The Iraq War & Archaeology Archive 27

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.

"Baghdad Museum Restoration Project to 2 Italians," in AGI (Italy), online, May 13, 2004: "They were in Baghdad for 26 days, from April 4 to April 30, in order to realise the restoration project, including cataloguing, and taking pictures of more than 100,000 cuneiform [tablet]s ..." [too good to be true: certainly the journalist can't mean that they photographed that many tablets; indeed (7-30-04), see Notiziario NIP July 8]; "The Baghdad Project dates back to 1995, when the former director of cultural heritage of the Saddam government entrusted [Dr. Giovanni Pettinato and Dr. Silvia Chiodi] with the job. Since then, the archaeological finds studied concern different period[s], from prehistoric times up to the Medieval. In November 2004, three halls should open: the Muslim one, as well as the Assyro-Babylonian hall, and the Hatra hall, ..."
"Hermitage to Help Iraqi Museums Restore Destroyed Showpieces," in Russian Information Agency Novosti (Russia), May 11, 2004: "The State Hermitage is to help the Baghdad National Museum restore destroyed showpieces, Hermitage director Mikhail Piotrovsky told ..." "... bronze, ceramic and organic restorers will go to Iraq. 'We have already gathered a team of volunteers ready to go there. None of them refused,' ... In addition, the Hermitage is to set up a school for Iraqi restorers in St. Petersburg. They will come to Moscow to master unknown technologies, such as work with wet bones, ... The Hermitage and the British Museum are to hold several seminars on vital restoration problems, for instance, the restoration of ancient clay tablets, ..."
A.-M. Romero, "La difficile surveillance du patrimoine proche-oriental. L'Iran s'ouvre aux chercheurs, l'Irak se désespère," in Le Figaro (France), May 8, 2004: Dr. Christine Kepinski [misspelled as Kapinski](CNRS) said that even in the relatively-calm Sinjar (NW Iraq) she's not allowed to visit her excavation site [i.e., Grai Resh] at which she last worked in Spring 2002; she said that the only way for archaeological teams to really protect a site is to make a deal with, pay and thrust responsibility upon the local tribe, which has succesfully happened at Uruk (by the German excavation team), Ur (in a military camp), Babylon (by the Polish military) and Kish (US); the Italian military is officially charged with archaeological-site protection issues and has surprise helicopter patrols in their area but looters just re-appear afterwards, not withstanding the watchtowers built by the US military at, e.g., Eridu; Dr. McGuire Gibson's name also misspelled: "Mike Guire Gibson"; Iraqis have been invited by the French Foreign Ministry to go to France to receive training in archaeological techniques and conservation methods
A. Lawler, "Reclaiming Iraq's Past: Life on the Front Lines. A Baghdad Triptych," in Science, 304, 5672 (May 7, 2004): "Three foreign scholars in Iraq are helping repair, protect, and rejuvenate the country's shattered artifacts, ancient sites, and institutions. When the Bush Administration was preparing to invade Iraq in March 2003, many archaeologists had a personal stake in trying to avert the conflict. They feared for the safety of their Iraqi colleagues and worried about the impact of modern warfare on the innumerable ancient sites that dot Mesopotamia's landscape. ... But after Saddam Hussein was toppled, archaeologists had to decide whether to make common cause with the very coalition forces they had criticized. ... Now, with the aid of U.S. government funds, they are playing pivotal roles in rebuilding Iraq 's damaged universities and museums and are reconnecting their near-destitute colleagues with the international scientific community. It is no simple task. Going to work requires an armed guard, and their nights are punctuated by gunfire." "As a consultant to the Iraq Reconstruction and Development Council, which is funded by the ruling coalition, [Lamia] Al-Gailani's job is to help museum employees reorganize both the hundreds of thousands of artifacts and the institution itself. Beyond the orgy of looting in April 2003, the museum also suffers from years of neglect. 'By last April, there was no official photographer, no specialist in Sumerian art, and no one who knew anything about Greek, Roman, or Sassanian coins,' she told a packed auditorium of archaeologists at a meeting last month in Berlin. Most foreign archaeologists are reluctant to criticize their hosts publicly. But not Al-Gailani, whose Baghdadi family roots go back to a famed medieval philosopher. In fact, she was the first Iraqi woman to participate in excavations, and she worked for the museum for 8 years before leaving in 1970 to earn a Ph.D. at University College London, where she still lives. An independent researcher, she returns to Iraq nearly every year for research on Babylonian cuneiform seals, many of which were stolen in last year's looting. 'I'm not counted as an outsider,' she says. ... 'It's not an exaggeration to say that thousands of objects need work, from metal ones to pottery,' she says. And that urgency goes back to the first Gulf War. In 2000, Al-Gailani was there when museum officials opened boxes of artifacts hastily packed away before U.S. bombs arrived in 1991. 'Quite a lot of the ivories' — many from the 9th century B.C.E. Assyrian capital of Nimrud — 'had completely crumbled, and the beautiful Halaf pottery was covered in black mold,' she recalls. ... Italian conservationists have refurbished the museum lab that was vandalized during the looting and are working with a handful of Iraqi specialists to restore objects smashed or damaged during the looting and during the decade of neglect. But Al-Gailani says a much more intensive effort is needed to save the large number of objects that are in a precarious state of preservation. She hopes 'to leave the museum in the 21st century' when she departs this summer. She's also trying to revive Iraq's only archaeology journal, Sum[m]er, which was published sporadically during the 1990s. And she is starting to raise money for exhibitions, despite the lack of immediate plans to reopen the museum to the public."

