The Iraq War & Archaeology Archive 68

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.

B. Ospina, "Ancient Artifacts Hold High Value," in Blackanthem Military News, online, January 26, 2006: "Soldiers of the 451st Civil Affairs Battalion returned a collection of historical items found on Forward Operating Base (FOB) Warrior over the past few months, to the community of Kirkuk, Iraq. The artifacts may appear to be just broken pieces of formed clay to some, but to Ayad T. Hussein, the Civil Engineer Director of the Kirkuk Museum, they hold great value in the history of the Iraqi culture. 'If we have all the pieces then we can carefully put them back together,' commented Hussein. 'We can send them to Baghdad to be fixed and further examined.' ... the most valuable item discovered is a child burial urn of which they believe dates back to 250 B.C. They explained that when children passed away, they would first be cremated and then their ashes would be placed inside the urn as part of a proper burial. ... According to Cpt. Cole Calloway, the Team Chief for the Civil Affairs Team A, the Kirkuk Museum suffered from looting by vandals after the first Gulf War and has not fully recovered yet. There are many display cases that sit empty gathering dust ... 'We are hoping that the artifacts we hand over will help the museum reestablish itself,' ... Calloway, who has a degree in anthropology, volunteered to be the cultural affairs officer upon arrival to Iraq. ... his goal is to hand over every artifact found on the base to the community. But it is not as simple as it sounds. Once the artifacts are discovered they must be taken to the 'relics room' under care of the Air Force Legal Office, where each individual piece, regardless of size, is logged to indicate when and where it was found before being put into storage. The artifacts are then slowly handed over to the Kirkuk Museum, ..." [how about the context in which these artifacts were found??? see also Glassford April 5, 2005 and Lee March 19, 2005]

Photo 1: "Many ancient artifacts of the Iraqi Culture have been discovered on Forward Operating Base (FOB) Warrior and Soldiers of the 451st Civil Affairs Battalion are in the process of handing over all the collected historical items to the Kirkuk Museum, for all the citizens to see. The FOB is said to be a previous village site more than 5,000 years-old. (U.S. Army Photo By: Spc. Barbara Ospina, 1st BCT Public Affairs)"

Photo 2: "A Civil Engineer and Director of the Kirkuk Museum, Ayad Hussein, and his assistant examine historical artifacts that were discovered on FOB Warrior. All of the artifacts are in the process of being handed over the museum to display for all Iraqis too see and learn from. (U.S. Army Photo By: Spc. Barbara Ospina, 1st BCT Public Affairs)"

