The Iraq War & Archaeology Archive 31

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.

U. Willmann, "Plünderer im Zweistromland. Im Irak findet eine der größten Zerstörungen der Kulturgeschichte statt. Ungehindert von den Behörden, pflügen sich Räuber durch historische Stätten und vernichten das Erbe der Menschheit," in Die Zeit, July 15, 2004: on June 9, four antiquities smugglers were arrested by the Iraqi police in Baghdad, with almost 3,000 nicely-wrapped ancient artifacts packed in trunks: filigree animal figurines, cuneiform tablets, grotesque fable creatures, drinking vessels, glass paste vases and terracotta [plaques] with pornographic scenes; they were stolen from archaeological sites in the south of Iraq where the plundering by thousands of looters continues unabated; documentarian Micah Garen says that Saddam Hussein in the past tolerated some small-scale looting to buy the loyalty of tribes in remote regions; Dr. Margarete van Ess (Deutsches Archäologisches Institut) estimated that 130 sites are being devastated, Dr. Walter Sommerfeld (Universität Marburg) spoke of 1,000s; "Tell Laham, Umm al-Aqarib, Umm al-Hafriyat [and] Zabalam" are mentioned in this regard; Dr. Russell recalled sadly how looters would greet him when he landed by helicopter on his earlier inspection tour; he tried to inspect 22 more sites just before he left but a sandstorm canceled the plan; the archaeological sites of "Tell Schmid, Umm al-Hafriyat, Maschkan-Schapir [and] Fara" have now completely been wrecked; Dr. Zainab Bahrani, Russell's successor, hadn't even been out in the field yet, she said she'd be flying to Babylon the next day though; Bahrani said that the Carabinieri who were doing a more than decent job protecting sites in the region around Nasiriyyah, had just been withdrawn so the situation there would be slipping downhill fast; she didn't know why this happened, everything changes all the time, from one day to another, it's chaos; she has no illusions about her influence: "I am all alone here. I have an internet connection and a telephone. Nothing more. No administrative nor scientific assistant."; she isn't bitter, she'll only stay for the summer, wants to be back to teach at Columbia University at the end of August; the military camp in Babylon that was causing damage to the archaeological remains will be closed in 3 to 6 months; Russell: 3 small parking lots had already been bulldozed on the Babylon site under Saddam but the Coalition military had greatly expanded and added to this: heli pads, new buildings, heavy trucks, trailers; van Ess: Uruk is safe in the hands of guard Muhhar and his beduin tribe, also because the Dutch and Japanese Coalition troops in the area have a good relationship with the local population [there has been at least one hopefully isolated looting incident already though: Ministry of Defence February 15, 2004]

Photo: " Ein philippinischer Militärpolizist hält vor dem Nachbau des Ischtar-Tors im alten Babylon Wache - Foto: Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty Images" [a Philippine MP guarding the replica of the Ishtar Gate in ancient Babylon][ironic: the small Philippine military contingent has just left Iraq]

"Sumerian artefacts looted in Italian zone," in Iraqi Press Monitor (UK), July 15, 2004: "An informed source in the general board of relics [bad translation for "State Board of Antiquities [and Heritage]"] said Tel Khoja site [Tell Jokha (Umma)?] has been subjected to organized looting in an area of some seven square kilometres as far south as al-Rifaee of al-Nasiriya. The looters used generators in their night raids. They might have been aided by local and foreign groups to loot Sumerian Dynasty artefacts. The area was under the patronage of the Italian forces. The Ministry of Culture seemed not to be serious in putting an end to the looting of the historical treasures. (Al-Bayan is issued four times weekly by the Islamic Dawa Party, chaired by Ibrahim al-Jafari, Governing Council member.)"
"Attempt to smuggle Iraqi antiquities abroad foiled," in China View (China), July 14, 2004: "... to smuggle rare Iraqi antiquities to Iran. An Iraqi border forces official said the Border Forces foiled the biggest smuggling ope ration of Iraqi antiquities after information provided about the intention of some professional smugglers to smuggle 2,000 rare and precious antiquities."

