The Iraq War & Archaeology Archive 64

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.

R. Birnbaum, H. Monath, A. Nüsse and A. Vornbäumen, "Ihre Lebensaufgabe. Susanne Osthoff wusste um die Gefahr, sie wollte dennoch im Irak bleiben. Und die Bundesregierung hat ihren ersten Ernstfall," in Der Tagesspiegel (Germany), November 30, 2005: at the press conference, the Foreign Office spokesman was not allowed to answer questions like who the kidnappers were, whether they were in touch with the kidnappers, whether they had any indication that she was still alive, etc. out of tactical reasons; he could only say that they had first learned on Saturday that Osthoff and her driver had not arrived at their destination after leaving on a cross-country drive on Friday
"Osthoff angeblich von irakischen Sicherheitskräften verraten," in Bocholter-Borkener Volksblatt (Germany), November 30, 2005: during the last weeks, the director of the Antiquities Service in Mosul, Musahem Mahmud el-Sawbay, had several times warned the vice governor of Nineveh, the police chief of Mosul and the Antiquities Service headquarters in Baghdad that due to insurgent activity they could no longer guarantee Osthoff's safety; in Mosul, an acquaintance of Osthoff's says that she ran out of money and wanted to go back to Erbil to get more and wasn't heard from again [hmm... Tal Afar is not on the way from Mosul to Erbil; maybe they were making a detour to check up on a site?]

"SAFE appeals for archaeologist's release," in SAFE, online, [November 30, 2005]: "Susanne Osthoff, archaeologist and humanitarian aid worker, has been kidnapped in Iraq. Susanne has spent a lifetime working to preserve the cultural treasures of Iraq for all Iraqis; and she dedicated her life to provide immediate help for the suffering today including the first medical support to Baghdad after the war in 2003. Susanne is a friend of all the people of that great nation, and cares deeply about their struggle. We at SAFE are ordinary citizens around the world working to save the physical remains of ancient cultures. We call for Susanne's safe and immediate release."

Photo: "Photo by Roger Atwood" [Osthoff with looters; taken when Roger Atwood visited Isin with her in 2003, see Atwood September-October 2003]

"Merkel to Terrorists: You Can't Blackmail Germany," in Der Spiegel (Germany), online, November 30, 2005: "But according to a report in the Berliner Zeitung newspaper, high-ranking security officials in Berlin believe the hostage-taking is politically motivated, which may diminish chances that Osthoff's freedom could be bought. Officials quoted by the newspaper said the political demands given by the hostage-takers were more detailed than had been previously reported and that it appears that Osthoff's kidnapping had been planned in advance. ARD has also reported that one of the kidnappers is believed to be a foreigner from the Gulf region -- a sign that the hostage-taking could be linked to al-Qaida." "She had recently been planning to set up a German cultural center in Arbil, a town in northern Iraq, and had already held talks with the German embassy in Baghdad and the Kurdish regional government."
K. Semple, "German Leader Refuses Iraq Kidnappers' Demand," in The New York Times, November 30, 2005: "The kidnapping of Ms. Osthoff, ... has riveted a German public that has long been skeptical about the Iraq war, which Germany has opposed from the beginning. The name of Ms. Osthoff's driver was not released. Germany has consistently refused to send troops to Iraq, and Mrs. Merkel has vowed not to change that policy. But she has also said she will continue Germany's training of Iraqi police officers in the United Arab Emirates, an activity that the kidnappers apparently were referring to in their demand that Germany stop cooperating with the Iraqi government." "Ms. Osthoff, the German news media reported, has lived in Iraq for many years and is fluent in Arabic. She had been married to an Iraqi man, ..." "Ms. Osthoff told a colleague in September that she believed her life was in danger because of her work in preserving and restoring Iraqi sites. She received threats for her work in the ethnically divided northern city of Mosul, where she was paying local laborers to restore a Christian church or monastery, said the colleague, McGuire Gibson, a Mesopotamia[n] archaeologist at the University of Chicago. Ms. Osthoff had said an American officer approached her with intelligence ... they'd gotten a report that the German archaeological woman was to be 'gotten,'' meaning kidnapped or killed, ... But Ms. Osthoff also upset people in the Shiite-dominated south, ... During the 1990's, Mr. Gibson said, Ms. Osthoff shuttled medical supplies into Iraq and continued to draw attention to conditions at Isin, including problems with the smuggling of Mesopotamian artifacts abroad, ... Michael Müller-Karpe, an archaeologist at the Romische-Germanische Central Museum in Mainz, Germany, said he also believed that the kidnapping was connected to efforts by Ms. Osthoff to stop illegal excavations of Iraqi antiquities. Mr. Müller-Karpe said he saw Ms. Osthoff in Iraq about a year ago, when they scrapped a plan to travel to southern Iraq to publicize the damage to archaeological sites there. 'At that time we were warned by people and we were told that they didn't want any foreigners there, because they feared that they would have trouble,' Mr. Müller-Karpe said in a telephone interview on Tuesday. ... It was unclear whether, at the time of her abduction, Ms. Osthoff was accompanied by security guards, a basic precaution taken by most Westerners traveling and working in Iraq. But Mr. Müller-Karpe said that Ms. Osthoff considered herself to be an Iraqi and never traveled with a security guard, ..."

