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IRAQ-CULTURE: War Could Wipe Out Ancient History
By Diego Cevallos - Tierramérica*
MEXICO CITY, Apr 8 (IPS) - When the U.S.-led war against Iraq finally ends,
experts in archaeology and ancient culture will have the bitter task of
assessing what damage bombs and missiles have wrought on the vestiges of
millennia-old history in the cradle of Western civilisation.
Since March 20, thousands of bombs have been dropped on the land that
tradition has identified as the biblical - Garden of Eden" and the departure
point of the prophet Abraham who sought the Promised Land.
There, where remnants of the Tower of Babel can be found, writing was
created, the wheel and glass were invented, and mathematics and other
sciences were developed - the foundations of Western culture.
ôThey aren't fighting near just any important place, but in the middle of
the richest and most extraordinary cultural heritage on the planet,"
archaeologist Nicolo Marchetti, a Middle East expert at the University of
Bologna-Italy, commented in a conversation with Tierramérica.
Bombs and missiles fall relentlessly on government palaces, ministries and
public buildings in Baghdad and other cities along the Tigris River, which
fed the West's earliest cultures: the Assyrian, Babylonian and Sumerian.
Apparently the result of error, the bombardments have hit markets, hospitals
and even a maternity ward in the capital. There is nothing to indicate that
the country's historic wealth has not also been affected.
Iraqi territory is estimated to hold 10,000 archaeological sites with
artefacts and constructions that have yet to be studied and countless
secrets to decipher.
Much of the country's treasures are in Mosul Nasiriya and Tikrit, three
cities that have been bombed heavily by the invading forces.
As the U.S.-British offensive began, Iraqi officials rushed to erect
barricades around the National Museum of Iraq, home to the oldest cuneiform
tablets (with the world's first writing) and the largest collection of
Mesopotamian pieces, dating back 6,000 years.
But the efforts to protect the museum may have been in vain. It is set in
the central Salihyia district of Baghdad, just 700 m from the foreign
ministry building that was reduced to rubble. Some say it will be a miracle
if bombs do not level the museum in the coming days.
McGuire Gibson, of the University of Chicago and considered the leading U..S.
authority on Mesopotamian archaeology, takes a philosophical approach,
saying ôwar is war" and just about anything could happen to those sites.
Before March 20, when the attacks began, Gibson and other experts met with
officials from the Pentagon (U.S. Defence Department) to inform them about
Iraq's most valuable cultural sites.
The Pentagon had a list of 150 important locations. The academic experts
handed over a list of more than 4,000 and insisted that they represented
just a small percentage of Iraq's rich heritage.
Twelve years ago, during the first Gulf War, the United States also held
information about this cultural wealth, but that did not prevent the
destruction from occurring.
In the crossfire are legendary cities. For example, Mosul, intensely bombed
to destroy Iraqi missile launch sites, is home to the Nur ad-Din mosque,
built in 1170.
Close by are the ruins of the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh, the largest
archaeological site of the East, covering 750 hectares. And Nimrud, with its
beautiful palaces, like that of King Ashurnasirpal II.
The list is long, and the new discoveries are ongoing in Iraq, also seen as
giving rise to Eastern civilisation.
The experts warn that knowledge could be lost forever if bombs hit historic
sites. And even if they escape harm, in the chaos of war they are vulnerable
to looting, says Gibson.
As the war thunders on, historians, archaeologists and experts in ancient
cultures feel as if their hands are tied.
ôNow we are only distant witnesses to what occurs," Mounir Bouchenaki,
assistant director of culture at UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scienti
fic and Cultural Organisation), told Tierramérica.
The UN agency is preparing a working group to travel to Iraq once the war is
over.
The only weapons UNESCO has to protect world historic heritage are the
commitments signed by various countries, but which do not include mechanisms
with ôteeth" to force compliance.
Bouchenaki hopes that the parties to the conflict respect the Convention for
the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, in
effect since 1956, a reaction to the devastation of art and historic sites
in Europe during the Second World War.
ôIt is in the interest of everyone to protect works of art, because even
from the perspective of propaganda, no one wants to be seen as the
destroyer," Miguel Angel Elvira, director of Spain's Archaeological Museum,
told Tierramérica.
The U.S. military, he commented, will not want to destroy ôelements evoking
the Christian tradition of the West."
Archaeologist Marchetti is not so optimistic. ôI have the impression that
the damage is already widespread and that, frankly, nothing can be done."
ôWar has its own logic and follows its own path," he lamented.
Prior to the 1991 Gulf War, experts agreed in acknowledging that Iraq had a
laudable record in preserving its ancient artefacts and cultural heritage.
But after the war, that point of view changed. The conflict, in which a
U.S.-led military coalition forced Iraq to withdraw from neighbouring
Kuwait, was centred on bombardments, not the massive influx of troops into
the heart of Iraq.
The damage to historic sites sent an alarm throughout the world of cultural
experts.
Bombs destroyed millennia-old bridges in Baghdad and seriously damaged
historic structures in the capital, like the 13th century Mustansiriya, the
Kaplannya mosque and the Archaeological Museum of Iraq, one of the leading
such institutions in the world.
Once a ceasefire was established, looting and vandalism of museums and
libraries multiplied as a consequence of internal conflicts.
Iraq's General Directorate of Antiquities reported that 13 museums were
seriously damaged in the war. Nine would require restoration and the others
reconstruction. Six libraries were destroyed.
Nearly all of the artefacts taken out of Iraq - clay tablets, ivory
carvings, metal utensils, illuminated Islamic manuscripts, jewellery, gold
and silver coins, statues and ceramics û have ended up on the clandestine
market of art and archaeology.
In 1994, experts from around the world, including many from the United
States, gathered in Baghdad and mourned the destruction of history as they
found that war had resulted in at least 3,500 catalogued artefacts being
spirited out of the country.
One can only expect more dramatic losses to be reported when they gather
again after this war, which is proving to be much more lethal and
devastating.
* Tierramérica is a specialised news service (www.tierramerica.net) produced
by IPS with the backing of the United Nations Development Programme and the
United Nations Environment Programme.
(Carla Maldonado/Italy, Haider Rizvi/United States and Lidia Hunter/Spain
contributed to this report.)
(END/2003)
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