The Iraq War & Archaeology Archive 74

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.

L. Harris, "Iran takes lead in restoration of Samarra mosque. Private sector investment will pay for the rebuilding of the Shiite holy site," in The Art Newspaper (UK), April 27, 2006: "But it was the Research Centre of the Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organisation of Iran (ICHTO) which signed an agreement of co-operation for the restoration of the shrine with the Iraqi Ministry of Culture. ... Last July ICHTO announced that the repair and renovation of Shiite holy centres was a priority, and that private sector interest in investment was so strong that the initiative would not need government funding. The Iranian non-governmental organisation, Reconstruction Organisation of Holy Shrines in Iraq, which also announced that it was sending teams to help with the operations at Samarra, says it has completed over 300 projects in Iraq. In the violent aftermath of the Askariya bombing, Shiite protesters attacked numerous Sunni mosques in Baghdad, while in Basra they set fire to a Sunni shrine containing the seventh-century tomb of Talha bin Obeid-Allah, one of the main opponents of Imam Ali’s accession to the Caliphate and thus a symbolic enemy of the Shia. The following day in al Madai’in, Sunni gunmen fired two rockets at the tomb of Salman al-Farisi, a companion of the Prophet Muhammad, whose shrine is revered by Shiites. Initial reports claimed that it had been entirely destroyed, but it later emerged that in fact damage was light."

Photo: "Destroyed on 22 February: the Askariya shrine, also known as the Golden Dome, is one of the most revered sites of Shiite Islam. It contains the tombs of the tenth and 11th imams, Ali al Hadi (d. AD 868) and his son Hassan al Askari (d. AD 874), who are considered by Shiite Muslims to be successors to the Prophet Muhammad. It also honours al Hadi’s young grandson, Muhammad al Mahdi, who disappeared there, and whom Shiites regard as the 12th and 'hidden' imam, who will one day return. The Askariya shrine has been continually added to since the tenth century, often by Iranian rulers—its great dome was re-built in 1623 by the Safavid Shah Abbas, and was first covered in golden tiles by the Qajar Shah Nasir al Din in 1868"

A. Dolatowska and A. Jegliński, "Cultural Heritage," in Multinational Division Central-South (Poland), online, April 27, 2005: report from Polish archaeologists embedded with the Polish military in southern Iraq: "Between September and October last year 3 aid projects for the Guard of Antiquities (Facility Protection Service) in Al Diwaniyah province were implemented by the MND CS under direction of Polish archeologists. They included supply of all kinds of equipment necessary to Guard’s work, ranging from uniforms, helmets, bullet-proof vests, night vision goggles and a simple communication system to 2 new patrol cars. In November the guards received a furnished living-office container provided with source of water and electricity. It will serve them as the post and enable providing 24/24 h protection to the archeological site of Tell as Sadoum, where excavations, the only ones in Iraq last year, were conducted until summer by the University Al Qadisiyah, from Ad Diwaniyah city." [4-29-06: I am not aware of much other information about this unique excavation other than announcements for recent or soon-to-take-place lectures by the excavator, Dr. Abbas Ali Abbas Al-Hussainy (el-Qadissiyyah University, Iraq) at the University of Bologna and the Muzeum Archeologiczne w Poznaniu (Poznań Archaeological Museum, Poland); ancient Marad is usually placed at modern Wannah wa Sadun: could it be that there are 2 conjoined tells, Wannah and Sadum/n? I'm not sure]; "6 months earlier the site was already surrounded with protective barbed wire fence by Polish miners [sic; sappers, soldiers of the engineer corps?]. The container was officially handed over to commander of the Guard by Polish Minister of the National Defence, Mr. Radosław Sikorski. ... Beginning of this year, the Department of Archeology at Al Qadisiyah University ... was donated a wide range of school and training equipment. ... satellite internet, new computers, slide and data show projectors, digital cameras and scanners, ... photocopy machine ... air conditioners ... a 100 KVA generator."

