Assyriologi - om oldtidens Irak, og den irakiske kulturarv

Irak-krigen har været en katastrofe for Iraks før-islamiske kulturarv.

Arkæologiske sites er bogstavligt talt blevet gennemhullet af røvere på jagt efter genstande, der - ofte på bestilling - kan afsættes til rige samlere i Vesten.

Resultatet: De gamle byhøje er forvandlede til nøgne månelandskaber; frarøvet den rige kulturarv, som de har bevaret i årtusinder.

For forskningen betyder det en uoprettelig skad. Historie uden kontekst!

Uden at vide, hvor og i hilken sammenhæng, som genstandene har indgået, bliver vi frataget den unikke mulighed, som vi har for at studere en af menneskehedens ældste højkulturer. Det avr her, at byer og skrift første gang så dagens lys for over 5000 år siden.

Her kan du se en film, om situationen i Irak: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3519855663545752103&q=The+Real+Iraq%3A&pr=goog-sl


The Ministry of Culture announces the opening of the Iraqi museum early next year

The Ministry of Culture announces the opening of the Iraqi museum early next year

Iraqi national-WNA / Baghdad office / A source from the Ministry of Culture said, that the ministry has set up a committee to re-open the Iraqi museum and to provide the necessary supplies, security and to rearrange again.
The Iraqi Museum has been subjected to looting after the fall of the previous regime, where the number of artifacts stolen from the museum was more than eight thousand assorted pieces.
The source pointed out that the Iraqi museum will be re-opening early next year through the provision of electronic protection and iron gates.
He stressed that the museum was able to rehabilitate some of the artifacts and will be showing more than (70) thousand pieces in all museum halls.
He pointed out that the opening of the museum will be a major event which will reflect the good image of the reality of the new Iraq.

That's the whole story from WNA News
http://www.wna-news.com/inanews/news.php?item.1655.15

-Chuck Jones-

Out of Iraq: Artists' Meditations on Their Homeland

Review by Hashim Al-Tawil in The Arab American News of an exhibit: "Out of Iraq: Artists' Meditations on Their Homeland," currently appearing at the National Arab merican Museum (NAAM) in Dearborn.

http://www.arabamericannews.com/newsarticle.php?articleid=7106

-Chuck Jones-

Iraq Schools Disintegrate Under Assault Of Uncivil War

"Iraq Schools Disintegrate Under Assault Of Uncivil War"
By Solomon Moore, Los Times
Published on 12/17/2006 in Nation, World » National News

Baghdad, Iraq — Iraq's schools, long touted by American officials as a success story in a land short on successes, increasingly are being caught in the crossfire of the country's escalating civil war. President Bush has routinely talked about the efurbishment and construction of schools as a neglected story of progress in Iraq. The U.S. Agency for International Development has spent about $100 million on Iraq's education system and cites the rehabilitation of 2,962 school buildings as a signal accomplishment. But today, across the country, campuses are being shuttered, students and teachers driven from their classrooms and parents left to worry that a generation of traumatized children will go without education..."

http://tinyurl.com/ymuysz
or
http://www.theday.com/re.aspx?re=2578b6af-5d7c-4631-b570-f3561faa270d

-Chuck Jones-

Treasure seeker finds new paradise

Treasure seeker finds new paradise
An antiquities expert from Iraq becomes a visiting scholar
BY OLIVIA WINSLOW
Newsday Staff Writer

December 14, 2006

The tipping point for Donny George came the day last summer his sister found a letter with a bullet in it in the driveway of their mother's home in Baghdad.

George, an antiquities expert recently recruited for the faculty of Stony Brook University, said the letter threatened to kidnap and behead his son Martin, 17, for allegedly "cursing Islam and teasing Muslim girls," unless he apologized and paid a $1,000 fine.

"The letter also mentioned his father was working with the Americans," said George.

George already was disenchanted with what he said was his diminishing authority as director general of the National Museum in Baghdad and president of the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage, so he decided it was time to leave. He retired in August from his positions, and he and his family fled to Damascus, Syria.

George, 56, accompanied by his wife, Najat Daniel Sarkees and Martin, his youngest son, has now settled in Port Jefferson Station. He will shortly assume his duties as a visiting professor at Stony Brook.

George had drawn international acclaim for his efforts to safeguard Iraq's remaining artifacts and track down those that were looted in the aftermath of the American-led invasion in March 2003. At Stony Brook, he will teach about the archeology of Mesopotamia and the cultural heritage of Iraq. He also plans to conduct archeological
research, and he is relieved to be here. Stony Brook and Long Island are "a part of paradise here," he said. "You are a blessed people."

George said he also hoped to give a seminar about life in occupied Iraq.

"Every single day there are hundreds of people being killed," George said. "Unfortunately, it is very damaging to the image of the United States that they first had when they got rid of Saddam Hussein ... Everyone is surprised that this superpower cannot control this," he said of the escalating sectarian violence.

