The Iraq War & Archaeology Archive 48

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.

M. Kanie en N. Medema, "Tanks in Babylon," in SICAmag (The Netherlands), 25 ([end of March] 2005): interview with René Teijgeler [yes, I know, here his name is spelled with an "ij" again while in van Elk April 28, 2005 it's with a "y" although even in that article we find one "ij" spelling mixed in; in the distant past, Dutch spelling was not fixed and "y," "ÿ" and "ij" were used interchangeably; nowadays a proper name should have a fixed spelling though... at least in Belgium that's the case but maybe not in the Netherlands?]: How did you feel when you saw the damage caused by tanks in Babylon? I don't have time for feelings now, my colleague was murdered, I had a meeting scheduled with an Italian journalist the day she was kidnapped: when I'm back home, then I'll have time to think about it; in the 1990s, corrupt Ba'athist officials started smuggling hundreds of artifacts out of Iraq; their leader was Arshad Yasin, the brother-in-law of Saddam Hussein, according to Minister of Culture Mufid el-Jaza'iri; this is also when the illegal trade in artifacts to Iran, Pakistan and then to the rest of the world started in Iraqi Kurdistan; the illegal trade has grown a lot worse than under Saddam, e.g., recently 3,000 pieces on their way to Iran were intercepted at the border by customs agents; Teijgeler negotiated the closing down of the military base at Babylon with Polish, Ukrainian and Mongolian troops; at first, the Polish command didn't allow in any Iraqi archaeologists to assess the damage; Teijgeler's position in Baghdad won't be filled when he leaves

M. Bailey, "Iraq’s greatest treasure starts world tour in October. A Danish firm has organised the travelling show which will raise over $10 million for the National Museum in Baghdad," in The Art Newspaper (UK), [March 31, 2005]: "The five-year tour is being organised by United Exhibits Group, a Copenhagen-based company. Despite security risks, UEG president Teit Ritzau and his team have visited Baghdad four times since Saddam Hussein’s fall. The preliminary agreement for the tour was reached last year, with the formalities being concluded with Minister of Culture Mufid Al-Jazaeri (The Art Newspaper, No. 145, March 2004, pp. 1, 3)[Kaufman February 27, 2004]. During the past few weeks the Nimrud treasures have been moved from the bank vault to a high-security store at the National Museum. Initially there was considerable concern about the treasures leaving Iraq, particularly to be seen in countries such as the US and Britain which had led the military action. To some extent these worries have been allayed by plans to hold a short-term display of the gold at the National Museum in Baghdad before it leaves the country. The fact that UEG is Danish rather than British or American has also helped." "The [Nimrud] find also included delicately carved ivories. ... the vaults were flooded with sewage-contaminated water, causing considerable damage to the ivories, although not to the gold. The ivories suffered badly from fragmentation and mould, as revealed by The Art Newspaper (April 2004, p.27 [Bailey April 8, 2004]; May 2004, p.7). Specialists who have seen them recently say that our earlier reports were not exaggerated, and the damage is 'very severe'. The hope is that it will be possible to exhibit some of the ivories which are in better condition, but these still require conservation. In addition, an important selection of stone and ceramic objects will be included." "Originally 'The gold of Nimrud' was to open in Berlin, but this has now been changed, [why???] and another inaugural venue is currently being finalised. Along with Paris and Rome, the show will almost certainly come to London. Preliminary discussions were held with the British Museum, but scheduling and costs meant that it was unable to proceed [hmm...] and the Royal Academy has been approached over the project. There will be four or five North American stops, probably including New York and Washington, as well as a venue in California and one or two other cities. Two or three Far Eastern venues, presumably including Tokyo, will also be on the tour. Money will be raised from a combination of a fixed fee and a percentage of ticket sales, ... United Exhibits Group and the Iraqi Ministry of Culture have now jointly formed a new institution, the Iraq Cultural Project Organisation. Based in Baghdad, it is headed by Dafir Mann, a Baghdad-born Danish citizen. It will provide technical support for the exhibition and also for the rehabilitation of the museum. The exhibition’s lead curator is Professor Morgens Trolle Larsen, of Copenhagen University. Meanwhile, the National Museum is to reopen one room of its building in July, to display a small part of the Nimrud gold in the Assyrian gallery. ... The show is to run for two months, ... At this point the museum will close again, for major building work." [I wonder whether a whole US batallion will have to be assigned to the Museum for the duration of this exhibit?; see also Verhoeven April 4, 2005]

