A Repatriation Only the Most Ardent Repatriationist Could Love

One can only hope one of the few Trump political appointees at the State Department takes a close look at the Obama Administration deal to repatriate the Iraqi Jewish Archive.  Such a repatriation would seem to be against everything America stands for.  Some of the materials were originally confiscated from Iraqi Jews who were forced to leave their country under Saddam Hussein.  Others appear to be taken from schools and synagogues after they left. All the material was stored in the basement of Iraqi secret police headquarters, and became waterlogged after the building was bombed during the liberation of Iraq.  The US Government spent considerable time and money restoring and digitizing them.  This is yet another situation where UNESCO's repatriationist dogma has been allowed to take precedence over not only the facts, but what is right.  The archive should not be returned to sectarian Iraq.  Or, at a minimum, the entire contents of the archive should be publicized so that individual Iraqi Jews can make claims on what is rightly the property of their own families.

Better Burned then Smuggled?

UNESCO and the Iraqi cultural bureaucracy are up in arms because some valuable Islamic manuscripts were removed from ISIS controlled Mosul and taken to Turkey. One wonders if UNESCO and the Iraqi cultural bureaucracy would rather have seen them burned by Islamic fanatics instead.

If anything, the rise of ISIS and the the devolution of the rest of Iraq into a Shia-dominated sectarian rump state also confirms the wisdom of keeping the Iraqi Jewish archive in the United States.

CPO was dubious about the archive's repatriation even before the wheels came off in Iraq.  Yet, CPO suspects there are still some in the archaeological lobby still pressing for the return of the archive to an uncertain fate.

This Era's Monuments Men

The Wall Street Journal has named CPRI President Arthur Houghton as a latter day "Monuments Man" for his work in helping to preserve Iraqi Cultural Sites from bombing during the Second Gulf War.  CPO congratulates Arthur for this well-deserved mention for this important work.

The Power of Artifacts

The National Archives has a selection of artifacts from the Iraqi Jewish Archive on view through January 5, 2014.  

After visiting the heart rendering display, CPO can attest that even in their damaged state, these artifacts retain a power to help us imagine a now vanished community.  Indeed, given all the indignities they've suffered, perhaps they are a bit too pristine.  Given their aged but clean condition, it's hard to imagine them as they were found-- waterlogged in the basement of Saddam's secret police headquarters.

And what of their ultimate fate?  What assurances do we have that Iraqi authorities will ensure they are preserved for future generations and made available to scholars and members of the exiled Jewish community?

Digitizing them may preserve what information they contain, but electronic copies are no substitute for the real thing that is of tangible cultural value to the Iraqi-Jewish Community in exile.  And looking at religious texts printed centuries ago in places like Vienna and Venice as well as all the items of a personal nature taken from deported Jews, any thinking person must really question the rights of the modern nation state of Iraq to these artifacts in the first place.

Can the Poignant Documents in the Iraqi Jewish Archive Warm Hearts of Stone?

Can the poignant documents in the Iraqi Jewish archive cause a rethink about the justice of the repatriationist position of those in the US State Department and its Cultural Heritage Center, the Iraqi Government and  hardliners within the archaeological community?  It seems not.  Instead, there is only silence, even in those reaches of the archaeological blogosphere which usually cannot pass up a chance to comment on any issue, large or small.

Schumer Seeks to Block Return of Jewish Artifacts

Senator Chuck Schumer, who was highly critical of the State Department's handling of import restrictions on cultural goods from China, has now sought to block the State Department's proposed repatriation of Jewish artifacts to Iraq. The New York Daily News quotes Senator Schumer as follows:

"These sacred artifacts were taken from the Iraqi Jewish community and thus do not belong to the Iraqi government,” the senior New York senator told the Daily News. “They belong to the thousands of Iraqi Jews, an ancient and once-vibrant community, who were exiled many years ago," Schumer said.


Will the State Department defy Senator Schumer yet again in pursuit of its Cultural Heritage Center's repatriationist agenda?