M. Doering, "Die Helferin. Susanne Osthoff aus Bayern wollte die irakische Bevölkerung unterstützen. Darin sah sie ihre Lebensaufgabe - trotz aller Gefahren," in Berliner Zeitung (Germany), November 30, 2005: she was back in Germany last July and talked about supervising local workmen employed in her project of restoring the old caravanserai in Mosul; she gathered medical supplies, wrote articles, ... and left for Iraq in late Fall; it seems the kidnappers are accusing her of smuggling art out of Iraq [not clear if this is from the video which has not been made public; this accusation strikes me as totally inconsistent with the manner in which Osthoff has lived her life: I consider this outrageous slander]; she spoke how Iraqis were more and more afraid to be seen with any foreigner, her included, e.g., people of the antiquities service [State Board of Antiquities and Heritage or SBAH] declined to inspect looted archaeological sites with her [this may also have something to do with traveling off the beaten path being very dangerous for any government official]; so she went out by herself and braved the dangerous countryside to take pictures of the looting of sites; even the illegal-antiquities-trade middlemen are now afraid to go to Iraq, she said, and the local plunderers have much loot stashed away; so when they hear about a German archaeologist, some come and ask me if I'm interested in artifacts, offer me pieces to purchase for almost nothing...; she is determined to the point of being pushy, as the SBAH experienced regarding the caravanserai: she went to see the Vice President in Baghdad and reminded him that a lot of money had been allocated for monuments and heritage with not a lot to show for it
Y. Musharbash, "Deutsche Geisel im Irak. Fieberhafte Suche nach Vermittlern," in Der Spiegel (Germany), November 29, 2005: more than 200 foreigners are known to have been kidnapped so far in Iraq, the real number must be even higher; sources in Berlin say that in the video the kidnappers of Osthoff and her driver use a so-far-unknown group name; the lack of insignia/logo in the still from the video seems to counterindicate a group with a political/ideological agenda, which would be good news as then ransom money could be a venue worth trying; of course, officially governments don't like to admit they pay but it is widely assumed the French and Italians did so in recent high-profile cases; paramount is now to establish contact
M. Hummel, "Hüterin der Vergangenheit und Zukunft. Susanne Osthoff. Die Süddeutsche Zeitung berichtete bereits im März 2004 über die Arbeit der jetzt entführten deutschen Archäologin im Irak," in Die Süddeutsche Zeitung (Germany), November 29, 2005: originally published March 12, 2004; she's totally fluent in Arabic, blends in well but above all is brave: she brought 3 tons of medical supplies from Jordan to Baghdad in early 2003 while bombs and mortars were flying everywhere; she studied Mesopotamian archaeology with Dr. Barthel Hrouda at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München and joined him in his excavations at the ancient Sumerian site of Isin (modern Ishan Bakhriyyat); Osthoff has also tried to get the Coalition forces to protect the archaeological sites from looters, to no avail; the Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften [Bavarian Academy of Sciences] attempted to find financing for a German-Iraqi expedition to protect at least the most important archaeological sites but according to the Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft only about €200 was raised...
S. Jerges, "Kidnapping is blow to archaeology in Iraq," in Monsters & Critics (UK), online, November 29, 2005: "Last week, the German Archaeological Institute announced it would lead an international project to rescue the 3,000-year-old ruins of Babylon from damage by dictator Saddam Hussein and occupation forces." [see Deutsches Archäologisches Institut November 28, 2005]; "'The kidnapping is regrettable. I am afraid that this act could have an impact on the mission announced by the German institute,' said the Iraqi editor of the London-based newspaper al-Zaman, Ahmed Abdul-Majeed. 'Germany did not enter the war nor did it participate in it,' he added. The kidnappers ought to apologize and release the hostage. 'Such foolish acts could definitely impede Iraq's contacts with the scholars of the world, who are volunteering despite the security risks to do their jobs in Iraq,' he added. Muzahim Khalaf, a secondary-school history teacher, said Babylon needed care by specialists after Saddam 'tampered' with its ruins. Under Saddam, underground parking garages and restaurants were built at Babylon to attract tourists, disturbing evidence of the past in the soil." [12-19-05: "underground parking garages and restaurants": I don't think that's factual, maybe he's thinking of the Babylon Hotel outside the site?]; "Archaeologists were dismayed, and Khalaf speculated that the kidnapping might be a riposte by Saddam loyalists. 'Babylon is in need of archaeological protection after the changes made by Saddam to the ruins and after two years of encampment by U.S. troops on the site of the former city,' Khalaf said. 'I believe the abductors may have heard of the institute's initiative and tried to block the project,' he said. ... [German Archaeological Institute o]fficials in Berlin say Osthoff was not an official archaeologist, though she had studied the subject at university and had been of assistance to projects in the past thanks to her wide local knowledge." [but she was in charge of the restoration project of the caravanserai in Mosul, financed by the German government, see Svensson December 1; it looks like she didn't finish all requirements for her Master's in Mesopotamian archaeology though she did write her thesis, therefore in a strictly-by-the-book society like Germany she is not an archaeologist no matter her real-life experience in the field and so on; 12-6-05: a petition web page went up at Osthoff's alma mater and they attached the "M.A." title to her name so maybe she did finish the degree after all?]; "The Iraqi Islamic Party, a Sunni movement, condemned the kidnapping of Osthoff and her Iraqi driver. ... 'All Iraqis are in debt to a woman like Mrs Osthoff. She cannot be hurt by the people and the land she loved and spent years on,' a government official said Tuesday, asking that his name not be reported."