"Polish archeologists have been continuously conducting reconnaissance flights and photo tours of archeological sites in the responsibility area of the Division. At present, majority of greatest sites having been already photographed, they make endeavors to create a base of photographic documentation ... only in Al Diwaniyah province there are about 650 sites officially registered by the Iraqi service of antiquities. ... Up to date, 45 sites have been photographed, including the largest and most famous: ... Abu Antik ... Babilon ... Barnum ... Bisamiyah (Adab) ... Borsippa ... Ishan Bahrijat (Isin) ... nJamdat Nasr ... Tell el Okhaymir (Kish) ... Tell el Inghara (Kish) ... Moukha Al Zeblijah ... Nuffar (Nippur) ... St. Eanhe ... Tell ad Dahar ... Tell Abu Salabih ... Tell Damar ... Tell Nahla ... Tell Abu Hatab (Kissura) ... Tell es-Sadoum (Marad) ... Tell Fara (Shuruppak) ... Tell Ibzaykh (Zabalam) ... Tell Jokha (Umma) ... Tell Szamit – (Klan) ... Wanah[.] Another field of activity is work over increasing soldiers’ consciousness of the Iraqi cultural heritage and legal regulations concerning it. In reference to this issue general trainings connected with a slideshow were held for the Military Police and special leaflets will be distributed to soldiers of the Division. In addition, soldiers, while buying gifts in at-the-camp bazaar, can always take archeologists’ advice." [this is a little vague...?]; "The MND CS contributes to establishing tighter contacts between Iraqi and Polish archeologists. They have organized transport to Poland and back to Iraq for delegations of officials from the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage and universities of Ad Diwaniyah and Al Hilla. In coming weeks an able Iraqi scholar will be conveyed [sic; sent] by the Division to Poland for a scientific scholarship founded by Polish Ministry of Culture and Polish Center of Mediterranean Archeology."

Photos 1-6: "Cultural Heritage" [it's too bad that there are no captions for the pictures...; photos 1 and 3 look like Babylon, photo 5 may very well be the excavations at Tell el-Sadum]

Photos 7-10: "Reconnaissance actions of Polish Archeologists" [photo 7 looks like Babylon; no. 10 could be Tell el-Sadum again]

Photo 11: [found on web server, not included in article itself]