Photo: [no other caption than what's included]

R. Selwa, "Teacher urges recovery of Iraqi archeological items," in The Macomb Daily (Michigan), March 31, 2005: "Building peace and democracy in the Middle East necessitates respect for and protection of the heritage of the people, ... Dr. Susan Wood, chairwoman of the art and art history department of Oakland University in Rochester, said in a recent lecture at the library ..."
D. Alberge, "Western museums to display Baghdad treasures," in The Times (UK), March 30, 2005: "The treasure, which was found in the North-West Palace of Nimrud, south of the modern Iraqi city of Mosul, in the late 1980s, dates from the 8th century BC. ... The unprecedented worldwide tour has been organised to raise more than $10 million (£5.3 million) for the National Museum in Baghdad, which was the biggest victim of the looters." "The Art Newspaper reveals this week that an exhibition of the jewellery will open on October 23 at a venue in Europe to be announced next month, despite concern over the artifacts going to countries that led the military action in Iraq. The show will then tour for five years to eleven other cities in Europe, North America and the Far East. Preliminary discussions for a loan have been held with the British Museum and that the Royal Academy has been approached over the project." "The Gold of Nimrud: Treasures of Ancient Iraq will display about 300 objects that are currently in a high-security store at the National Museum. ... In 2003, the American authorities put them on show for several months in the museum to demonstrate that life in the capital was returning to normal." [sic; they were exhibited for exactly one day and for a select public only!!!]
M.H. Gram, "Same Occupation, Softer Opposition. Professors from around Columbia Speak Out Against Iraq War in a Subdued Panel," in Columbia Spectator (New York), March 30, 2005: "Professor Zainab Bahrani, Edith Porada Associate Professor of Ancient Near Eastern Art History and Archaeology, ... The archaeological community has been surprised over the past two years, Bahrani said, that the greatest damage to cultural artifacts in Iraq has resulted not from bombing but instead as 'a strategy of occupation.' Bahrani characterized the coalition military forces’ decision to build a base at Babylon, a sacred historical site, as a violation of both international and Iraqi law. 'This is not collateral damage, but direct and active destruction by the occupying powers,' she said."
E. Wong, "Boats, Cows, Tasty Lamb: Iraq Battles Smuggling," in The New York Times, March 27, 2005: "Zower Chum, on the Iran-Iraq Border ... Mr. Mahmoud, a wiry Kurdish border guard dressed in American desert fatigues, said it was near this valley that he recently arrested a man headed into Iran with 60 pieces of antiquities - masks, plates and stone or clay busts of women, among other things." "The interim Iraqi government is struggling to deal with this sharp rise in smuggling two years after the American-led invasion left the borders wide open, even as it grapples with the border's more heralded problem: the movement of money and fighters that is helping to sustain the guerrilla war. The list of items seized by the border police last year reads like a catalog of the riches of the region - 3,350 pieces of antiquities, ..." "Here in the jagged Suren Mountains of the north, ... 'The Kurds in these villages go back and forth across the border all the time to do business,' said Mr. Mahmoud, 33. 'We look for people trying to smuggle weapons or hashish. Three times we've caught people with antiquities.'"
M. Ghazal, "Cultural heritage training course for Iraqis concludes," in Jordan Times (Jordan), March 25, 2005: "Fifteen Iraqi archaeologists who took part in a 5-week cultural heritage training course ... on the latest methods of excavation, conservation and management of archaeological sites from experts on cultural heritage from Germany, France, UNESCO and Japan. ... Archaeologists can expect more future courses for Iraqis and greater cooperation between the two countries, [Abdul Sami] Abu Dayyeh [head of the museums and laboratories department at the Jordanian Department of Antiquities] noted. The Iraqis were trained at the Kingdom's archaeological sites and had the department's labs, devices and offices at their disposal, he added." [let's hope the bad blood of late in the political sphere (instigated by the Shi'ite population's fury at the alleged Jordanian origin of mass-murder suicide bombers) does not continue or this productive bilateral co-operation may no longer be possible]; "'The programme was comprehensive... The group had field training in Petra, Jerash, Deir Alla and Umm Qais and learned how to use modern equipment,' Mohammad Saeed, an Iraqi archaeology expert ... Ali Kathem, an archaeologist from the Qar Directorate of Archaeology, ... saying the programme had introduced them to important advances in the field of archaeology, 'especially since we were isolated from the world for a long time.'"