Chasing Saddam's Butt

UK police have arrested a British veteran and have charged him with trying to sell a piece of a Saddam statute given to him by US Marines following the fall of Baghdad. See http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jan/19/man-arrested-buttock-saddam-hussein-statue

The retired British special forces soldier had hoped to donate the proceeds to wounded veterans, but when the Iraqi Embassy got wind of the sale, they evidently demanded that British polices seize the item as their "cultural property."

The veteran has it right:

Describing the furore surrounding the buttock as farcical, Ely questioned how a piece of metal from a statue put up by a dictator could be classified as national cultural property.

The ex-soldier asked: "How can it be classed as cultural property when it was put up by the biggest tyrant since Attila the Hun?"

Ely believes that Iraqi officials decided to demand the return of the war relic after seeing media coverage of its value.

"American Marines gave it to me and at that time Baghdad was under American control," he added. "There wasn't even an Iraqi government and I have since turned it into a piece of war relic art.

"This is like having a chunk of the Berlin Wall – it's part of history but it's not cultural property."

Message to the Troops: Buy Old Guns, Not Old Coins?

The Philadelphia Inquirer has published an article on the AIA's efforts to preach to the troops not to purchase artifacts that are offered to them for sale by the local populace in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. See http://www.philly.com/inquirer/health_science/daily/20101126_Troops_headed_to_Iraq_get_lessons_in_ancient_artifacts_Iraq-bound_troops_get_lesson_in_ancient_artifacts.html?viewAll=y&c=y

The article commends a National Guard soldier for the "good move" of purchasing a copy Enfield Rifle from the locals rather than "old coins" or "bronze daggers" while on tour in Afghanistan. For more on "Khyber Pass Copy" weapons, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khyber_Pass_Copy

I'm all for teaching respect for ancient cultures, but I doubt a "zero tolerance" policy on the purchase of minor artifacts does much to either win the "hearts and minds" of the locals or to protect cultural patrimony. If anything, old coins that do not find a purchaser will likely be melted as scrap in poor countries like Afghanistan. That would be a greater tragedy in my opinion than some farmer digging them up in the first place. To consider the destruction of context to be worse as the AIA preaches depends on the false premise that Afghanistan or Iraq will host extensive archaeological excavations again sometime in the future, which at this point seems ludicrous. [More likely, the areas where these artifacts are found will never be professionally excavated for lack of funds or interest.] Meanwhile, the AIA and groups like SAFE are strangely silent about the prospect of a Chinese mining company blowing up a significant cultural site in Afghanistan in order to tap a copper vein. See http://sciencereligionnews.blogspot.com/2010/08/ancient-monastery-in-afghanistan-under.html and http://phdiva.blogspot.com/2010/11/buddhist-monastery-in-afghanistan.html That to me seems like a much greater potential cultural property tragedy than a soldier purchasing old coins or other "bric-a-brac" as the Philadelphia Inquirer describes it.

I also find it disturbing that the AIA continues to claim there is a link between subsistence digging and terrorism, when that inflammatory claim is not based on much hard evidence. See http://art-crime.blogspot.com/2010/11/arca-student-kim-alderman-presents.html (interview with attorney associated with preservation community).

If anything, it's far more likely that the soldier's purchase of an Enfield rifle will help pay for the seller's upgrade to an AK-47. Remember folks out there, old coins don't kill; guns do.

Addendum: Recent disclosures about the scale of Afghan corruption gleaned from diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks adds an additional gloss on this issue. See
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/03/world/asia/03wikileaks-corruption.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=cables%20afghanistan&st=cse It seems quite odd to promote efforts to preclude poor farmers from selling what artifacts they find on their own land at the same time that millions of aid dollars are leaving the country under suspicious circumstances.

Repatriated Iraqi Artifacts Go Missing

The New York Times reports that substantial numbers of artifacts repatriated to Iraq have gone missing. See http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/08/world/middleeast/08iraq.html?hp

A witch hunt ensued after the looting of the Iraqi National Museum that led to the repatriation of many artifacts, some of which at least probably never came from Iraq in the first place.

