Archaeology and Iraq

A selection of links concerning the fate of archaeological antiquities and sites in Iraq

Archaeology in Iraq

The Iraq War and Archaeology Blog
Francis Deblauwe's extensive website and weblog cataloguing news and developments going back (in his archives) to early April 2003. It includes many useful photographs, news items, and a collection of further links.

The Threat to World Heritage in Iraq
An extensive commentary, selection of news reports, and links to a huge collection of resources about the archaeology of Iraq, produced at the University of Oxford by Dr Eleanor Robson.

The BBC on Iraq's Cultural Heritage
The BBC has shown a number of programmes and documentaries about the situation in Iraq. Amongst them are:

The Guardian Newspaper
The Guardian has comprehensively covered all aspects of the Iraq situation, and has extensive archives. Here are some of their articles:

  • Scholars move to protect 'priceless' Iraqi heritage - Donald MacLeod reports on the declaration signed by 100 European and US academics, warning of the risk of destruction and looting of Iraqi antiquities before the outbreak of war. (21/03/2003)
  • The end of civilisation - Fiachra Gibbons describes how the war is threatening to destroy the many important archaeological sites in Iraq. (02/04/2003)
  • 'The collection lies in ruins, objects from a long, rich past in smithereens' - a report by Eleanor Robson, describing the looting and destruction of the Iraq National Museum. (14/04/2003)
  • Is this plundering so bad? - an article by David Aaronovitch in which he suggests that claims that the Iraqi people have "lost their past" is so much hyperbole, and that, despite the sentimentality often attached to archaeology, not all artefacts are priceless, irreplaceable or beyond value. (15/04/2003)
  • Iraq and Ruin - Neal Acheson interviews Donny George, acting director of the Iraq National Museum, Baghdad. (02/05/2003)
  • Lost from the Baghdad Museum: truth - David Aaronovitch questions the validity of the claims made in the light of discrepancies in the accounts of those close to the events, and the questions raised by Dan Cruikshank's BBC programme. (10/06/2003)
  • Iraq's Museums: what really happened - an article by Eleanor Robson which tries to get to the truth of the claims surrounding the looting. In part, her article is a response to Dan Cruikshank's BBC film Raiders of the Lost Art which "insinuated that the staff had grossly misled the military and the press over the extent of the losses, been involved with the looting themselves, allowed the museum to be used as a military position, and had perhaps even harboured Saddam Hussein". (18/06/2003)
  • What really happened at the Baghdad Museum? - Dan Cruikshank's response to Eleanor Robson's article in which he reprises his conspiracy theories originally aired in his BBC programme. (19/06/2003)

The paper also has some image galleries:


Science on Iraq
The magazine Science has been covering the situation - here are some of its articles (you must be using a University of Glasgow computer in order to be able to access this using the University subscription).

Archaeology magazine: Protecting Iraq's Ancient Heritage
An extensive and continuing collection of articles covering the cultural heritage crisis in Iraq, including an article, Spoils of War, by Neil Brodie (coordinator of the former Illicit Antiquities Research Centre). Archeology Magazine also covered the launch by the US Department of Defense of a set of playing cards, each containing an archaeological message warning soldiers to be aware of the heritage around them ...

Plundering the Museums of Iraq
An article by Walter Sommenfeld on the looting and destruction of Iraq's heritage - includes reports that US soldiers stood by and/or encouraged some of these activities. Published in CounterPunch - a bi-weekly newsletter which prides itself on its "muckraking with a radical attitude".

UK Government statements:

War in Iraq – Memory and Heritage of the World in Danger
Statement by the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) prior to the outbreak of the war, warning of the danger posed for the Iraqi cultural heritage. (06/03/2003)

The Illicit Antiquities Research Centre
- based at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at the University of Cambridge. Their newsletter, Culture without Context contains several articles and notes on the looting of Iraqi heritage, alongside many examples of looting in other countries. The Centre closed in September 2007 ...

The British Museum and the Iraq Crisis
News and reports about the looting of the Iraqi National Museum and the British Museum's response. Includes details of activities since 2003 with a collection of reports on sites such as Ur, Babylon, etc. As the BM says, "Four years after coalition troops invaded Iraq, the Iraq Museum is closed, with the doorways to the storerooms bricked up, some 8000 objects remain unaccounted for, archaeological sites in the south continue to be looted, and military activities have damaged iconic sites such as Babylon."

Lost Treasures from Iraq
A collection of resources provided by the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago, including a database of objects from the Iraq Museum and photos of archaeological sites showing evidence of looting.

The Baghdad Museum Project
A website devoted to the loss of cultural heritage, attempting to analyse the roots of the problem while providing further links to information concerning Baghdad Museum. The project also offers an extensive collection of images and details of objects from the museum here.

Interpol
The Interpol pages identifying some examples of stolen Iraqi art currently being sought (follow the links on the left hand side of the page for the different categories of object).

Iraq - the cradle of civilisation at risk
A useful summary of a range of aspects by H-Museum, including news digests, links to selected articles, documents, and statements, and a range of links to Iraq's cultural heritage.

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