George plans to continue his work to support the recovery of precious cultural artifacts. "Working and supporting, that means tracking the looted materials, helping Iraqi institutions stand up and helping the Iraqis working in this field to be trained at a very good institution like Stony Brook," George said.

His arrival at Stony Brook stems from his long association with anthropology professor Elizabeth Stone. For decades, she has conducted archeological field work in Iraq and more recently, with an $11-million grant from the United States Agency for International Development, has worked with Iraqis to help rebuild
higher education there. That effort has brought some Iraqi faculty and students to Stony Brook for training. George has visited the university twice before.

In Iraq, George traced some of his untenable position to his minority status as a Christian in a Muslim nation. Stony Brook officials were also concerned about his safety. They secured $10,000 from the Scholar Rescue Fund, a program of the Institute of International Education, to help finance his appointment. Stone calls George a "first-rate Mesopotamian anthropologist."

"When I knew that he was running into trouble, I e-mailed [university president] Shirley [Strum] Kenny," Stone said. "I said, 'Can we be his parachute?' and she said yes."

Kenny called George "a great addition to an incredible anthropology department here," who "makes Stony Brook important, in terms of ancient cultures of the Middle East."

George said about 15,000 artifacts were stolen from Iraq's National Museum in 2003. He said about 4,000 of them have been recovered. He said that around 17,000 objects looted from archeological sites in Iraq were returned but, unlike the museum objects, those were not numbered. "The big question," he said, "is how many other thousands were lost and [are] now filling the illicit markets of antiquities in Europe, Japan and the U.S.?"

Antikvitetshandel på det sorte marked

"dpa German Press Agency
Published: Wednesday December 13, 2006

Baghdad- Iraqi authorities have challenged the legality of an auction of what they claim are two "stolen" ancient Sumerian artefacts, but German customs officials said the Munich sale had already taken place and could not be stopped. A customs investigator told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that a complaint was received inside Germany and an investigation carried out, but authorities concluded they had been no legal power to halt the sale, which became final on Tuesday.

One item sold was a 227-millimetre-tall, headless limestone statue of a Sumerian man that dates back to 2500 BC. The other was an 117mm-long nail made of clay which bears Sumerian inscriptions dating back to King Shulagi of the Ur dynasty in 2097-2095 BC..."

http://rawstory.com/news/2006/Iraq_challenges_German_auction_of_S_12132006.html

-Chuck Jones-
Athens

Friends and colleagues,

The latest news from Dr. Saad Eskander, Director-General of the Iraq National Library and Archive, is that he and the department heads have met. Despite the fact that the security situation is not one whit better than it has been of late, they have decided to re-open their institution. Dr. Eskander has divided the librarians and archivists into two groups; each group will work a three-day week, permitting access throughout the week. As he put it in an e-mail ,communication, "We all felt that it was vital to serve our people regardless of the security situation." Given that all citizens of Baghdad--and other places in Iraq--face many challenges simply trying to make their way, day to day, our Iraqi colleagues deserve sympathy, admiration, and honor for risking their lives in service of their institution and the commonweal.

Jeff
--
******************************
Jeffrey B. Spurr
Islamic and Middle East Specialist
Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture
Fine Arts Library, Harvard University
Fogg Art Museum
32 Quincy St.
Cambridge, MA 02138-3802
Phone: (617) 495-3372
Fax: (617) 496-4889

http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/finearts/collections/agakhan.html
http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/finearts/islamicclass/index.html
http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/finearts/collections/semitic.html
http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/finearts/collections/semitic_access.html
http://archnet.org/lobby.tcl
http://archnet.org/library/documents/one-document.tcl?document_id=6041
http://archnet.org/library/documents/one-document.tcl?document_id=6042

From http://www.wna-news.com/inanews/news.php?item.1175.15

Thieves threaten the Elimination of the Sumerian civilization in Dhi-Qar

Iraqi national- WNA / Office of Dhi-Qar / report / Since the beginning of the war on Iraq and the archeological sites in Iraq are subjected to theft, voices rise and demand an end to cross-border smuggling operations.

The Administrator of archeological Inspectorate of Dhi-Qar Abdul Amir Al-Hamadani believes that thieves threaten the Elimination of the Sumerian civilization of southern Iraq, where the stronghold of civilizations in the world.

But today, the cradle of humanity is in danger, and they are subjected to looters of archaeological sites since the start of the war, and in a way that it exceeded all of the robberies that were exposed too in its history, which extends for thousands of years.

Al-Hamadani pointed "that the number of archaeological sites within the boundaries of Dhi-Qar exceed 800, each territory has seen eras of civilization starting from the era of pre-history to the late Islamic era. In some locations there are 18 civilization layers.