"... Elizabeth Stone, an archaeologist at Stony Brook University in New York. A vocal opponent of the U.S. invasion, she has shelved her academic research ... to help Iraqis at the universities of Baghdad and Mosul rebuild their shattered archaeology and environmental health departments. Directing a $10.9 million, 3-year grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Stone is shuttling back and forth to Iraq to set up educational programs and computer systems. ... As part of the USAID contract, Stone will conduct two 5-week intensive sessions covering everything from micromorphology to computer mapping to cuneiform. Some 45 Iraqis, from professors to students, are slated to attend. But simply finding a venue is a challenge. She suggested the northern Iraq city of Erbil, a more secure city than Baghdad but still a domestic trip. ... But many Iraqis fear that being seen with foreigners will label them as collaborators. Meanwhile, Stone is trying to acquire high-speed Internet access, computer software, Global Positioning System equipment, and cameras for the shattered archaeology faculties at Baghdad and Mosul universities. They will also need training, as many faculty members and students have little experience using such modern archaeological tools. 'A lot of good Iraqis want to rebuild the country, but we are all handcuffed,' says Yasin Ali, the only member of Mosul University's archaeology/philology department with a Ph.D. 'We have to work without electricity at temperatures above 50°C — we sweat as we teach,' he says. Last month Stone and other team members interviewed 26 candidates for a Ph.D. program at Stony Brook that USAID will support. Eight were selected, but Stone says she was 'devastated' by the erosion of English language skills since the 1980s." "One year ago, John Russell [from Boston's Massachusetts College of Art] was decrying the havoc wreaked on Baghdad's cultural institutions in the midst of the U.S. invasion. ... For the past 9 months, Russell ... serving as an adviser to Iraq's Ministry of Culture. When he was asked by U.S. officials to take the job, Russell hesitated before deciding that he couldn't leave his Iraqi friends and colleagues in the lurch. Now he is wrapping up a most unusual sabbatical year. ... He has been outspoken in criticizing the antiquities trade. But reining in that trade in today's Iraq is proving a tough task; devastating looting continues in the Iraqi countryside. Russell is also helping refurbish the Iraq Museum by drumming up funds, working closely with the museum staff, and finding and managing the necessary contractors. As he prepares to return home, he's not optimistic about the chances of slowing the destruction of the country's heritage. 'No one wants to hear this, but it is going to be impossible to win this battle the way things are now,' he says. ... Carabinieri in charge of the southern region now patrol 'aggressively' using helicopters and conducting raids, Russell says. But the economic ruin makes looting a profitable business, and looters simply avoid guarded sites and [go] elsewhere. 'Now they are using floodlights to dig at night,' he adds. 'It's a problem that the coalition can't reasonably be expected to turn around in 1 year.' Russell prays for more legal excavations and more prosperity in the southern region. But neither seems very likely. Legal digging is difficult and dangerous, although a team of Austrian archaeologists quietly continued working as recently as last fall at Borsippa, an ancient city southwest of Baghdad. ... Some of his Iraqi colleagues propose more drastic measures, such as bombing the trucks and buses that take looters to sites every day. Russell demurs, saying, 'Americans don't do that.' But he wouldn't mind confiscating such vehicles."