Photo: "Wed Mar 23, 2:33 PM ET - The battle-damaged Iraqi National Museum remains closed in Baghdad, Iraq ... Wednesday, March 23, 2005. Known for centuries as one of the most beautiful cities in the world, Baghdad's landscape has been marred by massive concrete blast walls, barbed wire, steel barricades, sandbags and crumbling buildings pockmarked by bullet holes or ransacked by explosions. (AP Photo/Samir Mizban)" (Yahoo! News)[glad to see somebody finally fixed that unseemly hole shot through above the entry-gate arch...]

"Soldiers deliver stuffed animals to Iraqi children," in The Times-News (Idaho), March 23, 2005: "... according to a news release from Capt. Monte Hibbert, a public information officer for the 116th [Brigade Combat Team]." "Soldiers are also helping collect artifacts found on the Kirkuk Regional Air Base for the local Kirkuk museum, Hibbert said. Coalition forces and museum workers are inspecting, transferring and preserving the artifacts found on the base. Soldiers worked with Shaeda Mohammed Amin, a local museum representative, to collect artifacts and keep them safe until documentation and proper transfer are completed, Hibbert said. 'This is a first time there was a transfer of antiques to the local directorate since the coalition forces arrived two years ago,' Amin said." [see also Lee March 19, 2005, Kimmons May 28 and June 22, 2004]
J. Sasson, "NEWS: Ur III tablets from Uru-sag-rig," in ANENews, online, March 22, 2005: "In the period between December 2004 and February 2005, Giovanni Pettinato, Professor in Assyriology at the Univer[si]ty of Rome La Sapienza, and his assistents - dr. S. Chiodi (... C.N.R.) and dr. S. Seminara (... [La Sapienza]) - took part as epigrapher in the recovery mission of Iraqi artifacts originating from illegal excavations that were seized by Jordanian authorities at the Iraqi border. During the mission over 350 cuneiform tablets and fragments approximately dating from 2400 B.C. to 1400 B.C. were examined and catalogued. Among these artifacts the group of Sumerian tablets from the III[rd] Dynasty of Ur (2100-2000 B.C. ca.) and the group of tablets containing the epistolary correspondence between the rulers Samsu-iluna and Abi-eshuh of Babylon[']s First Dynasty (1700 B.C. ca.) are exceptionally significant. Especially the texts of the Third Dynasty of Ur represent a sensational breakthrough in the field of both linguistic and historical studies of Sumerian civilization in Mesopotamia. In fact, up to now in all history textbooks the Ur Empire was subdivided into five governorships (Ur, Nippur, Umma, Drehem, and Lagash) administratively independent from each other, each with its own calendar ... Now, thanks to the approximately 165 tablets from the Ur III period, the existence of a sixth province whose capital was the city of Uru-sag-rig, ... has come to light. ... the centrality of this city in the context of relations between Sumer and the Iranian cities, documented by extensive travels made by royal messengers, also emerge from the texts." [see also Pettinato March 1, 2006]
C.C. Radsch, "Artist Looks for Her Native Iraq Behind Women's Veils," in The New York Times, March 22, 2005: "... Leila Kubba, an artist who returned last year to her native Iraq [last Spring] for the first time in nearly two decades to take stock and seek inspiration." "Ms. Kubba describes herself as an archaeologist merging pieces of the present and the past on her canvases to try to 'make sense of these fragments' within the context of her own upbringing in Iraq and Greece. Like previous works, the ones in this exhibition incorporate the mythical and the mundane in textured collages." "Ms. Kubba's paintings capture the tumult of an ancient nation in the throes of change as its people struggle to maintain their day-to-day lives. The exhibition [at the Jerusalem Fund gallery in Washington, DC] title, 'New Beginnings,' is also that of her painting of Gilgamesh, the Babylonian epic hero who navigates his way into the future while keeping an eye on the past." "In her most outspoken piece on the effects of the American invasion, titled 'Superpower,' she tried to 'layer the civilizations' by depicting the contact between Inanna, the Mesopotamian goddess of life and of the morning star and evening star, and real-world women who cope with everyday problems. It wasn't until a woman asked her if the painting portrayed the prison abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib that Ms. Kubba discovered this dimension in her work. One of the figures seems to be posed like the hooded prisoner of the now infamous prison abuse photos. 'It was an insight into something I hadn't planned,' she said." [get a taste of this artist's fascinating work online at leilakubba.com]
N. Raphaeli, "The Plight of Iraqi Christians," in Assyrian International News Agency, online, March 21, 2005: "The Iraqi daily Al-Mada recently carried a report about the ruins of what is believed to be the oldest Eastern Christian church, discovered in 1976 by an archeological team in the desert west of the holy Shi'ite city of Karbala. The church, known as Al-Qusair Church, was built in the 5th century, ... The church (53x13 feet) had fifteen arched doors. Inside archeologists found remnants of an altar and gammadion crosses. There were two small cemeteries, one within the church walls intended for the priests and one outside the walls for other church members. During the Saddam regime, the eastern side of the church was converted into a training target for an artillery unit of the Iraqi army. A number of unexploded shells have been found within the church's perimeter. After the fall of Saddam, the tombs were desecrated by looters, who hoped to find gold buried with the dead. The Iraqi Department of Antiquities has recognized the historical significance of the church, and restoration and preservation are being considered." [el-Qusair is 7 km NW of the more famous el-Ukhaidhir site; this church is sometimes called the Gasser Church, e.g., Al-Ahram Weekly June 20, 2002]

