Looting of Iraq's Past: A Preview: Catastrophe! at Oriental Institute Explores Destruction of Sites
Today, April 10th, 2008, marks the 5th anniversary of the looting of the Iraqi Museum in Baghdad, in which not only were thousands of artifacts carefully stolen from one part of the museum, but thousands of others were destroyed in a wanton act of senseless destruction. This happened during the first days of the US led invasion of Iraq in 2003, despite warnings from many Iraqi archaeologists and officials that there was a grave danger that such looting might happen, both at the museum and elsewhere across Iraq. But before we get into that, here are the details of the exhibition referred to above, as well an event planned for this evening, mentioned herein...
The looting of the Iraq Museum was widely publicized in the international press. However, it is less well known that ongoing looting of archaeological sites poses an even greater threat to the cultural heritage of Iraq. The exhibit “Catastrophe! The Looting and Destruction of Iraq’s Past” and the April 12 symposium (pdf) examine the ongoing destruction and looting of Iraq’s cultural heritage.
Iraq, ancient Mesopotamia, is the cradle of civilization, the region that spawned the seminal inventions of writing, the calendar, the wheel, and even the concept of cities. The history of the world quite literally begins in Mesopotamia, making the loss of its cultural patrimony a loss for all humanity.
Archaeologists involved with the exhibit include McGuire Gibson, University of Chicago Professor of Mesopotamian Archaeology, Geoff Emberling, Director of the Oriental Institute Museum, and exhibit co-curator, Katharyn Hanson
The exhibit is organized around the following themes:
- The importance of archaeology to history and identity: Why does the past matter? What can it tell us about ourselves and our community?
- Looting and damage to archaeological sites: dramatic photographs, including recent satellite images, show illicit looting and destruction of sites.
- The threat of war: combat damage and the more significant construction damage being done by the US military at important sites including Babylon, Ur, and Samarra
- The importance of archaeological context: how much context can tell us about an object and about the culture from which it came.
- Looted artifacts: the routes that looted artifacts take from Iraq to art markets around the world, and where seizures have been made.
- The Iraq Museum five years later: what in fact was looted and the progress of recovery efforts to date.
- What has been done and what can be done? The exhibit examines what efforts are and can be made to stem the looting of archaeological sites in Iraq and on a local and national level throughout the world
A goal of the exhibit is to encourage people to think about the importance of archaeology and cultural heritage throughout the world, to ask questions such as: Why is archaeology important? What does the past mean to me, my family, my community and my nation? What can be done to preserve the past? How can individuals and communities as well as larger bureaucratic organizations safeguard the records of the past?
Related Events:
Thursday, April 10 at 6:30 pm: Opening of the exhibit at the Oriental Institute will feature a lecture by University of Chicago Professor of Mesopotamian Archaeology, McGuire Gibson, followed by a candlelight vigil commemorating the five years since the looting of the Museum in Baghdad. The vigil is one of many being held throughout the world, coordinated by SAFE (Saving Antiquities for Everyone), a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving cultural heritage worldwide. Free and open to the public.
- McGuire Gibson, Professor of Mesopotamian Archaeology, University of Chicago
- Geoff Emberling, Director, Oriental Institute Museum, University of Chicago
- Donny George, former Director, the Iraq National Museum, Baghdad
- John Russell, Professor of Art, Massachusetts College, former Deputy and Senior Advisor of Culture for the Coalition Provisional Authority (2003-2004)
- Elizabeth Stone, Professor of Mesopotamian Archaeology at SUNY Stonybrook University, New York
- Patty Gerstenblith, noted authority on cultural property at De Paul University College of Law
The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago is one of the world’s leading research centers for the study of the history, languages, and cultures of ancient Iraq. The forerunner of the Institute first conducted excavations in Iraq in 1903. Since its founding in 1919, the Oriental Institute has been on the forefront of Middle Eastern archaeology, undertaking excavations throughout the area.
The Institute is home to the greatest concentration of professional Mesopotamian scholars in the world, and its archive houses thousands of images of excavations and of artifacts, including objects recovered by University of Chicago archaeologists that are, or used to be, in the Iraq Museum.
The Oriental Institute Museum is located at 1155 East 58th Street, Chicago. The Museum is open Tuesday, Thursday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Wednesday from 10:00 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., and Sunday from noon to 6:00 p.m. Suggested donation for admission is $5 for adults, $2 for children. For information, call (773) 702-9514.