L. Colonnelli, "«Così abbiamo ritrovato 300 mila tavolette inedite». Archeologi a Bagdad," in Corriere della Sera (Italy), May 5, 2004: the big surprise of Dr. Giovanni Pettinato's team's trip to Iraq: nearly 300,000 unpublished cuneiform tablets hidden in the basement of the National Museum in Baghdad, it could be even more; it was generally thought that there were only up to 100,000; there were compartments in the basement full of unstudied, unknown tablets because these spaces were off-limit; high number partially because many private collections had been seized by the state in recent years; also, for example, a group of 1,500 tablets was confiscated in Jordan [before the 2003 Iraq War], something not known to Pettinato; he couldn't find anybody of the local Assyriology and archaeology students he had worked with in the past: they all had either fled the country or were dead [general comment: this new 300,000 number seems awfully high; I'll wait for corroboration before I'll accept it as fact, esp. considering other statements by Dr. Pettinato that seem to push the limits of credibility when checked with other sources]
"Ministère de la Culture aux Irakiens. L'administrateur civil américain en Irak, Paul Bremer, a officiellement remis ce mardi aux Irakiens les clés du ministère de la Culture, après avoir fait de même pour ceux de la Santé, de l'Education et des Travaux Publics," in RTBF (Belgium), May 4, 2004: Mufid el-Jaza'iri was officially handed over the reigns of the Iraqi Ministry of Culture; Bremer promised the continuning support of the Coalition in recovering the artifacts stolen from the National Museum; Dr. John Russell, CPA advisor to the minister, said that Iraqi culture was in good hands
T. Squitieri, "'New spirit' lifts Baghdad's Iraq Museum," in USA Today, May 4, 2004: "George says other nations, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Turkey and Iran, have been slow to seize and return objects that were taken into their countries. George says about 20 'unique, world-class pieces are still missing.' He declines to identify them." [?]; "Since last May, about $4 million in donations have come to the museum from dozens of countries, including $1 million from the U.S. State Department. Museums in Europe and the USA have sent experts to Baghdad to aid in archival work and to develop ways to replenish the archives and collections." "But one of George's other goals seems in jeopardy: having the Iraq Museum anchor 14 other museums throughout the country, which would help revive archaeological work in the nation. Hopes are dimming that Iraq can again be a welcome and productive area for archaeologists. A lack of security has permitted key sites to be ravaged. 'There is no longer a surface left to start digging on' in at least nine of the 12 major sites known to archaeologists, says Elizabeth Stone, an expert on Iraqi archaeology at Stony Brook University in New York. 'The major Mesopotamian cities are gone.' Stone estimates that 175,000 objects have been looted from important archaeological sites. 'More archaeological soil has been turned over in the past year than has ever been turned over, but by the wrong people,' she says." "Now, with the breakdown of security, the future for archaeological site work that George and others hoped for is 'a wonderful dream, but it isn't going to happen,' Stone says." [discouraging words, esp. coming from the corecipient of a $4.1 million USAID grant to support archaeology at Iraqi universities; see Finn October 22, 2003]
"Bremer Hands Over Full Authority to Iraqi Ministry of Culture," in Coalition Provisional Authority (Iraq), online, May 4, 2004: "Under the leadership of Ambassador Osio, Professor John Russell, and Mr. Al-Jaza’iri, the Ministry of Culture has already achieved the following: ... • Completed the first phase of reconstruction on the Iraq Museum ... • Approved and have begun implementation of the Archaeological Site Protection Plan[.] The Coalition will continue to provide technical assistance as requested by the Iraqi Ministry of Culture."
