[CPProt.net] Robbing the cradle of civilization

[MusSecNetworkCulPropProtNet]

Robbing the cradle of civilization


By Deborah K. Dietsch
SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES

As Iraqis prepare to vote to establish their political future, international
efforts are under way to protect their cultural past.
    But with the illicit plundering of Iraq's incomparable legacy of
archaeological ruins growing rapidly in scope and sophistication, will
international preservation efforts prove too little too late?
    Coordination among government and law enforcement agencies has led to
the recovery in six countries of thousands of treasures stolen from the
National Museum in Baghdad in the earliest days of the American occupation.
The museum, still closed to visitors, has been fortified by security fences,
storage vaults and other safeguards to protect its collections. 
 Far less secure are thousands of archaeological sites throughout Iraq. Many
excavations have remained unprotected since the war began, allowing vandals
to ransack them for statuary, clay tablets, jewelry and other precious
antiquities.
    "So many sites have already been destroyed," says McGuire Gibson,
professor of archaeology at the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute.
"Illegal digging has been going on now for 22 months, virtually unhindered."
    War also has taken its toll on Iraq's ancient heritage. Since 2003, U.S.
and Polish troops have used Babylon, once the capital of the ancient world,
as a military depot and filled sandbags with earth and archaeological
fragments from its historic sites. "This is tantamount to establishing a
military camp around the Great Pyramid in Egypt or around Stonehenge in
Britain," states a recent report by the British Museum.
    Archaeologists who have visited Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein
say they are worried about continuing damage to cities where conflicts
between insurgents and coalition forces continue. "Places of Shi'ite
pilgrimage such as Najaf remain endangered because of possible terrorist
activities," says Gaetano Palumbo, director of archaeological conservation
at the World Monuments Fund. "Historic centers, from Baghdad to Mosul,
remain endangered, but so far, war damage seems to have been relatively
limited."
    Much more devastating to Iraq's rich cultural heritage is the plunder of
archaeological sites, where many of the oldest settlements and structures in
the world were built. Mesopotamia, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers
in what is now Iraq, is the very birthplace of civilization. The first
cities were built in this ancient land, with temples, palaces, markets and
residential neighborhoods. Literature, religion and, ironically, organized
warfare all began here, as well.
    For archaeologists - and thieves - the country is a treasure trove of
more than 10,000 identified ancient sites. "Virtually all of Iraq is an
archaeological site," notes John Malcolm Russell, an art history and
archaeology professor at the Massachusetts College of Art.
    From September 2003 to June 2004, Mr. Russell worked in Iraq to secure
the National Museum and other institutions as an adviser to the Coalition
Provisional Authority's cultural office. He and other scholars rely on the
fragile ruins to understand the ancient societies that inhabited Iraq. When
such irreplaceable evidence is destroyed or randomly hauled away,
archaeologists are unable to piece together the history of civilization.
Pillaging of ancient sites, therefore, has more dire consequences than the
theft of artifacts from museums.
    "The loss of the objects is one thing," Mr. Gibson says, "but the
destruction of the ancient context is a tragedy of far greater importance."
    Vastly more damaging than small holes dug with shovels, the illicit
digging is often the work of organized teams using backhoes and bulldozers,
Mr. Gibson says. "The damage," he explains, "consists of huge holes, some of
them very deep - 20 meters (22 yards) or so at some sites - with tunnels
running off in all directions from the sides of the pits."
    Though some ancient grounds in southern Iraq were looted during Saddam's
regime, "75 to 90 percent of the looting at the sites has happened since
2003 when the war started," Mr. Russell says.
    Widespread vandalism has damaged some archaeological remains beyond
repair. "Some of the most important Sumerian sites are already so destroyed
that they will probably never be excavated scientifically again," says Mr.
Gibson, who toured some of the damaged sites in 2003.
    "The looters were sent to the best-known sites that had already been
excavated by foreign or Iraqi expeditions because it was known that they
would produce material that collectors would buy."
    The hardest-hit ruins, according to scholars, are in southern Iraq. They
include Isin, a regional hub that prospered around 2000 to 1800 B.C.; Umma,
a city that flourished from about 3000 to 2000 B.C.; and Zabalam, a large
city associated with the Sumerian goddess of love and war.
    In south-central Iraq, the site of Nippur, an important religious city
in ancient Babylonia, was robbed for two months in 2003, Mr. Gibson says. He
also cites extensive damage to the ancient ruins of nearby Bismya and dozens
of other sites. "The looting is spreading," he warns. "It is only a matter
of time before it goes farther and farther north."
    To protect archaeological sites from further damage, security guards
have been dispatched to some locations. Mr. Russell says 1,750 guards have
been hired recently to augment the Iraqi protective force. Last year, guards
received 20 pickup trucks, funded by the Packard Humanities Institute and
the State Department, to patrol the sites. The U.N. Development Group has
allocated $5.5 million for a three-year cultural program for Iraq, including
45 vehicles and equipment to strengthen security at archaeological digs.
    "This isn't enough," Mr. Russell says. "They still need about 100 more
trucks equipped with radios and adequate weapons."
    Helping preserve cultural treasures are the New York-based World
Monuments Fund and the Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles. They
provided $17,000 to install a new roof over the mud-brick structure of
Sennacherib's palace in Nineveh, an ancient imperial capital in northern
Iraq that was plundered after the Gulf war in 1991.
    The two organizations are collaborating on a computer-based inventory
that would be used by Iraqi archaeologists to evaluate and monitor historic
sites throughout the country.
    The first course for training employees of Iraq's State Board of
Antiquities and Heritage in this collection of data was held in Amman,
Jordan, in November and December. According to Tim Whalen, director of the
Getty Conservation Institute, surveying of Iraqi sites will begin later this
year, while training continues over the next four years.
     While well-intentioned, this preservation effort may come too late to
save Iraq's endangered heritage. It may serve only to record the damage
already done rather than prevent further vandalism at archaeological sites.
    "Until there is a real Iraqi government with a strong department of
antiquities that will have enforcement powers," Mr. Gibson warns, "the sites
will remain the prey of anyone who wants to loot them." 

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