Whilst looking for a contemporary account of the events that took place in Baghdad in April 2003, as well as other equally bad events which took place at numerous other facilities such as government departments and hospitals etc, I came across this piece, 'Americans Defend Two Untouchable Ministries From The Hordes of Looters' by Robert Fisk, on April 14th, 2003, writing for The Independent, and from which the following is taken...
"Iraq's scavengers have thieved and destroyed what they have been allowed to loot and burn by the Americans – and a two-hour drive around Baghdad shows clearly what the US intends to protect.
After days of arson and pillage, here's a short but revealing scorecard. US troops have sat back and allowed mobs to wreck and then burn the Ministry of Planning, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Irrigation, the Ministry of Trade, the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Information.
They did nothing to prevent looters from destroying priceless treasures of Iraq's history in the Baghdad Archaeological Museum and in the museum in the northern city of Mosul, or from looting three hospitals.
The Americans have, though, put hundreds of troops inside two Iraqi ministries that remain untouched – and untouchable – because tanks and armoured personnel carriers and Humvees have been placed inside and outside both institutions. And which ministries proved to be so important for the Americans? Why, the Ministry of Interior, of course – with its vast wealth of intelligence information on Iraq – and the Ministry of Oil.
The archives and files of Iraq's most valuable asset – its oilfields and, even more important, its massive reserves – are safe and sound, sealed off from the mobs and looters, and safe to be shared, as Washington almost certainly intends, with American oil companies.
It casts an interesting reflection on America's supposed war aims. Anxious to "liberate" Iraq, it allows its people to destroy the infrastructure of government as well as the private property of Saddam's henchmen. Americans insist that the oil ministry is a vital part of Iraq's inheritance, that the oilfields are to be held in trust "for the Iraqi people".But is the Ministry of Trade – relit yesterday by an enterprising arsonist – not vital to the future of Iraq? Are the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Irrigation – still burning fiercely – not of critical importance to the next government? The Americans could spare 2,000 soldiers to protect the Kirkuk oilfields but couldn't even invest 200 to protect the Mosul museum from attack. US engineers were confidently predicting that the Kirkuk oilfield will be capable of pumping again "within weeks".
Actions, (or lack thereof) speak louder than words, and this damning indictment of the barbaric and irresponsible behaviour of the so-called liberators of Iraq shows the Bush administration's vociferous justification of their illegal invasion of Iraq in the name of freedom, to be the disgraceful sham that it was from the beginning, and continues to be into the present day.
A final word from TomDispatch, April 13th, 2003, and an article titled, "Our Heritage Is Finished", (which in fact refers to an article by Rajiv Chandrasekaran in the Washington Post, also called 'Our Heritage Is Finished'), the first part of which reads...
Even before the war began, the Bush administration swore to protect Iraq's "patrimony" for the Iraqi people. It turns out that the administration's definition of "patrimony" was exceedingly narrow, however. Hence, the military quickly put guards around the Oil Ministry and the intelligence offices in Baghdad, while much of official (and unofficial) Baghdad was looted.
As much as anything, a country's patrimony is its past. Imagine, in the wake of a war, looters breaking into the Smithsonian and making off with everything from the documents of the Founding Fathers and the earliest flags to Judy Garland's magic slippers (from the Wizard of Oz), or breaking into the Metropolitan in New York and stripping it bare of a significant part of the human artistic patrimony.
Actually, it's unimaginable - and yet that just happened in Baghdad with some of the most precious objects of our most ancient history, objects that stand in for life lived over 5,000 years ago, for where civilization and the city itself began. It's staggering to imagine.
Although there is at the moment little cause for optimism, it is to be hoped that by the time the 10th anniversary of the looting comes around, this situation will have improved to the extent that the robbing and destruction of Iraq's heritage has stopped and more artifacts are recovered - although it might be the case that the looting will only stop when there is nothing left to take - as alluded to by the Janis Joplin quote elsewhere in the article... "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose."
Book cover image at top, from here
see also : 'Stuff Happens' - The Looting of the Iraqi Museum - video/review
The Iraq War and Archaeology Blog
SAFE - Saving Antiquities For Everyone
NPR :: The Iraq War, Five Years Later
(via Anthro-L)
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