M. Roncalli, "Salvi i tesori iracheni. Parla l'assirologo Giovanni Pettinato, appena rientrato da Baghdad dove cura il patrimonio del Museo nazionale. «Le 120.000 tavolette cuneiformi non hanno subito razzie. L’Istituto centrale del restauro di Roma collabora alla loro conservazione. E a giugno si riapre»," in Avvenire (Italy), May 4, 2004: interview with Dr. Giovanni Pettinatto who's just returned with his team from Baghdad: they did not work together with any Americans, only with Iraqi colleagues, i.e., supervisor of cultural activities Ismail Hijara, director of cultural heritage Abdul Aziz, museum director Donny George; he was able to ascertain with his own eyes that the 100,000-strong [in the subtitle it's 120,000: consistency, please!] collection of cuneiform tablets was not touched during the looting in April last year; they were forced to work long hours, every day, for almost the whole month of April; the Warka Vase and the Lady of Warka are now being conserved by the Istituto centrale del restauro (Rome) that will also help us with the tablets—they were able to stop the Iraqis from going to the Japanese for this; the tablet project is in cooperation with 3 US universities [which ones??] and the University of Vienna; the Museum director and the Italians working there hope to reopen the Museum in June, at least the Islamic and Assyrian sections and maybe an exhibit in the courtyard; Dr. Silvia Chiodi esp. expresses the fear that the Museum might become a terrorist target; nevertheless, they're already planning to go back as soon as possible [it's not clear what they were able to do as far as the cataloging, photographing and transcribing of the cuneiform tablets is concerned; my guess would be that they got permissions, set up things and only made a start with the actual work; I have to admit that this Italian article proved to be very hard to translate at times, I hope I didn't misunderstand anything of substance; follow-up (7-28-04): Notiziario NIP July 8, 2004]
"Museum Treasures Rarely Seen," in Defend America, with online video, May 4, 2004: interview with Dr. John Russell: the [National M]useum has only been open a few times in the past 25 years; the real damage didn't happen from the looting but from the 24 years of neglect; system after system was cut off and abandoned in place due to lack of parts; very few pieces in the galleries have not been returned, so you'll see little missing when visiting [I'm pretty sure he mentioned the thousands of other artifacts stolen from the non-public sections but I guess it was edited out]; these gifted people at the State Board who have had no advantages for all these years [same video, I think, as The NewsMarket April 22 but freely accessible]
G. Herrmann, "The Nimrud Ivories in 2004," in British School of Archaeology in Iraq Newsletter (UK), 13 (May 2004 [online 10-25-04]): "The Nimrud ivories, like much else in the Iraq Museum, Baghdad, suffered as a result of the 2003 war and the sacking of the museum. Many pieces were stolen and disappeared into the antiquities market: these include the jewel-like ‘Lioness and the Nubian’, of which fortunately there is a version in the British Museum. Others have been damaged, some beyond repair, by the packing, storage and unpacking necessitated by the bombings of 1991 and 2003. Some of the finest were packed and stored in the vaults of the Central Bank in Baghdad, where they were inundated with sewage-contaminated water. On their removal in the summer of 2003 they were given emergency conservation, before having to be returned to the vault because of a lack of security in the Museum. They have continued to deteriorate: the ‘Mona Lisa’ has apparently split vertically into three, and others have disintegrated. ... The British Museum brought three Iraqi conservators, two from Baghdad and one from Mosul, for training in recent conservation techniques to London in the spring of this year. The Italians have generously provided a laboratory, now in use, and have a conservator in Baghdad working with their Iraqi colleagues. All this is excellent, but the scale of the task is daunting. Many ivories are still in storerooms, where they were apparently swept to the floor during the disturbances: ..." "... the School has financed ... scanning from the original photographs not only all the ivories published in the Ivory from Nimrud series of volumes ..., but also those already assembled for publication in the next two fascicules, ... The latter, fortunately, includes, thanks to the generosity of the Iraqi Department of Antiquities, the outstanding ivories found by the Department in Well AJ, some of which were also looted. Advance copies of the scans were made available last summer to Chicago, which has developed a major database of antiquities to help Interpol and others track down and identify some of the lost antiquities. The scanned archive of I.N. I-V is currently being printed and should be available in June."
N. Al-Gailani, "Letter from Baghdad – Report on the BSAI's Museum Workshops and Talks delivered to the Staff of the Iraq Museum, Baghdad. Monday 19th – Thursday 29th April 2004," in British School of Archaeology in Iraq Newsletter (UK), 13 (May 2004 [online 10-25-04]): "Once we got started, I found the Iraq Museum staff as young and excited as the spring. ... we explored the main issues that concern the museum profession including public access to the collections (physical and intellectual), interpretation and audience development, education and outreach work, and design and display. The practical side of the workshops was focused on getting the staff to work in small mixed teams to produce two-dimensional displays on seven pre-specified exhibition themes. Each of the exhibitions was accompanied by a children’s educational activity sheet and an appropriate events programme. We started off with 45 members of the Iraq Museum staff, but had several others join us from well beyond: One from Najaf Museum, one from Babylon Museum, and one from Kerbelah Museum. ... We also had two people from Baghdad University’s Natural History Museum, and three from the National Archives. Due to the size of the attendance, we had to split them in to two groups and run two sessions a day, each having a theoretical / conversational part and a practical part. For the practical side of the workshops, the people attending were split into eleven exhibition teams of 4 –5 members. On Thursday 29th, being the last day, the Iraq Museum staff arranged a small display of their virtual exhibitions in what had become our classroom." "Throughout the talks and workshops, staff highlighted areas they would like to get more focused training in. Education, exhibition design, various areas relating to collections and museum management including front of house services and staff professional development."