"Iraq Training Initiative," in Conservation. The Getty Conservation Institute Newsletter, 20, 1 (Spring 2005): "Last fall, the Iraq Cultural Heritage Conservation Initiative of the Getty Conservation Institute and the World Monuments Fund (WMF) completed its first training course in the compilation of site data and the inventory and rapid assessment of archaeological and historic sites. The course, attended by 16 employees of the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage (SBAH) of Iraq, was held in Amman, Jordan, November 19–December 19, 2004. Fieldwork was conducted at the Amman Citadel, the Umm er-Rasas World Heritage Site, and at other historic and archaeological sites in the Amman area, thanks to the generous assistance of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan." [see also Agnew and Palumbo Fall 2005]

Photo: "Training in archeological site typology and feature description led by Dr. Zeidan Kafafi of Yarmouk University at the Temple of Hercules at the Amman Citadel, Jordan. Photo: Mario Santana Quintero."

C. McGuigan, "The Last Word: Donny George. A Real-Life Treasure Hunt," in Newsweek International, March 21, 2005: "We have lost 15,000 objects, but I believe the number will go up, as we have not finished the assessment of the damages yet. From those, we've retrieved 3,323 items with the Iraqi museum numbers on them—which mean they were actually stolen. We also have retrieved 1,450 items that came from the archeological sites. They have come to us through the Iraqi police, Iraqi customs, the multinational forces that are working on these things and the Iraqi people. We also have some good number of items seized in neighboring countries: 38 pieces in Kuwait, 18 in Saudi Arabia, 1,250 in Jordan, 360 in Syria. We have 300 in Italy and over 600 in the United States. ... You've said that you don't actually want stolen items returned from countries like Italy or the United States. You want them to stay there for safekeeping? Yes. Our museum is very close to Haifa Street, where we have incidents almost daily. We believe this is not the right time now to have them back." "You still don't know when the museum will reopen. Yes, mainly because of the security situation. We believe 100 percent that if we open now we will be a target. Apparently looting at archeological sites is still rampant. How many such sites are there in Iraq? Over 11,000 registered archeological sites. ... We know, for example, that there are thousands of clay tablets that have appeared in the United States, and Europe and Japan—they all come from these archeological sites. Is there no way to protect these sites? Now that we can have some police in these places, and they can have cars, weapons and communication systems, much of the situation is becoming better. Recently, they caught four people red-handed, with antiquities in their hands, and took them to jail. What can the international community do to help your efforts? Tighten up borders? This is very important. The Jordanians are doing an excellent job. Even the Saudis are doing fine. <Everyone> except for Iran and Turkey. They are not even responding to Interpol announcements or appeals to protect their borders from smuggling Iraqi antiquities. I was at a meeting of Interpol in Amman some months ago, and the representatives of Iran and Turkey never came." [what exactly is the official word from Turkey and Iran on this?]

