The Iraq War & Archaeology Archive 59

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.

"Iraqi Press Headlines, September 15, 2005," in Iraqi & Regional Media Monitoring (Jordan), online, September 15, 2005: "Al-Zaman <daily, independent, Baghdad edition of London-based Al-Zaman>: ... [A]ttempt to smuggle 135 artefacts to neighbouring countries aborted"
F. Deblauwe, "Online-Dokumentations-Projekt zur Kulturgüter-Situation im Irak nun am Server der Universität Wien," in DieUniversitaet-online.at. Zeitung der Universität Wien - Online (Austria), online, September 12, 2005: main text of an abridged and edited version of Deblauwe July 2005 (not identical to Deblauwe September 2005 however); see also Deblauwe "Der Golfkrieg ..." September 12, 2005; I'd like to thank Friedrich Schipper for the skillful abridgement/editing job for both texts
F. Deblauwe, "Der Golfkrieg, das Kulturerbe des Irak und der Kampf der Wissenschaft gegen die Antike-Kunsthandel-Lobby in den USA," in DieUniversitaet-online.at. Zeitung der Universität Wien - Online (Austria), online, [September 12, 2005]: text published in conjunction with Deblauwe "Online-Dokumentations-Projekt ..." September 12, 2005
Julia M. Klein, "One bullet away. New kinds of memoirs are emerging from the Iraq war, some by self-professed cowards and madmen. Often a slacker outlook replaces deeper musings common to the genre," in Los Angeles Times, September 6, 2005: "One upcoming memoir captures the effect of war on those left behind: 'American Hostage: A Memoir of a Journalist Kidnapped in Iraq and the Remarkable Battle to Win His Release,' by Micah Garen and Marie-Hélène Carleton. Journalists Garen and Carleton are romantic and business partners who travel to Iraq to do a film on the destruction of Sumerian archeological sites by looters. Carleton leaves early and, shortly after her departure in the summer of 2004, Garen and his interpreter, Amir Doshi, are captured by what turn out to be Shiite extremists. 'American Hostage' juxtaposes Garen's account of his ordeal with Carleton's as she undertakes increasingly frenetic measures to secure his freedom. The relationship between Garen and his interpreter — a sort of Sancho Panza figure — seems to mirror the complexities of the larger American-Iraqi relationship. Although Doshi is a friend, it's a friendship rife with cultural misunderstanding. At least twice, Doshi — as seen by Garen — commits acts that seem to imperil the reporter. (Doshi's point of view is left to the imagination.)"
J. Glanz, "At Iraq's Citadel, layers of human history sit under one of Earth's oldest addresses," in San Francisco Chronicle, September 4, 2005: "Resting on a layer cake of civilizations that have come and gone for an estimated 7,000 to 10,000 years, the Citadel [of Irbil] looms over the apartment blocks of this otherwise rather gray metropolis in Kurdish Iraq. ... While there may be confirmed traces of more ancient settlements in Iraq, said McGuire Gibson, a Mesopotamian archaeologist at the University of Chicago, the people have all vanished from those places. ... In 1964, when Kanaan Rashad Mufti and his prominent family were part of the neighborhood, a floor in his father's house, near the mosque, collapsed during some renovations. Underneath was a whole series of rooms from some previous civilization, possibly the Abbasids, said Mufti, who is now director of antiquities in the western Kurdish region." "Living in brick hovels amid the ruins of palatial houses are about 1,000 families displaced from Kurdish villages that Hussein destroyed in an infamous pogrom called Anfal." "The direct evidence for what lies beneath Mustafa's house is scanty: Assyrian pottery that tumbled out of the side of the Citadel in a renovation of its walls, a dig that Mufti said he participated in around 1980, an electromagnetic probe that provided intriguing hints about the layered structure. What seems clear, said John Malcolm Russell of the Massachusetts College of Art, is that with its location in a rain-fed plain near the confluence of two rivers and the foothills of the Zagros Mountains, Irbil 'could have been the site of one of the earliest villages in the world.' The first hunter-gatherer settlement could have started as early as 9300 B.C., followed by early pottery makers, the proto-Hassuna, by 7000 B.C. And unlike the arid regions to the south, the rain remained relatively steady in Irbil over the millennia, so there was no compelling reason to abandon a settlement. By 1400 B.C., as cultures came and went, Irbil became one of the most important cities of the Assyrian Empire, ..." "Mufti, the antiquities director, is also a member of the board that is supervising preliminary studies, financed by UNESCO, for renovating the Citadel. The initial project, according to the UNESCO Web site, 'aims at identifying a building in the Citadel and at providing it with necessary supplies and equipment to serve as focal point for the rehabilitation of the Citadel at large.' Mufti is trying, so far without success, to secure financing for a new archaeological dig."
F. Deblauwe, "Operation Iraqi Freedom und Danach: Das archäologische Erbe des Irak und der Kampf der Wissenschaft gegen die internationale Kunsthandel-Lobby," in Forum Archaeologiae. Zeitschrift für klassische Archäologie (Austria), online, 36 (September 2005): an abridged and edited version of Deblauwe July 2005, not identical to Deblauwe "Online-Dokumentations-Projekt ..." September 12, 2005, however; I'd again like to thank Friedrich Schipper for the skillful abridgement/editing job