R. Koliński, "10 Weeks in Babylon," in British School of Archaeology in Iraq Newsletter, 13 (May 2004 [online 10-25-04]): "The Babylon Archaeological Project (BAP) has been launched in October 2003 on an initiative of the Coalition Provisional Authority, South-Central Region, ... The project was established as a joint Polish-Iraqi enterprise meant to revive archaeological activities at the site of Babylon and I was acting as the project director. Despite the original promise of the CPA to finance equipment and Iraqi participation in the project, no funds were put at our disposal. Consequently, efforts of the project team have been confined to monitoring and recording the extent of damage sustained by the site since the outbreak of the war. This activity, ... has been limited to the area within the military camp, which covers presently about one-fifth of the entire site." "Evidence of numerous shooting positions and shelters of various sizes suggest that Iraqis were prepared to defend the site against the coalition forces, though no battle was finally fought in Babylon. A single line of fire positions was prepared along a modern road south of the Southern Palace. Some pits have also been observed on the eastern side of the Humara hill. A much higher number of positions is in evidence at Qasr, in the area of the Central Palace and to the north of it. Similar positions have been spotted on a low hill located north of Qasr and on the Babil hill, at the northern limit of Babylon. Most of the above mentioned positions were dug into dumps or artificially levelled areas; only few of them destroyed ancient structures or undisturbed archaeological layers. During a relatively short period before the military camp was established at the ancient site, the whole area had been subjected to looting. The main impact of the looters was on modern buildings, starting from Saddam Hussain’s palace and its compound, to the SBOAH [State Board of Antiquities and Heritage or SBAH] buildings, the Museum included, and the tourist complex around the artificial lake, north of the reconstructed theatre. All buildings, reconstructions included, were stripped of all movables, as well as of doors, windows, and electrical equipment. The glass-cases in the Babylon Museum were emptied of their contents, but the original panel of glazed bricks and a plaster fragment with ancient graffiti have survived. A small museum library as well as a gift shop in the corner of the courtyard of the Museum were plundered and papers kept in its offices, field documentation of the Iraqi excavations in Babylon included, burned. With all probability, the portico of the reconstructed Palaestra was burned at that time. Looters have also sought for inscribed bricks in the Throne Room of the Southern Palace. Where over a dozen of bricks were once present, only one complete and one fragmentary brick survived in the northern wall of the hall. Even more regrettable were the attempts to break and take away relief bricks forming depictions of Marduk’s dragons in the Ishtar Gate. Large areas of relief decoration are obliterated; nearly all reliefs forming the lowest row of the decoration have been affected to some degree. Yet, fortunately, very few traces of illicit digging were observed at the site."