Al-Hamadani pointed that the risks the cradle of civilizations exposed too are many, but no one is trying to save what can be saved only Archeological Inspectorate of the province, which is concentrated at the present time to provide protection for sites registered on the archaeological map

A number of new sites had been discovered not included in the archeological map, which was flooded with water in the form of partial or total or was inaccessible because they are located in remote areas. "Sites targeted by thieves extended to the right and left of the old course of the Euphrates (and Mesopotamia), located
on a border strip between the four provinces of southern Iraq",

According to Al-Hamadani, a 100 civilian guard employed to report on abuses occurring in near locations. There is a monument protection taskforce and they provide 25% of its members with weaponries.

Al-Hamadani added: "The work of these armed guards is based on the protection of monuments during patrols around the clock. But they do not possess the necessary cars to do their job well, they only possess nine cars operating in the four hubs of the province, this number is insufficient, especially with the increasing number of
archaeological sites.

"The task force is "to deter those looters", Al-Hamadani said. He also added that "some people of the area, but they're not inherently as thieves looking for opportunities to the exhumation of archaeological sites and dug", Then, "comes smugglers and dealers from away provinces like Karbala, Baghdad and the Kurdistan
region and pay large amounts of money for the exhumed antiquities.

This consumes the area of its cultural heritage. There might be museums worldwide seeking to obtain these parts at any price because the Sumerian civilization is a unique civilization, the rise in the prices of these items with the passage of time is high and they will be sold at exorbitant prices in the world markets in both the United States and Europe. And with the lack of real protection of this World Heritage, the old towns destroyed and their archeological pieces scattered.

It should be noted that the fear is growing that the trade of archeological pieces will eradicate completely the Sumerian civilization. During the last three years, destroyed and vandalized more than one hundred archaeological site, and if the Iraqi government or occupation forces will not provide necessary support in the near future, the humanity will lose an important part of its civilizations memories.

Donny George, former director of National Museum in Baghdad

Stony Brook Hires Baghdad Museum Director
by Randy Kennedy

Donny George, who directed the National Museum in Baghdad and became a vocal advocate for protecting Iraqi antiquities before leaving his post recently and fleeing to Syria, has been hired as a visiting professor at Stony Brook University on Long Island, the university announced. Mr. George became the international face of the plight of ancient artifacts in Iraq, many of which have been stolen or destroyed since the war began in 2003, but left his job in August after telling colleagues that he felt threatened.

Mr. George, a Christian, was a midlevel official in the Baath Party under Saddam Hussein’s government and could have been the target of a revenge campaign by conservative Shiites, American officials said at the time. Beginning next semester, Mr. George will teach two courses, “The Archaeology of Mesopotamia” and “The Cultural Heritage of Iraq.” He will also conduct archaeological research. His appointment was sponsored by Stony Brook and the Scholar Rescue Fund, a program run by the Institute of International Education to provide refuge to persecuted scholars.

"The Looting of Antiquities in Iraq Today: What is to be done?"

December 8, 2006 at 2:30 PM
University of Chicago Paris Center
6 rue Thomas Mann, Paris 13eme
Metro: Bibliothèque François Mitterrand (Line 14 and RER C)
Information: sgreppo@uchicago.edu

Responding to the disastrous looting of the Iraq National Museum and subsequent massive and ongoing pillaging of Mesopotamian archaeological sites, the Cultural Policy Center at the University of Chicago is undertaking an initiative try to improve policies and legal regimes to better protect cultural heritage from looting in the aftermath of armed conflict. As part of that effort, the Chicago Paris Center is hosting a roundtable discussion with experts focusing on what is happening now in Iraq to that country's museums and archaeological sites, what the prospects ahead are, and what efforts are -- and are not -- being made to deal with the crisis.

Participants include:

* Neil Brodie, Research Director, Illicit Antiquities Research Centre,
Cambridge University.

* Lt. Col. Joris D. Kila, Network Manager for Cultural Affairs with the
Civil-Military Co-operation (CIMIC) of the Netherlands Army and advisor for International Cultural Heritage.

* Guido Carducci, Chief, International Standards Section, Culture
Sector, UNESCO

* Gaetano Palumbo, Director of Archaeological Conservation Africa,
Europe, the Middle East, and Central Asia, World Monuments Fund.

* Anna Paolini, Program Specialist for Middle East Countries, Museum
Section, Division of Cultural Heritage, UNESCO

The roundtable will be moderated by Lawrence Rothfield, Faculty Director
of the Cultural Policy Center and editor of Preventing Post-Combat Looting of

Antiquities:
Learning the Lessons of Iraq (forthcoming from Alta Mira Press in 2007).

--
**************************************
Professor Lawrence Rothfield
Faculty Director
Cultural Policy Center
University of Chicago
1155 E. 60th Street
Chicago, IL 60637
(773) 702-7302

Visit the Cultural Policy Center website at http://culturalpolicy.uchicago.edu/