"Restoration. Projects Abroad: Middle East," in Gema Art Group (Czech Republic), (September 2005): "In 2004 the government of the Czech Republic and the Czech Ministry of Culture announced the opening of the Programme for the Renewal of the Cultural Heritage of the Republic of Iraq, under which Gema Art Group has been awarded grants for four renovation projects." "In the fall of 2004, Gema Art Group and the Institute for Restoration and Conservation Techniques in Litomyšl organised a two-month course in restoration and conservation methods for Iraqi restorers. At present, Gema Art Group is working on three Iraqi projects, two of which will assist the Iraqi National Library in Baghdad, tragically damaged in the war (the first project will contribute to saving handwritten manuscripts administered by the Library, while the second will construct a new micro-graphic laboratory for the Library). A third project is being carried out in collaboration with the Iraqi Ministry of Culture and regional Iraqi authorities, and is intended to help salvage the Iwan Al-Medain Arch in Ctesiphon. Work includes, securing samples from the monument, basic research of repair materials (unburnt brick, plasters), preparation of an international working team and creation of a duplicate stone mixture. In connection with these projects, Gema Art collaborates with many important Czech and Iraqi institutions, including the Czech Ministries of Culture, Foreign Affairs and Defence, the Iraqi Ministry of Culture and National Library, the Czech National Library and National Archive, as well as universities. The Programme for the Renewal of the Cultural Heritage of the Republic of Iraq was also declared for the year 2005, ..." [see also Bahboub "Construction," "Aid" and "Citadel," all September 2005]

Photo: [no caption; National Library in Baghdad after its looting in 2003?]

K. Bahbouh, "Construction of a restoration workplace for salvage and conservation of damaged precious documents in the Iraq National Library and Archive in Baghdad. Project," in Gema Art Group (Czech Republic), September 2005: see Gema Art Group September 2005 for a brief summary of this project so far; this is the draft for a next phase
K. Bahbouh, "Aid for the preservation of Iraq's architectonic heritage. Iwán al-Medáin in Ctesiphon. Phase II. Project," in Gema Art Group (Czech Republic), September 2005: see Gema Art Group September 2005 for a brief summary of this project so far; this is the draft for the next phase
K. Bahbouh, "Citadel in Irbil. Comprehensive assistance in the preservation and revitalization of the historic city centre. Assistance in the preservation and renovation of the city's architectural monuments. Project," in Gema Art Group (Czech Republic), September 2005: draft proposal for new Gema Art Group project in Iraq in co-operation with Salahaddin University, since approved (5-17-06) [see also Gema Art Group September 2005]

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).