"Archäologen: Im Irak wird Menschheitserbe verwüstet," in Lübecker Nachrichten (Germany), July 14, 2004: Dr. Margarete van Ess (Deutsches Archäologisches Institut) told Die Zeit that about 130 Mesopotamian archaeological sites are being ransacked and looted; Dr. Walter Sommerfeld (Universität Marburg) said that the profits of the looted-antiquities trade have not just become the mainstay of local tribes but also serve to buy more weapons for the looters

Photo: "Ein Wächter in einem assyrischen Palast im nördlichen Irak auf Posten." [a guard on his post in an Assyrian palace in northern Iraq]

C. Bradley, "Going East in Agatha Christie's Footsteps," in Western Morning News (UK), July 13, 2004: "The 8.55 to Baghdad" book review; during author Andrew Eames's 2002 trip, "[w]hen he finally got to Ur, he found its 6,000-year-old Ziggurat flanked by military bunkers and a missile station. The Woolleys' old dig house was no more and only the rusty remains of a couple of old railway trucks marked the spot where Dame Agatha had first met her second husband. Remarkably as Andrew surveyed the scene, an air-raid siren sounded and two explosions rocked the area. He hurried back to the bus where his fellow passengers had been shouting at him to return. 'My head may have been full of the romance of a first meeting between a famous authoress and a young assistant archaeologist, but I was standing in the middle of a NATO target zone,' said Andrew."
McG. Gibson, "The American Academic Research Institute in Iraq (TAARII)," in Iraqcrisis, online, July 12, 2004: "... previously the American Association for Research in Baghdad, (AARB) announces the hiring of Dr. Hala Fatteh as the Resident Director for the Baghdad facility. Under current conditions, Dr. Fatteh will carry out her duties from an office in Amman, ... Details of a Fellowship competition for research on or in Iraq will be announced in early September. ... [the TAARII] Executive Director [is] Dr. Stephanie Platz ..." [why the name change? see also CAORC Newsletter 11-18-04]
L. Gordon, "Anger over failure to investigate reporter's shooting," in The Sunday Telegraph (UK), July 11, 2004: "The parents of the murdered British journalist Richard Wild have criticised the [UK] Government ... A year after the television journalist was shot by a hitman [in front of the National Museum] in Baghdad, ... 'All we've had are excuses from the Government about why it did nothing, and a brief, mealy-mouthed letter from Jack Straw,' said Mr Wild. 'It's a disgrace.' American military police investigating the death in their spare time believe that a $5,000 (£2,700) reward would have led to the arrest of his killer." "The reporter had been interviewing the museum's director about the looting of antiquities; earlier that day, he had visited the university to talk to members of an Islamic fundamentalist group." [see also my note dated February 29, 2004]
"A settembre nuova missione archeologica italiana in Iraq. Obiettivo, il restauro e la pre-catalogazione di numerose tavolette di argilla conservate presso l'Iraq Museum di Baghdad," in Notiziario NIP (Italy), 11, 133 (July 8, 2004): the new Italian archaeological mission in Iraq will start, probably in September, with the restoration and "pre-cataloging" of the cuneiform tablets in the National Museum in Baghdad; led by Dr. Giovanni Pettinato (Università 'La Sapienza' di Roma) et al.; an initial assessment during their trip in April allowed them to establish a plan, said Silvia Chiodi (Istituto di studi sulle civiltà italiche e del Mediterraneo antico del CNR): 1) cleaning and restoration of tablets (several years); 2) cataloging the tablets in cooperation with the University of Innsbruck [Austria] and 3 US universities [earlier reports seemed to imply that they had started cataloging in April; previously, the University of Vienna was mentioned as partner instead of the University of Innsbruck; see Roncalli May 4 and AGI May 13]

A. Aydin, "Turkey Gives $100,000 to Restore Ottoman Artifacts in Iraq," in Zaman (Turkey), July 8, 2004: " Turkey has offered the ... UNESCO ... 100,000 dollars to restore historical artifacts from the Ottoman period that were damaged during the last two wars in Iraq." "... [at] the committee meeting in Paris on May 24, [it] offered to train art historians in Iraq and send restoration experts to Iraq. If the committee accepts the offers, experts from Iraq will be trained at the Middle East Technical University (ODTU) School of Architecture, the Istanbul Restoration and Conservation Laboratory, and the Anatolian Civilizations' Museum." "Turkish restoration experts will go to Iraq ..."