M. Balter, "German Archaeologist Abducted in Iraq," in ScienceNOW, online, November 29, 2005: "... [she] earned a reputation for bravery after documenting damage to Iraq's archaeological sites ..." "Osthoff is 'a very good and very talented' archaeologist, says [University of Munich Prof.] Barthel Hrouda, who led the Isin excavations." "... University of Chicago archaeologist McGuire Gibson. 'Susanne took reporters to sites to take pictures of the destruction,' Gibson says. 'She was fearless.' Roger Atwood, a contributing editor for Archaeology magazine and author of Stealing History: Tomb Raiders, Smugglers, and the Looting of the Ancient World, agrees: 'She is the bravest person I have ever met.'"

Photo: "Missing. Archaeologist Susanne Osthoff was abducted Friday in Iraq. Credit: J. Dziemballa/AP Photo"

R. Reid, "Insurgent video shows peace activists said to have been taken hostage in Iraq," in CBC World News (CBC; Canada), November 29, 2005: "Osthoff, 43, is a fluent Arab speaker and a trained archaeologist who has worked since 1998 for the Munich-based management consulting firm FaktorM, which said on its website that she has 'organized and supported the distribution of aid goods in Iraq since 1991.'"

Photo: "Undated private photo released by the family of kidnapped German archeologist Susanne Osthoff with her daughter Tarfa. The kidnapping took place in northern Iraq last Friday and became known Tuesday. Susanne Osthoff had worked for a relief organization. (AP Photo/ho)"

"Merkel appelliert an Geiselnehmer. Deutsche im Irak entführt," in Frankfurter Allgemeine (Germany), with online video, November 29, 2005: she and her driver were kidnapped near Tal Afar in north Iraq; the kidnappers' ultimatum's deadline has not been made public; Staatssekretär [des Auswärtigen Amts] ("Under Secretary of State" in US parlance, "Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs" elsewhere) Klaus Scharioth is leading a special crisis committee

Photo 1: "Suzanne Osthoff - © dpa/dpaweb"

Photo 2: "Susanne Osthoff (2003) - © dpa/dpaweb"

"Porträt. Susanne Osthoff," in Tagesschau (ARD; Germany), November 29, 2005: she lived a couple of years in Yemen, then did research and participated in excavations in Syria, Turkey, Jordan and Iraq; Iraq became her focus and she became an aid worker there in 1991; she was married to a Jordanian and has an 11-year-old daughter who lives in Germany; she received a Tassilo Award for Civil Courage from the Süddeutsche Zeitung for providing aid to Iraqi civilians in early 2003 while the fighting was still raging; in October, Osthoff told the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung that she had received kidnapping threats from Abu Mussab el-Zarkawi-related people while she was in Mosul: she received US military protection and rerurned to Baghdad but went back north later on; she is a self-described moderate muslim; at Irak-Hilfe, an NGO for whom she brought medicines to Iraq, she is characterized as very tenacious; she works for a Munich consultancy where she has been co-ordinating projects regarding Iraqi health services

Photo: "Porträt: Susanne Osthoff. Susanne Osthoff auf einem Foto aus dem Jahr 2003" [Portrait: SO. SO in a picture from 2003]

"Deutsche im Irak als Geisel genommen. Bundeskanzlerin appelliert an Entführer," in Tagesschau (ARD; Germany), with online video, November 29, 2005: the 43-year-old archaeologist Susanne Osthoff who has been working in Iraq for years now with an aid organization has been missing together with her Iraqi driver since Friday; the [German TV station] ARD people in Baghdad received a video from the kidnappers in which they demand that Germany cease all co-operation with the Iraqi government or the hostages will be killed; they also insisted the video to be broadcast, however, ARD only showed a snapshot [the video contains some footage of looters at Isin, a site she used to excavate at in the past and the plundering of which she brought to the attention of the western media in 2003; see Andrews May 22, 2003 and Atwood September-October 2003]

Photo: "Deutsche Archäologin im Irak entführt. Bild aus dem Entführer-Video: Die beiden Geiseln müssen knien." [German archaeologist kidnapped in Iraq. Image from the kidnappers' video: both hostages forced to kneel <sic>]

J. Redmon, "Trip back in time to Babylon," in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, November 28, 2005: "Shlimon said he never thought he would be able to return to this site after fleeing Iraq in 1974. He said his father wanted him to avoid Iraq’s military draft and encouraged him to leave their home and move to the United States. The rest of his family soon followed. As Christians, Schlimon said, they feared Hussein would persecute them. Shlimon appeared lost in thought as he stepped around shards of broken pottery and stray cuneiform tablets. He walked along a 6th century B.C. path called 'Processional Way.' And then he posed for pictures next to a large basalt sculpture called 'The Lion of Babylon.' He remembers climbing on top of the lion and posing for pictures when he was a teenager."

Photo: "Jeremy Redmon/AJC - Sarkis 'Ben' Shlimon recently toured the ruins of Babylon as an interpreter for Georgia's 1st Battalion, 108th Armor Regiment."

