirmer Verlag" [no matter the military patrols, the looters go on digging in Iraq]

H.Z., "Irak. 'On hérite d'une situation où tout a été détruit ou pillé,'" in L'Humanité (France), March 20, 2004: interview with Jawad el-Jaza'iri, former editor of Tariq el-Sha'ab ("The Way of the People," the Iraqi Communist Party's newspaper) and present Minister of Culture: the National Museum in Baghdad will reopen in about a year; 14 to 15,000 artifacts were stolen from it, 4,000 have been recovered so far; France returned 500 [8-20-04: wrong! see Interpol June 1-2, 2004], the US close to 1,000, Jordan 700, Syria 300, Switzerland 250; 5 or 6 high-value pieces are still missing however; the traveling exhibition will kick off in Paris, at the Louvre
M. Fogarty, "US Conservation Groups Work to Protect Iraq's Endangered Historical Sites," in Voice of America News, with online audio, March 19, 2004: interview with Bonnie Burnham, president of the World Monuments Fund about the Iraq Cultural Heritage Conservation Initiative: "Representatives from Iraq and the U.S.-based groups are meeting in Jordan next week ... although Iraqi antiquities officials have about 10,000 archeological sites mapped out, these records need to be updated in order to be useful. 'All of this mapping and documentation is in hard copy written forms. Putting that into a much more sophisticated matrix with geographical information attached to it, satellite-based imagery can be very effective in identifying where the archeological sites are,' she said." "This [site mapping] project is expected to take two years."
"Iraq Museum Director to Visit Japan," in Japan Today, March 19, 2004: "The director of the National Museum of Iraq will visit Japan from March 30 to April 6 to hold talks with Japanese officials over Japan's assistance to help restore Iraq's cultural assets ..." "The director, Donny George, will also give a speech on April 1 in Tokyo on the current state of Iraq's cultural assets, ..."

"DABV01-04-R-0024: Site Construction, Security and Safety Improvement Project for the Iraq Museum. Closing Date: 9 April 2004, 17:00 Baghdad Time," in Coalition Provisional Authority (Iraq), online, [March 18, 2004]: [removed at the request of Dr. John Russell (CPA) for security reasons]

Figure 1: [removed at the request of Dr. John Russell (CPA) for security reasons]

Figure 2: [removed at the request of Dr. John Russell (CPA) for security reasons]

C. Nash, "His Search for Iraq's Stolen Treasures," in Newsday (New York), March 18, 2004: lecture by Col. Matthew Bogdanos at Stony Brook University: "... the recovery effort [of the National Museum of Baghdad stolen artifacts], though frustrating, was critical to the international community and should be restarted." "... he believes most of the missing artifacts are now outside Iraq."
G. Fouché, "Roger Matthews. A Reader in the Archaeology of Western Asia at University College London and a Former Director of the British School of Archaeology in Iraq," in The Guardian (UK), March 18, 2004: follow-up interview of Fouché May 21, 2003; "The illegal digging of archaeological sites has massively increased in Iraq." "In terms of the looting of museums, ... Worryingly, many missing artefacts are now resurfacing on the international art market in Europe and in the US. They are mainly portable items that are easy to hide, such as cylinder seals or clay tablets." "My Iraqi colleagues have had some help in terms of conservation or database work in museums, but the security issue underlies everything, as they cannot do the most basic work if their safety is not guaranteed. It is important to establish whether or not they want international help. They should be allowed to work by themselves if that is what they want." [I'm not sure why Matthews seems to think that our Iraqi colleagues may not want international help; as far as I know, they were happy to get assistance from abroad; if there have been problems they were not caused by the Iraqi museum people but rather by Coalition military]

"Japan to Help Protect Iraq's Sumer[ian] Ruins [and] Artifacts," in The Japan Times (Japan), March 18, 2004: "... help local authorities tighten security at the sites, providing them with patrol vehicles and other equipment, ... through UNESCO, using $600,000 in grant aid, ..." "Japan plans to disburse about $28 million worth of grant aid to help Iraq purchase police cars and $1 million to repair museums and other places. The latest plan to provide security assistance is in addition to the previous aid for Iraq's reconstruction, ..."

Photo: "Local officials in Samawah, Iraq, check artifacts found in the ruins of Sumer."

S. Striegl, "Geraubte Vergangenheit. Das Geschäft mit geplünderten Kulturgütern," in SWR2 (Germany), with online audio, March 17, 2004: good radio piece, interviewing a range of knowledgable scholars; Dr. Clemens Reichel (University of Chicago) said that some of the 5,000 seals stolen from the National Museum could fetch $100,000-$200,000 a piece; Dr. Margarete van Ess (Deutsches Archäologisches Institut or DAI) said that that seal collection happened to not be in its usual place in the storage areas so the thieves must have had inside knowledge; illegal trade in other regions also discussed as well as possible measures to counter it, e.g., an "antiquities passport" with information about origin, ownership, etc. would have accompany any authentic artifact leaving its country of origin; this wouldn't work in the Middle east, said van Ess, because antiquities personnel would fear that any mistake would be too easily used to force him out of their job; plain legal sale of excavated artifacts also not a good idea because subsequent research would be impossible as the items would get spread around the world and would be impossible to trace after a couple of generations; Dr. Ricardo Eichmann (DAI) spoke in favor of lending of ancient museum artifacts, esp. from the reserves (90-95% of the holdings), to registered patrons; notwithstanding a promise by the federal government, Germany still hasn't ratified the 1970 UNESCO convention against the illegal art and antiquities trade, even though the UK and Switzerland have recently joined

L.R. Vaughn, "Iraqi Academics Visit Campus Museum," in The Daily Pennsylvanian, March 16, 2004: "After the introduction, the Iraqis took pictures of each other standing beside the encased artifacts, their pride on display. The program is 'definitely an effort by the Americans to show that they are serious about reconstructing Iraq, culturally and politically,' said Aminah Mohammad, a friend of one of the group's translators and a junior at Bryn Mawr College, who is half Iraqi herself." "'We are very impressed with the warm welcome we received from the Americans,' said Mohammad Abdul Rezaq, one of the older Iraqi participants. 'Of course, Americans are very curious about Iraqis because they are rare to see' in the United States."

Photo: "Iraqi museum specialists visit the 'Treasures from the Royal Tombs of Ur' exhibit at Penn's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. The 23 scholars are spending five weeks touring U.S. museums. <Fatemeh Kadivar/The Daily Pennsylvanian>"

This site is edited by Belgian archaeologist Francis Deblauwe, Ph.D., living in Streamwood, Illinois (USA), who is affiliated with Archaeos, Inc., and a research associate of the University of Vienna (Austria).