In Saddam's Iraq, Baathist leaders sometimes traded in stolen antiquities without interference. It is unclear whether the artifacts that are now missing have shared a similar fate or have just been temporarily misplaced.

Last year, one of the Iraqi Prime Minister's relatives was detained in Dubai with Sumerian artifacts he was allegedly trying to smuggle to the United States. See http://www.culturalpropertyobserver.blogspot.com/2009/10/iraqi-pms-relatives-are-said-to-be.html That story quickly disappeared from view, but perhaps this news item will prompt some additional investigation.

Jewish Archive to Return to Iraq Along with Other Baath Era Documents

The US State Department has again shown its preference for repatriation in its decision to return Jewish archives to Iraq, a nation that has hounded virtually all its own Jews out of the country. There was apparently no effort to return the artifacts to their true owners-- Iraqi Jews in exile.

Along with the Jewish archives, the State Department is also returning Saddam Hussein era documents to Iraq's Shia dominated government. One wonders if repatriationists in the archaeological community will rue the day they supported returning the document trove to the new Iraq. If history is any judge, Iraq's current Shia rulers will be tempted to use the documents to "out" collaborators with Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime. This at least potentially includes members of the archaeological community. Though many would probably now rather forget it, many Iraqi and certain Western archaeologists enjoyed an all too cozy relationship with the Iraqi dictator's government, which after all, used archaeology as a tool to butress its legitimacy.

Anyway, here is the story:

Iraq strikes deal with US for return of archives (AFP) - 2 hours ago BAGHDAD -

The United States has agreed to return millions of documents to Iraq, including Baghdad's Jewish archives, that were seized by the US military after the 2003 invasion, a minister said on Thursday.

The documents, which fill 48,000 containers, are currently being held by the US State Department, the National Archives and the Hoover Institute, a think-tank.

"We have reached an agreement with the United States, after negotiations with officials at the State Department and the Pentagon,over the return of the Jewish archives and millions of documents that were taken to America after the events of 2003," Deputy Culture Minister Taher Hamud said.

"The Jewish archives are important to us -- like the rest of the documents, it is a part of our culture and sheds light on the lives of the Jewish community," he told a news conference.

Iraq was home to a large Jewish community in ancient times but its members left en masse after the creation of Israel and the first Arab-Israeli war in 1948.

"Despite logistical, technical and political obstacles, we took thefirst step along the path to the return of the archives," Hamud said.

Iraqi National Archives director Saad Iskander told AFP in October that some 60 percent of the archives, amounting to tens of millions of documents, were missing or had been damaged or destroyed as a result of water leaks and a fire at a storage centre in the aftermath of the invasion.

Iskander added at Thursday's news conference that in addition to the Jewish archive many of the documents related to executed dictator Saddam Hussein and his banned Baath Party.

"There is a special archive about the Baath Party that was moved to the United States," he said."The CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) and the Pentagon studied it to find a relationship between Saddam and Al-Qaeda, terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and human rights violations.

"Mohsen Hassan Ali, the culture ministry's associate museums director,said US forces had found damaged and water-logged documents in the basement of government buildings following the 2003 war."Despite our refusal, the containers were sent to the United States," Ali said.

Addendum: Here is a report about the negotiations that led to the State Department's decision to repatriate the documents, written by a proponent of repatriation:

https://lists.uchicago.edu/web/arc/iraqcrisis/2010-05/msg00008.html

Iraqi Authorities Continue Erasure of Evidence of Jews

Knee-jerk repatriationists in the archaeological community and bureaucrats within the State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs who believe Torah scrolls written in Iraq years ago should be repatriated there would do well to read this story. See http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1263147896786&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

According to the Jerusalem Post,

For centuries Jews, Christians and Muslims came to Al-Kifl, a small town south of Baghdad, to visit the tomb of the Prophet Ezekiel and pray.

The distinctive Jewish character of the Al-Kifl shrine, namely the Hebrew inscriptions and the Torah Ark, never bothered the gentile worshipers. In the 14th century a minaret was built next to the shrine, but the interior design remained Jewish. The vast majority of Iraq's Jewish community left some 60 years ago, but Shi'ites took good care of the holy site.

