Losing Iraqs Treasures

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Losing Iraqs Treasures

• Iraq National Museum victim falls victim to
  looters

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Shattered glass and cracked pottery bowls
littered the floor

• The famous Iraq National Museum sat virtually
  empty Saturday.
• Most of the looting occurred Thursday. Looters
  came in with wheelbarrows and carts to steal
  priceless artifacts.

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Why is this museum so important?

• Housed in the museum was the history of a nation
  and artifacts from 7000 years of human
  civilization.
• These were important clues to how our
  civilization began.
• John Russell, professor of art history and
  archaeology at the Massachusetts College of Art,
  said, These are the foundational cornerstones of
  Western civilization.

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Examples of some of the museums treasures

• Tablets containing Hammurabis code, which was
  one of
• Mankinds earliest codes of law.
• Ram in Thicket from Ur, a statue of a deity
• from 2600 B.C.
• Pieces from the Babylonian, Sumerian, and
• Assyrian collections
• Gold bowls, drinking cups, ritual masks worn in
  funerals,
• Elaborately wrought headdresses,
• lyres studded with jewels, etc.

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Why wasnt the museum protected?

• Before the war began, museum curators actually
  hid many antiquities in storage vaults.

• But..the vault doors were
• opened or smashed and
• everything was gone.
• this suggests that museum
• employees may have been
• involved. One employee said,
• Only educated people know the
• value of these pieces.

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Voices of concern
Koichiro Matusuura, head of UNs cultural agency,
asked US officials to send troops to protect the
remains of the museums collection. She said,
the military should step in to stop looting and
destruction At other key archaeological sites
and museums.
Governments from Russia, Jordan, and Greece also
urged the UN to protect historic sites, saying
they are a national treasure for the Iraqi
people and an invaluable heritage for the Arab
and Islamic worlds.
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Who is being blamed?

• Some blame US Military, stressing that the forces
  could have taken steps to protect important
  sites.
• Museum employee in tears said, It is all the
  fault of the Americans. This is Iraqs
  civilization. And it is all gone now.

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Even Americans blame America
Patty Gerstenblith, professor at DePaul School of
Law in Chicago says, It was completely
inexcusable and avoidable. She feels that
Americans could have protected the
museum, because they knew it was at risk. In
fact, before the war even began she helped
circulate a petition asking for protection of
Iraqi antiquities.
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What will happen to the stolen treasures?
Most pieces will be sold to private collectors on
the black market. Some of the gold artifacts
will be melted down. Could they be
recovered? Not likely. Some regional museums
were looted after the Gulf War in 1991. About
4000 pieces were lost and only 3 or 4 have Been
recovered.
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War has many casualties and the looting of the
Iraq National Museum is a loss for the Iraqi
people and for the rest of the world. Gordon
Newby, a historian and professor of Middle
Eastern studies at Emory University in Atlanta,
sums up the loss, This is just one of the most
tragic things that could happen for our being
able to understand the past. The looting is
destroying the history of the very people that
are there.
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Abbys PowerPoint information
I found the information for this PowerPoint
presentation in an article Entitled, Looters hit
national museum. It was written by Jerome Delay
for USA Today. I found it on their website
www.usatoday.com. It was posted 4/12/2003. The
URL that will Take you directly to the article
is www.usatodaycom/news/world/iraq/2003-04-12-war
-artifacts_x.htm