Photo: [no caption]

M. Garen, "Re: The Iraq police (the FSPS) from Nasiriya foiled an attempted smuggling," in Iraqcrisis, online, July 7, 2004: calls into question Al-Sabah July 6 report: "We went to discuss the article two days ago with the Customs Police. They say the event happened in May - that antiquities were found at the site (not looters[)]. However this account has been disputed by Mr. Hamdani, Director of Antiquities for the Dhi Qar province, who said that no items were turned into the museum and he has no knowledge of this taking place." [just goes to show how confused the situation on the ground is]
M. Kennedy, "Police save stolen Iraqi book worth £250,000," in The Guardian (UK), July 7, 2004: "The book, ... turned up in a London auction room last year. Such is thought to have been the fate of many other less identifiable looted objects, but on this occasion the auctioneers were suspicious and called the police. The four officers of the art and antiques unit of the Metropolitan police, the only squad of its kind in the UK, established that it was one of hundreds stolen from from the Awqaf library in Mosul in 1995. It is thought to have spent several years in various Middle Eastern countries. It is a national treasure, one of the oldest surviving manuscripts on paper in Iraq, a medical treatise written in 1012 by the physician Mohammed bin Zakarai al-Razi. It was by far the most valuable of the 464 books and other items stolen, of which 413 pieces have been recovered by the Iraqi authorities."
T. Harris, "Ancient Iraqi Cities Bear the Brunt of US Occupation," in Arab News (Saudi Arabia), July 7, 2004: "Lawlessness and instability have accelerated a process that started in the 1990s but has now reached critical levels, with dozens of archaeological sites plundered to extinction in the past year." "Gibson, who has been visiting Iraq since the 1960s, said an Istanbul conference on the destruction last month was “shocked” by aerial photographs ... Chiara Dezzi Bardeschi, an Iraq cultural expert with ... UNESCO ..., said the situation had reached a crisis point." "Babylon, ... is now a camp for 2,500 multinational troops. The partly restored ancient city has been closed to visitors after Iraqi archaeologists found American marines had bulldozed a 100 square meter plot of land, above the buried remains of ancient homes, to create a helicopter landing-pad. 'You can see mounds of earth on both sides (of the landing pad) and I think it’s very big damage,' said Lukasz Oledzki, a resident architect employed by Polish troops now based at Babylon. 'You can see ancient pottery and bricks on both sides. I know they destroyed something from the sixth or seventh century BC.' The damage revelations have hastened the troops’ withdrawal from the site, due by the end of the year, but Gibson rejected their argument that they were protecting Babylon from looters. 'It’s like Vietnam — you have to destroy it to protect it,' the professor said. 'Having an army sit right on an archaeological site is absurd. They should never have been allowed to do that.' He said Babylon’s problems were just a small part of a country-wide pattern of destruction accentuated by the war and fed mainly by European dealers working with middlemen in Baghdad, Amman and Kuwait. 'I’m told that the world market is depressed because there’s so much Iraqi stuff on the market,' he said." [see also The Embassy of the Polish Republic in London March 1, 2005]
T. Moynihan, "Rare Stolen Antiques - Recovered in UK," in The Scotsman (UK), July 6, 2004: "Detective Superintendent Vernon Rapley, head of the Metropolitan Police’s four-strong art and antiques unit, ... said the [11th century book] was stolen in the inter-war period in Iraq but items continue to be looted until this day. However not many turn up in London as police here liaise with countries such as Jordan to make sure stolen property does not leave Iraq." [sounds a little too good to be true, doesn't it?]
"Aḥbaṭ muḥawalah li-tahreeb'adid [?] min el-qaṭa' el-aṯṯariyyah fi el-Naṣiriyyah [foiling of an attempt for smuggling a number of archaeological pieces in el-Nasiriyyah]," in Al-Sabah (Iraq), July 6, 2004: title translated by Mark Altaweel (Oriental Institute, University of Chicago) who also kindly provided a summary: "The Iraq police (the FSPS) from Nasiriya foiled an attempted smuggling of items from Tell Al-Ubaid, about 14 KM southwest of Nasiriya. Some of the items found by the police are dated to the Early Dynastic. The police caught the smugglers during a patrol of the area."; however, also on Iraqcrisis, Micah Garen raised serious doubts about this report, see Garen July 7
J. Hile, "Stolen Iraq Treasures Profiled in Crackdown List," in National Geographic, online, July 6, 2004: " The effort to fight the trafficking of looted Iraqi artifacts is stepped up by the circulation of the Emergency Red List of Iraqi Antiquities at Risk [produced by t]he Paris-based International Council of Museums (ICOM) and Interpol, ... The Red List describes categories of Iraqi objects most heavily traded on the black market." " ICOM organized a meeting of experts on Iraqi artifacts in May 2003 to specify what should be on the list. The list was then published internationally as a leaflet and on the Web in English, French, and Arabic." [the title and beginning of this article seemed to imply that this had just been published, which it hadn't]; "'The looting of archaeological objects from Iraq is an ongoing problem. Things can be found for sale on the Internet every day, so it's necessary to keep raising awareness about the problem,' [Valérie] Jullien [who is in charge of the project at ICOM] said. [indeed!]
"Protection of Iraqi heritage a concern at WHC session," in China View (China), online, July 6, 2004: "Participants of the current 28th Session of the World Heritage Convention (WHC) showed great concern over cultural heritage in the post-war Iraq, ..." "According to Abdul Aziz Hameed, president of the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage of Iraq, the National Museum of Iraq, the11th largest in the world, lost 15,000 relics during the war. Only 5,000 were recovered by the museum and another 5,000 were expected to be sent back to Iraq from Europe and the United States, while the whereabouts of the other 5,000 remained unknown, he noted." [again, this is not taking into account the part of the Museum collections that have not yet been cross-checked and will most likely bear witness to many more missing artifacts]