Until now.

Recently "Ur," a local Iraqi news agency, reported that a huge mosque will be built on top of the grave by Iraq's Antiquities and Heritage Authority, while Hebrew inscriptions and ornaments are being removed from the site, all as part of renovations.

I first heard the news of tomb desecration from a friend of mine who is a German scholar. After visiting the site he called me and said that some Hebrew inscriptions on the grave were covered by plaster and that a mosque is planned to be built on top of the tomb. He told me that he found the changes at the tomb disturbing and warned me that I'd better act quickly, before any irreversible damage will be inflicted," Moreh said.

"I had contacted Mr. Shelomo Alfassa, US director of Justice for Jews from Arab Countries, and told him about this situation. Then I saw the report from the Ur news agency, mentioning the decision of the Antiquities and Heritage Authority to build a mosque and to erase the Hebrew inscriptions and ornaments," Moreh said.

He asked friends to check out the developments at the site. The most recent to visit the shrine said that some of the inscriptions are now hidden by a layer of plaster.

Iraqi press reports claim that the building must be destroyed because of its poor condition. However, Alfassa believes that Iraq's Antiquities and Heritage Authority "has been pressured by Islamists to historically cleanse all evidence of a Jewish connection to Iraq - a land where Jews had lived for over a thousand years before the advent of Islam."

According to the Baghdad-born Moreh, many of the Muslims who visit the tomb today are unaware Ezekiel was a Jew.

Iraq, the biblical Aram Naharaim, is rich in Jewish religious sites. Not only Ezekiel is buried there, but also Ezra, Daniel, Nehemiah, Nahum and Jonah. (Another tomb attributed to Ezekiel is located in Dezful, in southwestern Iran.)

Soon after the US-led invasion in 2003, Iraqi authorities indicated that they intended to take good care of the Jewish sites, which might become an powerful tourist magnet. In May 2009, the Tourism Ministry declared that it intended to preserve all of Iraq's heritage sites, regardless of creed, and would soon begin the renovation of Ezekiel's tomb.

But the future of Jewish sacred sites looks grim in the intolerant current climate of post-Saddam Iraq, where only eight Jews are left, the Christian minority is severely persecuted by the fundamentalists and ancient Shi'ite mosques are blown up.

"Let's hope that the Jewish sites will be spared, but someone must intervene before it's too late," Moreh warned.

For more about efforts to repatriate Torah scrolls and continued anti-Semitism in Iraq, see: http://culturalpropertyobserver.blogspot.com/search?q=torah

For a thoughtful critique of the modern Iraqi State's claims to Jewish artifacts, see also
http://culturalpropertyobserver.blogspot.com/2008/07/joffee-critiques-justifications-for.html

This story was reported on the Iraq Crisis List here: https://lists.uchicago.edu/web/arc/iraqcrisis/2010-01/msg00007.html

Addendum: Coincidentally, the Washington Post on 01/17/10 has reported about Iraq's efforts to repatriate a Jewish archive that the US Army rescued from the bombed out headquarters of Saddam Hussein's secret police. See http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/16/AR2010011602583.html?sub=AR

It seems odd to me that our government would even consider returning artifacts presumably confiscated by the Iraqi Secret Police from fleeing Iraqi Jews to a nation that continues to erase them from the archaeological record. Even if the director of the Iraq National Library is well meaning, recent history as recounted above suggests that these newly restored artifacts will not be cared for and may even ultimately be destroyed. Under the circumstances, wouldn't they be better off with an Iraqi Jewish group in in exile?

Mother of All Conspiracy Theories: "Cultural Cleansing in Iraq"

The Iraq Crisis List has publicized a new book entitled, "Cultural Cleansing in Iraq Why Museums Were Looted, Libraries Burned and Academics Murdered."

According to Iraq Crisis,

Convention sees accidents of war and poor planning in a campaign to liberate Iraqis. The authors argue instead that the invasion aimed to dismantle the Iraqi state to remake it as a client regime.

