Revival of Baghdad Museum : Mess O’Potamian Art : Newsweek

In an earlier post, in which US militarism was discussed, the conflict in Iraq was mentioned, and one aspect of the incalculable damage that has been inflicted on that nation is the widespread looting and destruction of its archaeological heritage that has taken place in the wake of the country becoming embroiled in almost 5 years of the current 'war on terror'.

Almost as soon as the fighting broke out in 2003, the museum in Baghdad was broken into and ransacked, with large amounts of of its contents either destroyed or looted in the process. But, nearly 5 years after the war began, there are signs that the fortunes of the museum are changing for the better; this from the linked Newsweek article...

In the renovated Assyrian gallery of Baghdad's Iraq Museum, archeologist Amira Edan al-Dahab was doing what she likes best: explaining the priceless treasures in her care. Stately 3,000-year-old statues of royalty—a couple lost their heads during the museum's looting in the aftermath of the U.S. invasion—have been restored and are presiding over the vast space.

Ancient stone reliefs line the walls, with intricate carving depicting the rituals of early civilization. In one panel, an Assyrian and a Babylonian king are posed shaking hands to seal a treaty, not unlike a diplomatic photo op today. But in another relief, victorious soldiers are piling up their enemies' severed heads as a tribute to a monarch in a chariot. Al-Dahab, the museum's temporary director, shakes her head. "You can see the violence all through history," she says. "This one was always ugly to me, but now it's even more so."

With the terror of the insurgency, sectarian attacks and suicide bombings, the devastation of Iraq's museums and archeological sites has become a footnote in the ongoing violence and political crises. In 2006, after a mass kidnapping near the museum, the director, Donny George, sealed much of the complex in a concrete tomb and, like many of Iraq's professionals, left the country. But now, with the U.S. troop surge, Baghdad is calmer.

Last summer the concrete was replaced with an iron security door. Inside the museum now, nearly 300 workers and scholars are repairing and renovating the interiors and cataloging and restoring artifacts—not only those damaged in the rampage but also those stolen from archeological sites and turned in to the authorities. Though there are no plans to let the public into the museum—"I cannot risk opening this to anyone," says al-Dahab—Newsweek was invited to survey the ongoing work.

But despite the efforts in Baghdad, thousands of items that previously graced the museum are still missing, and this is a problem that afflicts many of Iraq's 12,000 archaeological sites - with only 2,000 dedicated staff assigned to guard the sites, it's hardly surprising that there has been such voracious stripping of their artifacts and other remains...

There are bright spots. When the violence eased in southern Iraq last year, archeologists began "rescue excavations" at 11 key historical sites that were being systematically looted. The newly unearthed finds, sent to the Baghdad museum, included a stone relief dedicated to the "god Shuda," a deity new to scholars. Iraq is pocked with 12,000 registered archeological sites, but there are fewer than 2,000 guards to protect them all.

The war, a weak Iraqi government and the thievery that continues to flourish have been devastating to future scholarship. "Many of these sites are so damaged I don't know if any archeologists are going to go back to them," says McGuire Gibson, president of the American Academic Research Institute in Iraq. "It'll be like trying to dig up lace."

And we close by considering the importance of Iraqi archaeology, and what it can tell us about some of the earliest kingdoms to have existed in the Middle East in the early stages of large-scale human urbanisation, and concomitant warfare...

Why should we care about a bunch of broken artifacts? Because Iraq may be the richest repository of information about our beginnings as civilized people. The great early epic "Gilgamesh" was pieced together from shards found by archeologists there; the ground is full of such clay tablets incised with cuneiform, the first writing. When sites are crushed by bulldozers or tanks—or when looters trash broken bits as worthless—who knows what other epics are lost? Or even little non-epics. Al-Dahab was thrilled to come across a small tablet incised with cuneiform describing a Babylonian wife furious with her husband for taking off with the kids. But her scholarly work takes a back seat to the basics: running water and air conditioning—the place has neither—and security, such as bomb-screening machines, should the building open to the public.

The piece closes with a plea to Donny George to return and continue the work he was carrying out, before he deemed Iraq to dangerous a place for him to adequately continue in his role as director at the museum.

see also: msnbc.com: 'Sayedat Al Warkaa' (Lady of Warka) - Recovered Intact

image of Warka Vase from here