"Deutsches Archäologisches Institut bündelt internationale Aktivitäten zum Schutz der Kulturgüter im Irak in Kooperation mit der UNESCO," in Deutsches Archäologisches Institut (Germany), online, [November 28, 2005]: on November 22, in a conference organized by the DAI in Berlin on behalf of UNESCO, it was agreed upon to document the damage to the ancient site of Babylon; future restoration work was also discussed; besides Germany, the following countries will take part: France, Great Britain, Poland, the US, Iraq, Japan, Italy and the Netherlands; all experts will work under the supervision of the Iraqi Department of Antiquities and UNESCO
"Mussa Calls for Protecting Arab Antiquities," in WAFA - Palestine News Agency (Palestine), online, November 26, 2005: "Secretary-General of League of Arab States called Saturday for protecting the Arab antiquities in Palestine and Iraq. Mussa, who was speaking at a conference on Arab antiquities in Cairo, called for establishing an information center for the Arab antiquities, which may help protect the Arab heritage from the organized burglaries. He also called for crystallizing the Arab visions so as to protect the Arab archeological finds from the hazards caused by conflicts in the area."
O. Poole, "Memory of Iraq's uncrowned queen quietly fades away," in The Daily Telegraph (UK), November 25, 2005: "When Gertrude Bell died in 1926, thousands of Iraqis lined the streets to watch the funeral parade ... Miss Bell, a renowned archaeologist, brilliant linguist and Arabist, had drawn up the new state's borders and become the confidante of the country's first Hashemite monarch, King Faisal." "Her tomb, in the British Civil Cemetery in central Baghdad, has been abandoned to the ravages of time. Her limestone marker is crumbling to dust, as are the cracked gravestones and shattered statues marking the final resting places of her countrymen."
"Deutsches Archäologisches Institut restauriert Babylon," in Schwäbische Zeitung (Germany), November 23, 2005: at the request of UNESCO, the DAI will first document the damage to the archaeological site and how it is currently being treated; German experts together with French, UK, US and Japanese colleagues will work under the supervision of the Iraqi Department of Antiquities and UNESCO; the DAI supports the Iraqi government's plan to submit Babylon for UNESCO world heritage site status [see also Deutsches Archäologisches Institut November 28]
L. Stasi, "Monster M*A*S*H," in New York Post, November 23, 2005: "Poor, poor misguided Judith Miller. Unless you live in Fallujah, you know that the Times' very visible reporter/ex-con recently left the paper of record-making-errors in disgrace over misguided reporting about WMD in Iraq. See, Miller mistakenly reported that WMD referred to 'weapons of mass destruction.' Wrong. If she'd only had an opportunity to see Sci Fi's very original movie, 'Manticore,' a hilarious 'B' movie ... she would have known the real truth. Apparently WMD actually means 'Weapons of Manticore Destruction.' ... The Manticore, you see, was a mythical Persian beast with the body of a red lion, the face and ears of a blue-eyed human and the tail of a scorpion. (The modern Manticore, however, which is regenerated through magic spells in the movie, is more like a giant, winged dragon with a lion's head. Or something. Must be the pollution from leaky pipelines.)" "... a magic amulet was stolen from one of the destroyed museums and delivered to a mystical man who wants to bring the creature back to life. When the stone statue of Manticore and the amulet are united, bingo!, the beast is rehydrated like a freeze-dried steak and starts wreaking havoc and eating everyone in sight. Well you get the idea." [see also VFXWorld November 23]