See https://lists.uchicago.edu/web/arc/iraqcrisis/2009-11/msg00011.html

As further set forth in Iraq Crisis description, this nefarious plan was supposedly accomplished in a manner that would have made Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin proud-- with US government complicity in the extermination of Iraqi intellectuals and in the destruction of Iraq's cultural heritage.

The archaeological commmunity has certainly used gross exaggeration about the looting of the Iraq Museum and archaeological sites as a "wedge issue" to further both an anti-collecting ideology and to shame Western governments into spending millions to fund their work "to save Iraqi archaeology." See http://culturalpropertyobserver.blogspot.com/2009/11/myths-of-babylon.html and http://culturalpropertyobserver.blogspot.com/2009/11/babylon-revisited.html Yet, the allegations in this new book take matters to a whole new level.

Meanwhile, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has blamed the recent bombings of government buildings in downtown Baghdad on members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party allied with the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq. See http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/10/25-1 Perhaps, the authors of this new work might also want to consider the part these groups played in creating the post-Invasion chaos that Iraq only seems to be leaving behind ever so slowly.

Babylon Revisited

Melik Kaylan has elaborated further on his recent Wall Street Journal Opinion (see http://culturalpropertyobserver.blogspot.com/2009/11/myths-of-babylon.html ) in a Forbes article entitled, "Babylon Revisited." See http://www.forbes.com/2009/11/19/babylon-iraq-art-history-mideast-opinions-columnists-melik-kaylan.html

As I commented,

There needs to be a full accounting of the archaeological community's collaboration with Saddam Hussein's regime before the war, the extent to which archaeologists' self-interested relationships with their Baathist colleagues shaped their noisy campaign against US foreign policy of the Bush I, Clinton and Bush II Administrations, the degree to which looting of archaeological sites and the Iraq Museum was exaggerated to further both an anti-collecting ideology and to shame Western governments into spending millions to fund their work "to save Iraqi archaeology," and whether all this money has been wasted or wisely spent. There has been virtually no serious study of any of these issues other than Alex Joffe's 2004 "Museum Madness in Baghdad" and the Sandler article Kaylan mentions in his own piece. See http://www.meforum.org/609/museum-madness-in-baghdad

The Myths of Babylon

Melik Kaylan, writing for the Wall Street Journal, has opined again about the dangers of accepting provocative allegations from members of the archaeological community at face value. See http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748704013004574519354014954972.html

Incantation Bowls Story Recycled Yet Again

Lord Renfrew's efforts to shift the burden of proof to collectors in the U.K. may have failed for now, but his reference during a House of Lords debate to Jewish incantation bowls allegedly stolen from Iraq has led to yet another story about them years after the initial controversy had subsided. See http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/08/british-link-stolen-treasures

The story fails to detail the basis for the conclusion that the bowls originated in Iraq as opposed to Jordan, but the article does go onto gratuitously claim that such stolen antiquities help fund insurgents in Iraq.

This incendiary claim has also been disputed. Indeed, a New York Times reporter that has specifically looked into the issue has characterized such claims as a "red herring." See: http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/03/20/iraq_roundtable/ ("Garen: I think this is an important point about the link between looting and terrorism, and I know that that was made in a New York Times Op-Ed piece, but we were actually the ones that discovered that potential link. We never published it. We were freelancing for the New York Times. We never wrote a story about it because there's no proof. And I think it was a bit of a red herring.")

The article also fails to explore the distinct irony that repatriating Jewish artifacts to a country that has systematically destroyed its Jewish culture poses. See http://culturalpropertyobserver.blogspot.com/2008/07/joffee-critiques-justifications-for.html

Is there anything else going on here? One certainly wonders if this incantation bowl story comes up over and over again at least in part because archaeologists are miffed that epigraphists continue to see value in the study of unprovenanced artifacts. See http://lootingmatters.blogspot.com/2007/10/ucl-and-incantation-bowls.html Even worse, could anti-Semitism also be part of the mix? See https://www-ucl-slb.ucl.ac.uk/hebrew-jewish/ijs/news.htm

Iraqi PM's Relatives Are Said to be Detained with Sumerian Antiquities

This story is circulating on the web.