L. Ling, "Ancient Assyrian Treasures Found Intact in Baghdad," in National Geographic Ultimate Explorer (MSNBC), with online video clip, [broadcast July 6, 2003]: on the Archaeology Channel web site: "... follows Lisa Ling and a National Geographic film crew through the immediate post-war Iraq as they investigate looting of the Iraq Museum. The team navigates the dangerous road into Baghdad and meets with Museum officials and the US team of expert investigators charged with recovering the stolen and lost artifacts, gaining exclusive access to the inner area of the museum and to the internal workings of the inquiry itself. Remarkably, the team also plays a key role in the recovery of the Treasure of Nimrud from the basement vault of Iraq's National Bank." [see also "Ancient Assyrian Treasures Found Intact in Baghdad," in National Geographic, June 6, 2003]

Photo 1: [no caption; film crew]

Photo 2: [no caption; National Museum director Dr. Nawala el-Mutawalli with famous gold crown from Nimrud]

NTB, "Babylons skatter ligger i ruiner. De siste restene av noen av menneskehetens første byer er blitt plyndret eller ødelagt i skyggen av den amerikanske okkupasjonen av Irak," in NRK (Norway), July 6, 2004: I don't really know Norwegian but the main title says "Babylon's treasures lie in ruins"; the article seems to address the latest troubles in Babylon, including the helicopter landing zones, and interviews Dr. McG. Gibson

Photo 1: "Det amerikanske militære nærværet har ikke bidratt til å sikre Babylons siste skatter, mener eksperter. Foto: Scanpix" [something about US soldiers at the site of Babylon]

Photo 2: "Amerikanske soldater på vei inn i Babylon. Foto: Scanpix" [ditto]

