Iraq National Museum Tragedy

From: Keith Miller (kbmill@ksu.edu)
Date: Tue Apr 15 2003 - 09:55:20 EDT

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    I am forwarding this from another list. This is indeed a tragedy of =20
    great proportions.

    Keith

    > This horrible tragedy is a violation of internationallaw, which =20
    > requires an occupying army to safeguard cultural patrimony
    >
    > =A0
    >
    > =95 Zainab Bahrani, a professor of ancient art and architecture at =20=

    > Columbia University, said the theft and destruction of tens of =20
    > thousands of items, especially from the famous Iraq National Museum, =20=

    > is in many ways worse than the burning of the library in ancient =20
    > Alexandria.=A0"Alexandria was only one library," she said, while =20
    > antiquities had been looted not only in Baghdad, but also in Mosul and =
    =20
    > Basra.
    >
    > =A0
    >
    > =95 Dr Eleanor Robson, a member of the council of the British School =
    of =20
    > Archaeology in Iraq, said: "The looting of the Iraq Museum is on a par =
    =20
    > with blowing up Stonehenge or ransacking the Bodleian Library. For =20
    > world culture, it is a global catastrophe."
    >
    > =A0
    >
    > =95 "The best example I can think of is the sacking of Baghdad in =
    1258 =20
    > by the Mongols," said Gordon Newby, professor of Middle Eastern and =20=

    > South Asian studies at Emory University in Atlanta.
    >
    > =A0
    >
    > The objects not destroyed will soon effectively disappear.=A0It is =20
    > telling that in July 1994, after only three minutes and 40 seconds of =20=

    > bidding, an Assyrian sculpture was bought by a Japanese dealer for =20
    > $11.9 million, the highest price ever paid for an antiquity at =20
    > auction.=A0The Iraqi Museum housed the world=92s oldest cuneiform =
    writing =20
    > as well as the stela of the Code of Hammurabi, the world=92s oldest =20=

    > known legal code.=A0The most famous works of ancient Mesopotamia, =20
    > including the famous =93Ram in the Thicket=94 from the 2600 BC Royal =20=

    > Graves at Ur, are missing.=A0The 5000-year-old Uruk Vase, one of the =20=

    > world=92s great masterpieces of ancient art, "is gone".
    >
    > =A0
    >
    > Here are some links to more info about the thieves of Baghdad:
    >
    > =A0
    >
    > The Looting of Iraq's Past
    >
    > http://www.usatoday.com/life/world/iraq/2003-04-14-artifacts_x.htm
    >
    > =A0
    >
    > U.S. Blamed for Failure to Stop Sacking of Museum
    >
    > http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=3D397004=

    >
    > =A0
    >
    > A Nation's Lost Treasures: Art looted from Iraq's museums may never be =
    =20
    > recovered
    >
    > http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/ny-=20
    > woart143219914apr14,0,730171.story?coll=3Dny-worldnews-headlines
    >
    > =A0
    >
    > Looters Plunder in Minutes Iraq's Millennia-Old Legacy
    >
    > http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0414/p08s02-wome.html
    >
    > =A0
    >
    > Islamic Library Burned to the Ground
    >
    > http://www.arabnews.com/Article.asp?ID=3D25219
    >
    > =A0
    >
    > War Robs Iraq of its History
    >
    > http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=3D/news/2001/03/21/=20
    > wirq21.xml
    >
    > =A0
    >
    > Stolen Stones: The Modern Sack of Nineveh
    >
    > http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/nineveh/
    >
    > =A0
    >
    > Iraq's Ancient Babylon Bites the Dust
    >
    > http://iraqaction.org/oldsite/babylon.html
    >
    >
    Keith B. Miller
    Research Assistant Professor
    Dept of Geology, Kansas State University
    Manhattan, KS 66506-3201
    785-532-2250
    http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~kbmill/

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