"Original Movie Manticore Debuts on SCI FI Nov. 26," in VFXWorld, online, November 23, 2005: "Some 2,000 years ago, the ancient Babylonians created the ultimate weapon — twin beasts insatiable in their thirst for blood, intended to drive the infidels from Babylon. With their mission accomplished, the beasts were imprisoned in stone by a mystical spell and have slept undisturbed. Fast-forward to IRAQ and the Second Gulf War. What was once ancient Babylon is again overrun by infidels. Achmed Umari, an Iraqi insurgent leader, finds the stone relics containing the sleeping Manticore. Umari reawakens the beasts and is unable to control the monsters. One of them is killed, but the second twin survives to slaughter Umari's followers. Umari is forced to run for his life as the lone Manticore escapes into the deep desert. Meanwhile, U.S. Army Sergeant Tony Baxter (Robert Beltran) and his unit are dispatched to the remote village of Al Kumar [wait... isn't that the country president Bartlett is struggling with on "West Wing"? oh, I forget, that's fictional too ;-) ] to locate missing western journalist Ashley Dove (Chas[e] Masterson) and her cameraman." [those darn Star Trek alumns, always getting themselves into trouble...]; "They find the slaughtered remains of Umari's men and the population of Al Kumar torn apart — limb from limb. Baxter's unit also finds Ashley, her cameraman and a terrified but still-cunning Umari. As a sand storm traps the army unit in the village, Baxter and his men must find a way to kill the seemingly unstoppable Manticore — the ultimate weapon of mass destruction." [see also Stasi November 23]
"Iraq: 44 stolen archaeological artefacts returned," in Adnkronos International (Italy), online, November 23, 2005: "The Iraqi newspaper al-Zaman reports that the artefacts, which date back to the era of the Sumerian civilisation around 4,000 years ago, were stolen by civilians, who returned them on Tuesday after hearing appeals from the Iraqi authorities and fatwas (religious edicts) issued by Shiite Imams calling on people to protect the country's archaeological assets. The newspaper went on to report that work is continuing to restore Nassiriya's museum, which has 14 exhibition rooms and a library with some 4,000 books. ... a special force has been set up to guard the many valuable archaeological sites around Iraq, but with only 1,000 officers guarding some 10,000 sites, many in remote areas, the force has been struggling to cope, the Iraqi delegate to UNESCO, Chawki Abdelamir, told Adnkronos International (AKI) earlier this year. ... UNESCO has been working with Interpol and the Italian Carabinieri paramilitary police to recover some 14,000 stolen items." [must be a total of recovered arifacts both from the National Museum and looted from sites, I guess]