"Rare books belonging to Kuwait National Museum found in Iraq - UN," in Kuwait News Agency (Kuwait), online, July 4, 2004: "At least eight boxes filled with rare books belonging to the Kuwait National Museum were found in Iraq's National Museum storages [sic]. A UN source told KUNA here on Wednesday that the books were stolen from Kuwait during Iraq's seven-month occupation of the Arab gulf state which began on August, 2 1990." [interesting footnote to Norman 2000]
A. Khalil, "Hussein's Anti-Kuwait Rant Strikes a Chord With Iraqis. He should face trial, but invading their neighbor should not be part of the charges, they say," in The Los Angeles Times, July 3, 2004: "Kuwaitis occupy a central role in popular conspiracy theory here. The hand of Kuwaiti intelligence agents is seen behind the looting and chaos that racked the capital in April 2003; lost treasures of the Iraqi National Museum are rumored to be adorning the palaces of the Kuwaiti royal family."
T. Harris, "Iraq museum still counting the cost of invasion," in The Peninsula (Qatar), [probably July 1, 2004]: "'We didn’t think anybody would come here and steal things because it has never happened before,' [Ahmed Kamil, head of the National Museum’s cuneiform section] said. 'Maybe they were surprised when they saw nothing on display, so they went to the stores. There they stole everything they could carry including many important, major pieces.' A staggering 15,000 artefacts were plundered, many of them priceless remnants of mankind’s earliest civilisations. About 5,000 items have been recovered and Kamil is hopeful most of them will eventually find their way back. However, many of the pieces are likely to be in private collections abroad. Kamil said the museum staff are still carrying out the painstaking work of checking its tens of thousands of artefacts to find out what was stolen and what left behind. But he is optimistic that at least one of the museum’s 18 galleries will open by the end of the year, ..." "However, as lawlessness persists in post-Saddam Iraq, Kamil knows that security is the number one priority. 'When we reopen the museum the security system has to be a good one, with lasers,' he said."

M. Garen, "War Within the War. In southern Iraq specialized troops pursue armed looters," in Archaeology, online abstract, 57, 4 (July-August 2004): "At Umma, modern Tell Jokha, a new but empty guard tower stands sentinel near a devastated landscape. Today there are no looters at work, but last year, shortly after the U.S.-led invasion, thieves ravaged Umma by digging hundreds of trenches in their search for salable artifacts. A coalition raid led by U.S. Marines in May 2003 resulted in the arrest of a hundred of them and seems to have put an end to large-scale illegal excavations. Looting continues, however, on a smaller but still destructive scale. A single guard with a rifle for his own protection wanders the site. He complains that the patrol needs to come at night--that's when the looters come. He points to a new trench ten feet deep, only two days old." "Satellite photographs of the region from 2000 show there was already extensive damage from looters, but Abdul-Amir Hamdani, director of antiquities in Dhi Qar Province, where Umma is located, says there was as much looting in the south in the first three months after the invasion as there was in the previous ten years."

Photo: "The long shadow of a member of the Carabinieri, the Italian national police force, falls on sherds at much-looted Umma. (Micah Garen)"

"Recovering Iraq's Past: Request for Proposals to Preserve and Document Iraq's Cultural Heritage. Division of Preservation and Access. Announced: July 2004," in National Endowment for the Humanities, online, July 2004: besides the grants already announced in National Endowment for the Humanities April 8, 2004, 2 more are listed: "University of Chicago. Diyala Project. The creation of a publicly accessible virtual archive of archaeological data on ancient Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) that incorporates a relational, expandable database that would be mounted on an existing Web site at the Oriental Institute. The initial component focuses on four major sites in the Diyala Region northeast of Baghdad. Outright: $100,000. Field Museum of Natural History [Chicago]. Reconciling the Past: A Catalog of Scattered Collections. The cataloging of material culture collections excavated from 1923 to 1933 at the ancient Mesopotamian city of Kish (3100 to 2250 BCE). Outright: $99,984"

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).