E. Mattingly, "Prof. to train soldiers to preserve sites," in The Dartmouth (New Hampshire), April 26, 2006: "Classics professor Roger Ulrich will begin working soon to develop training materials aimed at helping troops in Iraq and Afghanistan prevent damage to important archeological sites. Ulrich's research, made possible through a Defense Department grant, will be coordinated at Fort Drum in upstate New York. There, a group of civilians engage in what the Army terms 'cultural resource management,' ... Dr. Laurie Rush, one the program's directors, initially approached Ulrich about leading a group of student researchers to develop guidelines for the military overseas. Because Ulrich is a classical archeologist, meaning he specializes in Greek and Roman archeology, he hopes to rely on his students' research to supplement his own knowledge. 'I don't really work in the Middle East at all,' Ulrich said." [while it's obviously good that the US military is (finally) paying more attention to this, wouldn't a Mesopotamian archaeologist be more appropriate like, for instance, Dr. Sam Paley at SUNY in Buffalo? just wondering...]; "Ulrich hopes to begin work on the project this summer and continue it into the fall, and the Defense Department hopes to complete work on the materials approximately one year from now. The materials will include a general instruction manual, 100,000 packs of playing cards carrying cultural and historical information and 50,000 laminated sheets for troops in the field to help them recognize and protect historically sensitive areas."
J. Picard, "Ex-hostage shares story," in The Republican (Massachusetts), April 25, 2006: "'It was a transformative experience,' [Micah] Garen said of his 10 days in captivity. He was abducted by a militant group of Shiite Muslims ..." "'It's a really delicate place you're talking about, a place that is falling apart because of civil war,' Garen said. The conflict has reached such heights that, for example, a group of fundamentalists videotaped themselves burning down a museum, then blamed the museum's curator for the damage, he said." [would that be the museum in Nasiriyyah?]
"A monumental task," in Khaleej Times (United Arab Emirates), April 22, 2006: "Modern warfare is different though. It can cause immense losses in terms of human lives. History is full of examples of how invading armies destroyed palaces, places of worship, cities, etc. and while retreating looted them and carted away the booty. Unfortunately, a victim of this rapacious human behaviour is history itself. By erasing the traces of our earlier civilisations, sometimes pre-historic, we are obliterating our collective past. A case in point is Babylon, the fabled city of yore." "These ancient treasure troves are our common legacy, and as such they should be respected and protected. Iraq’s heritage transcends race, religion and national boundaries and it needs to be preserved at any cost."
H. Misake, "Japan, a would-be cultural guardian," in Asia Times Online (Hong Kong), online, April 22, 2006: "A non-partisan group of Japanese lawmakers from the ruling coalition and the largest opposition party is preparing new legislation to help restore cultural heritage that has been destroyed in Afghanistan, Iraq and other war-torn areas." "... Japan should step up official development assistance (ODA) to help countries preserve and restore their cultural heritages, ... The draft bill will call for universities and other academic institutions to train experts in restoring destroyed cultural heritage and emphasize the need for the central government to provide financial support. It will require the government to compile basic policies to implement measures envisaged under the bill and will also call for it to join hands with local authorities in implementing the measures, the lawmakers say. They hope the law will enable Japan to play a leading role in preserving world cultural heritage and also to raise its international status." "Japan put assistance for the preservation and restoration of valuable cultural assets abroad high on its diplomatic agenda clearly for the first time in the late 1980s. ... then-prime minister Noboru Takeshita unveiled his 'international cooperation initiative', which made strengthened international cultural exchanges, along with increased ODA for developing countries and stepped-up contributions to peace, a major pillar of the nation's foreign policy. ... In 1989, a trust fund with Japanese financial contributions was established within the Paris-based UNESCO. Japan has chipped in a few million US dollars annually for the Japanese trust fund for the preservation of world cultural heritage." "While successfully scoring diplomatic points on the cultural front, culminating in the election of Koichiro Matsuura, former Japanese ambassador to France, as the UNESCO director general in late 1999, Japan had long been far from serious about cracking down on illicit trade in foreign cultural assets at home. It was not until 2002 that Japan ratified a key international treaty banning illicit traffic in statues, paintings, manuscripts, books and other objects of historical or archeological value. The UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, ..."
A. Khalil, "More stolen antiquities returned," in Azzaman (Iraq), April 19, 2006: "... Najaf’s antiquities officials have returned 1,472 pieces to the Iraq Museum. But not all of the pieces were part of the museum’s collection which went missing in the aftermath of the U.S. invasion. ... only 160 artifacts were part of the thousands of pieces that were stolen from the museum and still reported missing. The Antiquities Department says more than 10,000 artifacts, some of them priceless, still need to be found. But ... Najaf topped the country’s 18 provinces in efforts to guard ancient sites and search for stolen artifacts. Other southern provinces, such as Dhiqar, were also mentioned in the statement for efforts in guarding and preserving ancient relics."
"Met deal praised as 'example.' Director de Montebello urges conference to set new rules," in ANSA (Italy), online, April 18, 2006: "A landmark deal between the Italian government and New York's Metropolitan Museum on February 21 could pave the way for a wide-scale return of the world's looted antiquities, according to the Met's director. Speaking at the National Press Club, Philippe de Montebello ... urged countries like Italy to vigorously pursue looted artefacts with the same zeal Rome showed in its long-running dispute with his museum, saying that 'the black market has moved elsewhere.' He said he 'did not understand' why governments had demanded the return of art works 'almost exclusively' from US museums, failing to go after other countries 'in the same situation'. De Montebello recently complained that 'European countries and the Gulf states' were 'buying up antiquities', although he gave no details. On Tuesday he cited the flourishing market in artefacts from Iraq."

J. Gettleman, "Babylon Awaits an Iraq Without Fighting," in The New York Times, April 18, 2006: "Ancient Babylon, celebrated as a fount of law, writing and urban living, sits just outside the modern-day city of Hilla, about 60 miles south of Baghdad. Hilla is neither haunted by Sunni insurgents nor overwhelmed by Shiite militias. And though it has a mix of Shiites and Sunnis, it has not been afflicted by the sectarian violence that has paralyzed so many other heterogeneous parts of Iraq. ... Emad Lafta al-Bayati, Hilla's mayor, has big plans for Babylon. 'I want restaurants, gift shops, long parking lots,' he said. ... [Unesco] is pumping millions of dollars into protecting and restoring Babylon and a handful of other ancient ruins in Iraq. Unesco has even printed up a snazzy brochure, with Babylon listed as the premier destination, to hand out to wealthy donors. 'Cultural tourism could become Iraq's second biggest industry, after oil,' said Philippe Delanghe, a United Nations official helping with the project. But before Iraq becomes the next Egypt, he said wryly, 'a few little things have to happen.' One of those, of course, is better security. The American military still maintains bases near Babylon, but next month, in a sign of how relatively stable the area has become, most troops will pull out and head north to Baghdad, where they are needed more. Many Iraqis said it was about time. Occupying forces have been blamed for much of Babylon's recent demise. Donny George, head of Iraq's board of antiquities, said that Polish troops dug trenches through an ancient temple and that American contractors paved over ruins to make a helicopter landing pad. 'How are we supposed to get rid of the helipad now?' Mr. George asked. 'With jackhammers? Can you imagine taking a jackhammer to the remains of one of the most important cities in the history of mankind? I mean, come on, this is Babylon.'" "Today, the site is dominated by the two kitschy palaces Mr. Hussein built, some mud ruins, some deep holes and lots of barbed wire. But even Mr. George is not dispirited. He is meeting regularly with archaeologists from around the world and laying plans for a cuneiform study center and a tourist village — to be erected outside the ancient city's borders, no doubt. 'One day millions of people will visit Babylon,' he said. 'I'm just not sure anybody knows when.'"