In an e-mail dated November 18, 2005, Friedrich Schipper (Universität Wien) sent me photos taken at the "Civil-Military Relations Seminar VIII Military Ethics (III) — The Protection of Cultural Property and (Military) Leadership (NATO / PfP Symposium/Seminar (‘In the Spirit of’/ DCF / AUT 266))" which he attended from November 9 to 11 in Vienna (Austria), together with IW&A's co-director David Gimbel; I've been remiss in not posting this earlier: sorry, Fritz! here's the pdf file of the program—you'll notice that David, Friedrich and me are listed as giving a joint paper ("The Iraq War and the Archeology Project – The Use of Weblogs in Crises") but, truly, David wrote it almost totally on his own and presented it so the credit really belongs to him (did I mention that, unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend?)

Photo 1: [opening speech?]

Photo 2: [probably Joris Kila; slide shows older version of IW&A site entry page]

Photo 3: [from left to right: Cori Wegener, David Gimbel, Friedrich Schipper]

T.L. Goodrich, "UNT educator works to find lost Iraqi art," in Fort Worth Star-Telegram, November 17, 2005: "When Nada Shabout ... returned to Baghdad, Iraq, in June 2003, she braced herself, knowing she would find the city of her girlhood in ruins. ... said Shabout, an assistant professor of art history at the University of North Texas in Denton. 'The city did not resemble the one I left. Museums had been bombed and were in ruins; galleries had been destroyed.' Shabout, an authority on Iraqi contemporary art, was horrified by the condition of the Iraqi Museum of Modern Art, which had been severely damaged during U.S. bombing raids. 'After the bombing, someone had gone in and taken the key works, and the looters destroyed many of the lesser-known things,' she said." [the journalist must have misunderstood something here because as Corine Wegener again pointed out in an e-mail dated 11-22-05, the Museum of Modern Art was not bombed: "Members of the 352nd Civil Affairs Command's Arts, Monuments, and Archives Team went to the Ministry of Culture building on or about 21 April [2003]. Team members tell me there was no bomb damage. The AMA team chased looters from the third floor as looters set fire to the building on the first, causing more damage. I did not arrive in Iraq to work with the AMA team until May 16, 2003, but after that I made several visits to the Tourism building on Haifa Street, during which I observed the exterior of the Ministry of Culture building and saw no bomb damage, which is normally quite apparent."; she goes on: "It is absolutely crucial that cultural property professionals such as ourselves work to persuade U.S. government and military forces that it is our duty to protect cultural property during armed conflict. To that end, I am working to establish a non-governmental organization dedicated to the protection of cultural property during armed conflict, bringing both military and cultural property professionals to the table to talk about these critical issues. Erroneous information only serves to create animosity, jeopardizing the already tenuous civil/military relationships we are trying to establish."; 11-23-05: this e-mail is now available online at Iraqcrisis]
S. Tavernisse, "Sunnis Tell of Abuses in Iraqi-Run Detention Sites," in The New York Times, November 17, 2005: "... the former prisoners said they had been held in the basement of a museum in Madaen, ... A police official in Madaen, Col. Emad Ismail, denied the allegations of abuse. He said that a commando unit, the Third Public Order Brigade, which set up shop there earlier this year, was now based inside the museum, but that no prisoners had ever been kept there." "'It's a secret place,' [former prisoner] Mr. Samarrai said.'"I wish the Americans would go to the museum and find out about it.' Madaen, about 10 miles southeast of Baghdad, has been a flash point for sectarian violence for months." [this ought to be the museum of el-Meda'in (ancient Ctesiphon)...]

