| |
NEW PAGE: Rebuilding heritage . Here we list media reports and governmental and institutional press releases on intiatives to rectify the damage done to Iraqi cultural heritage as a consequence of war.
UPDATES: The original aim of this website, in February-March 2003, was to warn of the dangers to cultural heritage during and after a war in Iraq. In the event, the disaster was far worse, and happened far faster, than we ever imagined. It has proved beyond our scope to maintain the website as a news source past the end of April 2003. For more up-to-date information, try Francis Deblauwe's Iraq War and Archaeology site or the Iraqcrisis discussion list run by Chuck Jones at the University of Chicago.
Although in Iraq to date UNESCO has acknowledged only one World Heritage site (Hatra), this is perhaps because the whole country should be so designated. Iraq is often described as the cradle of civilization, and the country is thickly dotted with the remains of thousands of villages, towns and cities.
In 1990 the hostilities affected a number of archaeological sites. Rocket or shell fire damaged the brickwork of the ziggurrat at Ur (constructed in 2100 BC and restored around 550 BC). American troops were probably also responsible for minor looting at the site of Ur itself. Cracks appeared in the arch at Ctesiphon (Taq Kisra, dating to the 4th century AD and until last century the largest single span vault in the world). Traditional houses on the citadel at Kerkuk were destroyed by bombing.
In a ground confrontation the greatest danger to archaeological sites is posed by the fact that their mounds, which can be 30m high and extend over kilometres are often the only raised features on the southern alluvial plain, and therefore liable to be adopted by combatants for various purposes. With modern machinery an entire 6000 year old village can be recycled into a defensive earthwork in a day or two, and even old-fashioned trenches, which were much used in the last hostilities, can do irreparable damage to sites of paramount interest. Since the foreign troops did not significantly penetrate the inhabited sector of the southern Iraqi plain, the only example known to us is at Tell al-Lahm south of Ur, where extensive damage was done by American bulldozers. Another example of what can happen is provided by the ancient city of Der, modern Tell Aqar, which was converted into a military emplacement by the Iraqi army during the Iraq-Iran war. The trenching cut through the 4500 year old main temple uncovering unique statues and completely destroying their architectural context.
A further risk is that archaeological trenches may be mistaken from the air for military emplacements. We do not have documented instances of this happening in 1990, but again in the 1980's the excavated site of Godin Tepe in western Iran was attacked from the air causing considerable damage to the 5000 year old excavated remains.
However, the chief potential casualty from modern explosives is standing architecture. One of the surviving ancient churches of Mosul (10th century) was partly destroyed in 1990. There are others equally old and at risk, not to mention a number of monasteries in the district some of which date back to the 4th Century AD. The minarets of the mediaeval mosques of Mosul and other cities are structurally very vulnerable, but entire mosques are of course at risk. Quite apart from the architectural and historical value of such structures, in Iraq the destruction of places of worship has been viewed with particular abhorrence since at least 2400 BC, and should be avoided with the utmost care.
Iraq's few surviving old bridges must be imperilled, as must the few mediaeval and earlier forts, being self-evidently military structures. Unlike Egypt, Iraq does not have many standing monuments in stone, the principal example being the Parthian city of Hatra, but several ancient capital cities have been excavated with their palaces and temples uncovered, in Assyria with sculptured reliefs lining the walls (especially at Nineveh [Kouyunjik] and Nimrud).
Last, but not least, there are the museums. In 1990 the portable contents of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad were transferred to another site, from where they have since been returned; we do not know if similar measures have been taken this time, although they have reportedly in Mosul. The destruction of the Iraq Museum would be an appalling loss to the world. The majority of all archaeological finds made in the country since its foundation in 1920 are stored there. As well as individual items of stunning beauty and importance from successive civilizations (Sumerian, Babylonian, Assyrian, Islamic), it shelters huge archives of cuneiform documents, many still unpublished, excavated by Iraqi and foreign expeditions: these include the earliest written archives in the world from Uruk, Sumerian literary texts from the schools of ancient Mesopotamia from 2500 down to 1600 BC, and the 4th century BC temple library of Sippar.
There are also museums in most of the Governorates, stocked with representative but still extremely valuable exhibits selected from the central collections in Baghdad. In 1990-91 several of these were looted in the aftermath of the withdrawal from Kuwait. Chests of manuscripts were recovered scattered across a hillside near Kerkuk. Finds in the Dohuk Museum were ground underfoot, and extremely few of the 4000 lost pieces have been identified on the world's art markets. The contents of the Nasiriyyah Museum were rescued by the courageous action of its woman Director who defied looters at the front door while a lorry was loaded at the back. We cite these instances to illustrate the danger which attends the breakdown of law and order which can so easily result from military action.
There follows a list of some of the principal historic buildings and archaeological sites which we deem to be most at risk in the event of armed incursion or aerial bombardment. Within site categories the lists are broadly arranged from NW to SE. The maps incorporate the work of Helen McDonald, but were prepared for a different purpose and do not show sites after the time of Alexander the Great. Latitude and longitude co-ordinates are taken from the Gazetteer of sites in M.D. Roaf, Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East, and should be taken as approximate.
Clicking on the name of a site or monument in the list will take you to the relevant map; and doing the same on the map will take you back to the list. Or you can use the BACK button or key on your browser to return to this page. Alternatively you can view the maps by following the links at the top of this page. Similarly, you can follow the [photo] links, returning with theBACK button or key, or browse them via the index of photos.
Created on 1 March 2003 for JNP by ER, last updated 31 May 2003. © JNP. For further information please contact Professor Nicholas Postgate jnp10@cam.ac.uk or Dr Eleanor Robson eleanor.robson@all-souls.ox.ac.uk.