Photo: "Johan Spanner/Polaris, for The New York Times. A Polish helicopter flies over excavated parts of Babylon. Over the years, colonial powers took artifacts and Saddam Hussein built on Nebuchadnezzar's palace. Then, the occupation."

J. Stockinger, "Recovering pillaged Iraqi art is expert's goal," in The Capital Times (Wisconsin), April 17, 2006: "'There is no doubt that the international trade in illegal Iraqi art and antiquities is funding the insurgency,' says Col. Matthew Bogdanos, a reserve officer in the U.S. Marines who holds advanced degrees in law, art history and military strategy." "[The National Museum in Baghdad] is a huge museum that is one of the finest in the world. It takes up 11 acres and has more than 500,000 objects including of some of the oldest in the world,' he said in a phone interview from his home in Manhattan. 'It compares favorably to the Louvre in Paris and the British Museum in London.'" "'We live in a world that too often relies on a reductive dualism. Israeli or Palestinian, red state or blue state - everything is either-or. Our shared cultural heritage offers one of the best ways we have to bridge that kind of cultural divide. It is crucially important to me and our shared cultural heritage that this stuff isn't seen just a bunch of old alabaster with funny writing on it. It speaks and resonates with all cultures. The Sacred Vase of Warka (circa 3200 B.C.) is one of the world's first art objects and is gorgeous. It speaks to all of us, whether we are Jewish, Muslim or Christian. I want the facts about the art thefts in Iraq to stay in the news cycle. I want people to understand that it mattered yesterday, matters today and will matter tomorrow.' One way to keep the story visible would be for the United Nations to establish a permanent commission to investigate the worldwide black market in stolen art and antiquities. Right now, Bogdanos said, the U.S., Britain and Italy are leading such an effort, but most nations - including the vital trading center Switzerland - are withholding vital support for the idea. ... 'I want the United Nations to study and collect data on the trade in antiquities and do it methodically, not haphazardly. The origin nations don't have the resources, so we need the transit nations to fund it."

Photo: "AP Photo/Murad Sezer - Artifacts are seen on a table at the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad after they were recovered. Work has begun on recovering some of civilization's earliest artifacts that disappeared in 2003 followed the fall of Saddam Hussein"

I. Kehoe, "Crackdown on trade in looted Iraqi artifacts," in The Sunday Business Post (Ireland), April 16, 2006: "The [Irish] government has launched a crackdown against individuals and organised gangs who are trading in looted Iraqi antiques. New regulations have been enacted that ban the import, export and dealing in any cultural items that were illegally removed from Iraq after August 1990. Micheal Martin, the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, signed the regulations into effect late last month, bringing Ireland into line with the rest of the European Union. ... The Irish regulations make it illegal to deal in 'Iraqi cultural property and other items of archaeological, historical, cultural, rare scientific and religious importance'. It forbids the trade in Iraqi antiques if there 'exists reasonable suspicion that the goods have been removed from Iraq without the consent of their legitimate owner'." "According to reports, there is a significant trade in looted items among collectors in Europe. ... Iraq has 2,600 guards, half of whom are newly-trained, patrolling more than 10,000 archaeological sites. A number of international museums have appealed for this figure to be increased significantly to prevent further pillage. Among the most prominent artifacts still missing are 16 bronze Assyrian door panels from the 9th-century city gates of Balawat, and cuneiform writing tablets from Khorsabad and Nineveh."

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).