F. Deblauwe, "Note on John Russell's Lecture 'Recovering Iraq's Past' in St. Louis on November 5, 2005" (IW&A Documents, 6), in The Iraq War & Archaeology (US and Austria), November 16, 2005: "During the cleaning of the recovered Warka mask (Lady of Warka), a trace of blue pigment was discovered close to her left ear. This had not been noticed before, which strikes me as kind of amazing. The public-galleries artifacts that were presciently hidden away in the so-called 'secret place' had been kept there during most of the 1990s. They had only been back in the Museum in recent years. The metal trunks in which they had been kept showed severe signs of corrosion, presumably from problems with standing water in the 'secret place.' Russell showed photos of some artifacts as they came out of those trunks. They were in a precarious, degraded condition due to the water issues: Halaf pottery, Nimrud ivories, cuneiform tablets, coins. For instance, the pottery was crumbling and coins were stuck together with the paper envelopes containing and separating them gone. Luckily, the mold on some of the ivories was on a varnish and therefore easy to remove. Some 60 of the best Nimrud ivories though had been stored with the gold treasure in the Central Bank and were exposed to very dirty water: they are in bad shape, have become friable. Pietro Cordone, the Italian Senior Advisor to the Iraqi Ministry of Culture in the early days, requested the (in)famous one-day exhibition of the Nimrud gold in the National Museum in early July 2003, despite reservations from the Iraqi colleagues. I always suspected of course that it was more a political stunt than anything else... ... An area between the ancient city of Ur [(Tell el-Muqayyar)] and the air strip of the Tallil air base had been left largely empty ever since the air strip was built in the early 20th century. The air base borders the archaeological site. In 2003, however, the US military built in this empty area which is also on the ancient road connecting Ur with ancient Eridu to the southwest. ... Ur is the rounded shape 'stuck' to the northeastern side of the rectangular air base ..."

Photo 1: "Fig. 3 - Northern part of Tallil Air Base and Ur, 'taken in the last 3 years' but most likely after the above-mentioned building activity, from Google Earth"

Photo 2: "Fig. 4 - Close-up of the temple enclosure of Ur, 'taken in the last 3 years' but most likely after the above-mentioned building activity, from Google Earth"

"Soldaten in Babylon - Zerstörungen des Kulturerbes im Irak," in News.de (Germany), online, November 16, 2005: Ricardo Eichmann, director of the Orient Department of the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, says that the looting of archaeological sites in Iraq is continuing; about 140 sites, mostly in south Iraq have been affected, says Margarete van Ess, leader of the Baghdad Branch; Babylon served as the site of a military base till December 2004 and suffered damage: the ruin mound of the "tower of Babel" was used as an observation post, ...; thanks to the new Iraqi government archaeological guard force of about 1300, the site of Babylon is now adequately protected

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).