C. Lee, "Base workers make historical discovery," in KRAB Kronicle (Iraq), March 19, 2005: "... recently when several third country nationals made a discovery while digging a drainage ditch around the perimeter of the dining facility. Strewn across the area were unusual pieces of clay the workers knew had to be noteworthy. ... Second Lt. Luke Stumme of the 506th E[xpeditionary] C[ivil] E[ngineer] S[quadron] ... went out to investigate the find. 'We went out to the site and saw all these pieces scattered all over the area,' he said. 'We immediately put tarps over the area to protect it after we sifted through and gathered up what we could. ... The engineers then turned the artifacts over to the 506th AEG legal office for inventory and safe keeping. Capt. Mark Nackman of the 506th AEG legal office, said it took several days for his office to photograph and document all the pieces that were turned over. However, just like the others, the captain was unsure as to what exactly had been turned in. ... That is when the Army Civil Affairs team made arrangements for Shaida Mohammed Amin, Kirkuk Museum director of heritage, to visit ... [he] determined the pieces of clay, bone shards and teeth were 'an amazing discovery.' While he was hesitant to put an exact year of date on the pieces, Mr. Amin estimated that some of them could have been up to 5,000 years old." "Plans are in place to protect the area of the discovery so more excavating can be accomplished." [see also The Times-News March 23, 2005 and Ospina January 26, 2006]

Photo: "Kirkuk Air Base, Iraq -- Tech. Sgt. John Price of the 506th Air Expeditionary Group legal office hands a large piece of clay to Shaida Mohammed Amin, Kirkik Museum director of heritage. The object is estimated to be up to 5,000 years old. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Matt Lohr)"

Y.M. al-Rubai, "Babylon Sees Scenes of Brutality. The seat of ancient civilisation has hit the headlines as a target of insurgents," in Iraqi Crisis Report (UK), online, 117 (March 17, 2005): "It was one of the seven wonders of the world, but ancient Babylon attracts more insurgents than tourists these days, with the nearby modern city of Hillah achieving notoriety as the scene of the recent bombing in which 127 people died." "'It's close to Latifiyah and its Sunni majority, so Babylon has witnessed many sabotage operations,' said Babil province governor Waleed Omran al-Janabi, referring to the Sunni-dominated area in the north of the province that has proved a hotbed for insurgent attacks. 'The poor security situation has stopped the rebuilding of the city. Many contractors have been killed and kidnapped, and many workers have been shot dead.'" "'Turning Babylon into a military site was a fatal mistake,' said Iraqi culture minister Mufeed al-Jazairi. 'It has witnessed much destruction and many terrorist attacks since it was occupied by Coalition forces. We cannot determine the scale of the destruction now. As a first step, we have completely closed the sites, before calling in international experts to evaluate the damage done to the <ancient> city and the compensation the ministry should ask Coalition forces to pay. We will run a campaign to save the city.'"
Sh. Farr, "BBC's troubling look at Iraq museum," in The Seattle Times, March 17, 2005: "Tonight at 10, a BBC documentary takes us inside the ransacked museum with British historical buildings expert Dan Cruickshank, who was allowed into Iraq to visit the museum in late April 2003." "The show is well worth watching for many reasons, but it left me wondering why we are only getting to see it now, nearly two years later. What has happened in the meantime? What has been recovered and who is now in charge of the museum?" [it was of course originally broadcast, at least in the UK, in June 2003; see also Robson June 18, 2003 for a rebuttal of some of the most severe accusations/insinuations contained in this broadcast as well as my comments to Cruickshank June 19, 2003; see also Farr August 21, 2005]
J. Keetman, "Irak durch Raubgrabungen ausgeplündert. Unermesslicher Schaden / Viele Kulturgüter in Sammlungen reicher Scheichs vermutet," in Neues Deutschland (Germany), March 16, 2005: Dr. Horst Steible (Univ. of Freiburg) had planned to excavate at the ancient Sumerian city of Shuruppak to establish an archaeological context for the multitude of cuneiform tablets dug up there not very scientifically a century ago; however, he has learnt that the site has been systematically dug up in squares of 40 sq m with heavy machinery and artifacts sieved out by looters so it's no longer possible; Dr. Piotr Michalowski points out another problem with the looting of sites: of the 2 great collections of cuneiform tablets in the US, the one in Philadelphia consists mostly of fragments, the one at Yale mostly of whole tablets; the reason is that the Philadelphia ones are from excavations while the Yale ones are from the antiquities trade and the latter is supplied mostly by illegal excavations where only whole tablets are kept because most marketable; he thinks that a lot of the tablets looted nowadays won't even make it to the West but have ended up in private collections of wealthy Gulf sheikhs instead

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).