- It is two years since looters ravaged one of the world's
most important museums, in central Baghdad.
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- Saddam Hussein's power had collapsed and the newly arrived
US-led coalition forces were unable to prevent a crime against history.
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- Professional smugglers connected to the international
antiquities mafia managed to break some of the sealed doors of the Baghdad
Museum storage rooms.
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- They looted priceless artefacts such as the museum's
entire collection of cylindrical seals and large numbers of Assyrian ivory
carvings.
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- More than 15,000 objects were taken. Many were smuggled
out of Iraq and offered for sale.
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- To date, 3,000 have been recovered in Baghdad, some returned
by ordinary citizens, others by the police. In addition, more than 1,600
objects have been seized in neighbouring countries, some 300 in Italy and
more than 600 in the United States.
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- Most of the stolen items are unaccounted for, but some
private collectors in the Middle East and Europe have admitted possessing
objects bearing the initials IM (Iraq Museum inventory number).
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- Ancient sites levelled
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- An ever-growing number of websites also offer Mesopotamian
artefacts - anywhere up to 7,000 years old - for sale.
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- Doubtless, there are more fake objects advertised on
the web than authentic ones, but the mere existence of this market has
fuelled the looting of archaeological sites in southern Iraq.
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- The picture there is appalling. More than 150 Sumerian
cities dating back to the fourth millennium BC - such as Umma, Umm al-Akkareb,
Larsa and Tello - lie destroyed, turned into crater-filled landscapes of
shredded pottery and broken bricks.
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- If properly excavated, these cities - covering an estimated
20 sq km - could help us learn about the development of the human race.
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- But the looters have destroyed ancient monuments, erasing
the region's history in a tireless search for a cylinder seal, a sculpture
or a cuneiform tablet that they can sell to a dealer for a few dollars.
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- It is tough, poorly paid work carried out by jobless
Iraqis with no way of earning a better income.
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- "A cylinder seal or a cuneiform tablet brings in
under $50 on the site for the looter," explains the archaeologist
responsible for the district of Nasiriya, Abdul Amir Hamadani.
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- "It's a disaster that we are all witnessing and
observing, but which we can do little to prevent. With the help of 200
newly recruited police officers we are trying to stop the looting by patrolling
the sites as often as possible.
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- "But we are now all alone. Italian carabinieri troops
were the only coalition forces that actively worked on this issue for a
few months. They used to patrol the region by land and from the sky. They
have stopped all their operations and are now simply helping train policemen
and guards."
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- Heavy boots
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- Coalition forces have themselves damaged archaeological
sites by using them as military bases.
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- The withdrawal of coalition troops from Babylon has revealed
irreversible damage to one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
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- An alarming report by the keeper of the British Museum's
Near East department, Dr John Curtis, describes how areas in the middle
of the archaeological site were levelled to create a landing area for helicopters
and parking lots for heavy vehicles.
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- "They caused substantial damage to the Ishtar Gate,
one of the most famous monuments from antiquity," he wrote.
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- "US military vehicles crushed 2,600-year-old brick
pavements, archaeological fragments were scattered across the site, more
then 12 trenches were driven into ancient deposits and military earth-moving
projects contaminated the site for future generations of scientists.
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- "Add to all that the damage caused to nine of the
moulded brick figures of dragons in the Ishtar Gate by people trying to
remove the bricks from the wall."
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- There will be no end to the destruction of Iraq's heritage,
unless the country's leaders take a political decision to consider archaeology
a priority.
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- For this, the ring of dealers in Baghdad has to be seized,
looting in the south has to be effectively confronted and coalition forces
have to be prevented from setting up base on archaeological sites.
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- The longer Iraq finds itself in a state of war, the more
the cradle of civilization is threatened.
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- It may not even last long enough for our grandchildren
to learn from.
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- - Joanne Farchakh Bajjaly is an independent archaeologist
and journalist covering the Middle East, who has been studying Iraqi heritage
for the last seven years.
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- © BBC MMV
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- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4461755.stm
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