P. Boylan, "The US could have saved Iraq's cultural heritage. Sites were protected during the first Gulf war, but no one prevented the catastrophe in 2003, says Patrick Boylan," in The Guardian (UK), January 25, 2006: "In the preparations for the first Gulf war under Dick Cheney, then defence secretary, the Pentagon brought together detailed advice on the cultural heritage of Iraq and Kuwait from around 80 international experts and institutions. Several hundred specific sites, archaeological zones and monuments, and important historic buildings - including the National Museum in Baghdad and the Babylon and Ur archaeological zones - were identified for protection from direct acts of war such as air and ground attack, and from any postwar situation. The protected sites were then identified on military maps used for both aerial targeting and the ground campaign. The system worked extremely well, with only one or two apparently genuine mishaps due to missiles going off target. A postwar evaluation of these measures was reported to Congress by the department of defence in January 1993, in response to a Congressional inquiry into the war's environmental and heritage impact. In the concluding section of the report, the Pentagon gave an assurance that 'similar steps will be taken by the [US] in future conflicts'." "Someone or some group must have taken a positive decision to scrap the US's established protection policies and ignore the January 1993 assurance to Congress given by the defence department, still under Dick Cheney at the time. Who made that fatal decision?"
Ph. Kennicott, "Raider of the Lost Art. How a Marine cum classics scholar tracked down the missing treasures of the Iraq Museum," in The Washington Post, January 22, 2006: "Perhaps Matthew Bogdanos, ... is everything his new memoir makes him out to be: tough, smart, patriotic, a good father, a loyal fighter, a man of many parts. ... But there is something terribly strained about the voice of his new book, co-authored with novelist William Patrick. Written in a mix of military jargon and tough-guy slang, Thieves of Baghdad certainly succeeds as a good read. ... It also reveals a man who seems to have a huge chip on his shoulder, quick to judge people who question his authority and contemptuous of people who don't share his blue-collar, raised-by-the-boot-straps background." "By the time Bogdanos gets to making his larger argument -- that the United States needs a renaissance of the honor and values of 'warrior' culture -- readers will be sharply divided. Those who are already enamored of military culture and still believe in the Iraq War will probably nod in agreement. Those who question that war -- and question war in general -- may find Bogdanos a repellent figure, symptomatic of a new hubris in certain military and political circles. That's too bad, because if one can read past Bogdanos's defensiveness and simmering rage at intellectuals, academics, liberals and military red-tape types, there's a good narrative and a lot of fascinating detail in this book. Bogdanos works hard to set the record straight about what happened in the chaotic days between April 9, when Baghdad fell, and April 16, when U.S. forces finally secured the Iraq Museum from looters. He argues (and other sources agree, including a 2003 article in Science magazine) that the museum was being used by Iraqi forces, including snipers, and was too dangerous to secure. A low-key assault would have endangered U.S. soldiers, and an all-out battle would have risked the very treasures they were trying to protect. 'The bottom line here is that any suggestion that U.S. forces could have done more than they did to secure the museum before the twelfth is based on wishful thinking,' he writes." [I disagree! the Science article mentioned is Lawler August 1, 2003; it actually does not support the military's explanation as solidly as Kennicott makes it sound: Lawler is more or less neutral]; "But he also downplays the desperate efforts of archaeologists to get the U.S. government to take the looting threat seriously. And though he acknowledges one of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's tone-deaf statements about the mayhem, he doesn't grapple seriously with the lack of planning, dismissive attitude and arrogance of the administration in the run-up and early days of the war. He cites unnamed sources and hides behind the fog of war when necessary to make his case, but he has little patience with journalists, who trumpeted a wildly oversized estimate of 170,000 lost objects just after the looting, and gives them no fog-of-war exemption." "But there's more going on here, the faint rumblings of an interpretation of military culture that goes beyond mere duty and includes a disturbing degree of entitlement -- to bend rules, disdain criticism and place oneself above the people one serves. ... Bogdanos's bull-headedness is no doubt part of the reason that he and his men were able to restore to the Iraqi collection thousands of purloined objects. But for a man who bristles at snobbery and presumption, Bogdanos emerges as a snob of sorts himself -- a Marine snob." [see also Collins January 3, Piñeiro January 3 and now Johnson February 2, 2006]
A. Hussein and C. Freeman, "US snipers make minaret a rebel target," in The Daily Telegraph (UK), January 22, 2006: "... the 170ft Malwiya tower, a ninth-century spiral minaret that looks out over the holy city of Samarra, ... provides a vital vantage point from which to observe - and shoot - insurgents ..." "'The Americans occupied the tower once before and when they left the Mujahideen tried to blow the tower up, although they didn't succeed,' said Assad Al Samarrai, the tower's curator, who has had to abandon his office near its foot. 'Two weeks ago the Americans came back and already there has been a missile strike four or five days ago. That was only a small hit, but if this continues much longer the tower will be destroyed.'" "Naeim Joda, a spokesman for the Iraqi Ministry of Tourism, said: 'Our office in Samarra tells us 10 per cent of the tower already is damaged, and that is going to increase as long as there are battles there. 'We have asked the US forces to leave many times but they always say it is a security matter.' ... US commanders declined to discuss ... or comment ..." [the more things change in Iraq, the more they stay the same...; see Northedge April 7, 2005]; 1-30-06: via informal channels I have learnt that the US military denies that they are again using the minaret: let's hope that this article is indeed mistaken!]

Ch. Stratford, "Expert appeals to UAE over Iraqi artefacts," in Gulf News (UAE), January 20, 2006: "Speaking at a lecture at the Abu Dhabi Cultural Foundation on the destruction of Iraq's heritage, Iraqi archaeologist Dr Lamia Al Gailani-Werr said uncontrollable looting at thousands of archaeological sites across Iraq continues unabated ... 'The UAE Government like any other has to make sure its customs officials are trained to recognise artefacts from Iraq and to take the necessary measures to return them. Allied and Iraqi troops on the ground have no control over the situation." "'Collectors would die to get their hands on any of these objects. They are super rich and completely unscrupulous. It is individuals like them that are fuelling the illegal trade. They are more than partly responsible for the destruction of Iraq's heritage,' she said. Dr Walid Yasin, a Specialist Consultant and Advisor on Archaeology at Al Ain National Museum for the Abu Dhabi Authority on Cultural Heritage, said customs monitoring at UAE ports of entry continues but extra vigilance is needed ... In the past two years he says only two artefacts have been confiscated by Customs authorities in Abu Dhabi and one turned out to be fake."