"The military camp was established in Babylon on April 22nd, ... One of their first activities was setting up sentry posts and barbed wire fence along the perimeter of the camp. The southernmost part of the reconstructed Procession Street was damaged on this occasion in the area to the south of the temple of Nabu sa hare, where holes have been made in the brick pavement of the street on a stretch of more than 40 meters in order to secure the fence. The original posts installed by the US Marines have been later replaced by sentry towers located either on natural hillocks or on artificial mounds which had been prepared to accommodate them with the use of bulldozers. Another large activity carried out at that time was extension of the Landing Zone towards the north and east. The extension has been covered with a thick layer of reddish earth with many brick fragments (taken obviously from Humara hill), which was packed to form a hard surface able to support even heavy helicopters. The dimensions of the extended landing zone are irregular: it is about 300 m long (east to west, along the road) and more than 100 m wide (north-south, in the western part). The Humara hill has been extensively used as a source of earth for engineering activities. Four large pits have been dug into the northern spur of Humara, three of them on its western and the other on the north-western side (two have been observed by Helen McDonald already in the Summer of 2003, ...). The largest of the pits is approximately 25 meters long and more than 10 meters wide and reaches 4 meters into the deposits of Humara. At the southernmost pit, digging activity was observed even during my stay in Babylon. The presence of the military camp at the site of Babylon poses a constant threat to the archaeological remains, mainly because a large number of people and heavy equipment is crammed there on a very restricted area. The ruins and the architectural reconstructions are often visited by soldiers. Their movement has been regulated by an order of the camp commander (enforcing that only groups accompanied by an Iraqi guide may enter the area of the reconstructions and of archaeological excavations), but the order was not being followed very strictly. Only in December was the Qasr area fenced off by barbed wire to stop trespassing, and it is regularly patrolled by the Military Police. Finally, military authorities constantly attempt to improve and enhance various parts of the encampment. ... like installing new showers or levelling certain areas may be potentially precarious to the archaeological remains. An example of a real threat to the antiquities of Babylon was an attempt to extend the Landing Zone towards the north-east, by a large, trapezoid area 150 m long and 50 m wide. The work started in November 2003 but was stopped immediately on request of the director of the local office of the SBOAH." [so it seems that, contrary to other articles in the media, the SBAH does have influence at the site? see Koliński September 30, 2004]; "A thunderstorm that had flooded Camp Babylon on the night of 27th November caused a lot of damage to archaeological objects and reconstructed buildings. Unusually intensive rainfall caused strong run-off water torrents, which cut into the ground. Consequently, in several instances the reconstructed walls started to crack (for example, at the south-eastern corner of the Ishtar of Agade temple), while in other places the already existing cracks widened (the Ishtar Gate). The roof of one of the side chambers of the Ninmah temple, where two of its roof-beams had cracked, was broken by the rain, leaving a hole of 1/2 square meter. Two stretches of the western face of the reconstructed Inner City Wall north of the Marduk Gate had broken off the core of the wall and collapsed. Mud plaster covering the facades of the reconstructed buildings has been washed away nearly entirely from the walls which were exposed to the wind-driven rain." [surely, this kind of storm must occur on occasion; is this reported damage exceptional compared with previous storms and, if so, why? see Koliński September 30, 2004]; "Minor damage to several structures was observed prior to the above mentioned storm. The most substantial breakage was observed in the Nabu sa hare temple. The surface layer of the back wall in the smaller cella peeled off and collapsed in the middle part, forming a recess 2,5 meters wide and more than 3 meters long. Cracks were observed in some other walls, where gypsum lining was reconstructed on the walls of the temple, for instance in the entrance hall by the northern entrance." [any idea about the cause of this damage? see Koliński September 30, 2004]
"The main problem for a person staying in Iraq is lack of means of communication. The phone network works only on a local level ... E-mail is expensive, and access to satellite phones restricted. The only solution is personal contact. This is also difficult to arrange, mainly because security conditions are gradually deteriorating (during my stay there in December, only military or CPA convoys were occasionally targeted). Traveling with military or CPA convoys turned out to be difficult to arrange; renting a local car with a driver was the most efficient way to move about. A journey to Baghdad was considered a bit risky, but traveling in the area of Hilla, Karbala and Najaf was safe and we managed to visit all these cities, as well as al-Kifl, Ukhaidir and Borsippa. For instance, in October the Austrian archaeological mission was staying in the Ibrahim Khalil village close to Borsippa for about three weeks without any incidents. The situation of the Iraqi Antiquities Service (SBOAH) is very difficult. Some local offices and regional museums have already been restored and partly equipped on expense of the CPA. The Nebuchadnezzar Museum in Babylon and its offices have been equipped, and running water and electricity restored, but both buildings have recently been taken over by American troops, despite a protest of the SBOAH staff. Numerous personnel of the local SBOAH offices is presently paid by the CPA, but lack of material means prevents the Iraqis from undertaking any activities. This will also be difficult in the future, as long as the SBOAH is deprived of funds, and before Archaeological Police starts to operate. At the moment, protection of the heritage of Iraq, archaeological sites included, is a concern of the military authorities, with CIMIC launching reconstruction and protection programs, and coalition troops guarding some of the sites. Yet, in the future, huge sums of money will be necessary to protect sites and to maintain architectural reconstructions at the sites."

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).