Photo: "Dr Lamia appealed to the UAE Government to train customs officials to identify the artefacts and take steps to return them to Iraq. Dr Yasin is also shown. Abdul Karim Kallouche/Gulf News"

M. Fisher, "Tomb raiders. Three years after Iraq's ancient treasures were first stolen and smashed, the cradle of civilisation is still being looted. It's a catastrophe, says former arts minister Mark Fisher," in The Guardian (UK), January 19, 2006: "What can be learned from these unhappy events? What is being done? Unesco has established an International Committee on which 30 countries are represented. ... Last November the committee agreed a resolution that there should be an independent assessment made of the damage to Babylon. However, the US is reluctant to cooperate unless the assessment is under American control and employs American consultants. On the security of archeological sites, most are agreed that, if the 'farming' [i.e., looting] of sites is to end, the guards should be restored and their salaries raised. Ideally, there should be aerial surveillance over the most important sites, but here again US cooperation is uncertain. Action needs to be taken to stop the illegal export of artefacts stolen from museums and sites. There is general agreement with the assessment of the director of the Iraq Museum, Donny George, that Iran and Turkey are 'not assisting' in the control of this black market and that many of the exported artefacts are passing through Switzerland, which has the fourth largest art market in the world but continues to refuse to ratify the 1970 Unesco Convention on Illegal Exports of Works of Art. In the medium term, responsibility for re-establishing Iraq's museums and sites should be assumed by the interim Iraqi government. This body has recently announced a reconstructing of its cultural ministry into four sections (museums, excavations, conservation, and interpretation and learning). Each section will report to a minister and the role of Dr George, who has done so much to restore order in the past 18 months, will be downgraded. He may retire. Our worst fears, that '10,000 years of human history has been erased' may not have come to pass, but a similar catastrophe in the future may not be averted unless the US and the UK governments recognise the damage that the war has caused and accept some responsibility for it. They might profit from reading The Epic of Gilgamesh. Like all great poems, it tells us about ourselves. It is about grief and the fear of death, about man's quest for wisdom and immortality. Its hero doesn't understand the difference between strength and arrogance. By attacking a monster, he brings down disaster on himself."
W.W. Merkel, "Raubgräber aus dem All orten. Satellitenbilder werden nach typischen Mustern durchforstet - Archäologen kooperieren mit Informatikern," in Berliner Morgenpost (Germany), January 19, 2006: Margarete van Ess (Orient-Abteilung of the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut or DAI) explains how looters in Iraq are only interested in 0.5% of the artifacts they find but destroy the architecture and context in which all artifacts reside; satellite photography could help to spot looting activity (can see details up to the decimeter) allowing to intervene quickly; problem: even photos of only 10 by 10 km square resolution cost up to €2,000, detail photos can go up to €10,000 a piece; the DAI co-operates with the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt and Definiens, the software company of Gerd Binnig (Nobel Prize laureate in physics), to automate the interpretation of the satellite pictures for signs of looting trenches and ruins of ancient buildings; they're also trying to raise awareness among the people who are commonly using satellite pictures already, e.g., geologists; of course, new excavations are impossible under the current circumstances

D. Nebenzahl, "Tracking treasure. Matthew Bogdanos lives by a classical sense of honour. It has driven him on his own quest - to recover antiquities looted in Iraq," in The [Montreal] Gazette (Canada), January 16, 2006: "... Bogdanos remains disappointed that no country or organization has set up a commission to protect the stolen cultural heritage. 'Hello? I don't understand it,' he said. 'How come my investigation was the only one?' ... 'The people I'm talking about have wings of museums named after them,' the outspoken Bogdanos said. 'And they've got good lawyers.'"

Photo: "An Iraqi man reads papers at the entrance to the vault of the National Museum in Baghdad after looters went on a rampage. Photograph by : Jerome Delay, AP"

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).