Translated by Lamia al-Gailani Werr

Original: http://www.albasrah.net/ar_articles_2009/1009/thrib_121009.htm

Nouri Kamil al-Maliki the Brother in Law on the Prime Minister of Iraq Dr al-Maliki had s been detained at Dhubai airport, he was caught with Sumerian antiquities trying to smuggle them to the United States. Also detained with him, his bodyguard Abu Ali al-Asfahani, who is also a relative of the Prime Minister.

A number of Iraqi officials including the former ambassador to Qatar Mr Sadiq al-Rikabi, Dr. Ali al-Dabbagh and Dr. Muwafaq al-Ruba'i are negotiating with the Director of the Dubai airport Mansour bin Ali al-'Utaibi to release them.

Mr Asfahani who was caught with four passports: American, Syrian, Iranian and Iraqi, lives in the Green Zone in Baghdad and has been nicknamed by the people as Mr. Yaseen in reference to Arshad Yaseen the brother in law of Saddam who was notorious for his antique dealings.

[End of Translation]

If true, this article demonstrates the continued hypocrisy of the Iraqi Government when it comes to antiquities. During Saddam's reign, common people were executed for dealing in antiquities while the Baathist elite collected and sold what they wished. Today, no one is executed, but they are punished when found with such items. Yet, connected people still apparently continue to deal in them. We will see if the Iraqi PM's family members are ultimately treated like everyone else, but the article already suggests that will not be the case.

If harsh laws cannot be applied equally, perhaps it is time to loosen them for everyone!

Concerns Expressed About Iraq Museum Preparedness

History will show that angry mobs looted the Iraq Museum because the local Shia community viewed the cultural landmark as just another outpost of the hated Baathist regime.

Whoever was actually responsible, the archaeological community certainly took advantage of the tragedy. For example, Western governments were shamed into providing millions of dollars to support the museum and Iraqi archaeology.

But could have the tragedy been averted? Has all that money been wisely spent? Could it happen again?

An individual well-qualified to speak on the situation has raised some serious issues on these subjects on the Iraq Crisis List.

Here is that individual's post in its entirety:

Dear All,

Before you read my thoughts below regarding the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage (SBAH) and the National Museum of Iraq, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Zainab Abdul Jabar Mohammed Alzubaidi, and I worked for thirteen years in the SBAH. Most of my work was conducted within the Excavations and Investigations Department. The last position I occupied after the 2003 invasion was Office Manager to the General Manager Office of the Excavations and Investigations Department. I was fortunate enough to work with two of the best Iraqi Archaeologists, Zuhiar Rajab and Burhan Shakir. In addition, I was able to participate in a re-exhibition of the Iraq Museum in 1999 and was a member of committees responsible for securing the artifacts at the Iraq Museum, before the American invasion in 2003. I hold master’s Degree in Anthropology, and I recently earned my second master’s Degree in Museum Studies from New York University (NYU). I am currently a consultant at Columbia University (New York) and a visitor guide at the Brooklyn Museum of Art (New York).

As Lamia Al-gailani Werr mentioned, the Iraq Museum until now–had no emergency preparedness plan. Although the National Museum of Iraq was threatened several times before it was badly looted in 2003, none of the SBAH managers thought to create a simple emergency plan. In fact, they were unaware of how to protect the museum’s collections. I was a witness to the fruitless and inadequate emergency plan of 2003. Unfortunately, until now, the Iraq Museum staff had no knowledge of serious threats to the collections. They required help to establish an emergency plan, according to the collections’ needs and conditions.

In my thesis for the Museum Studies Program, I analyzed and researched the 2003 looting of the Iraq Museum, and I highlighted the museum staff’s complicity, in addition to the invaders’ and international organizations’ responsibilities. Then, I proposed guidelines for the Iraq Museum staff to help them to develop an emergency preparedness plan, in addition to some suggestions regarding the protection of the collections in the case of unexpected events, as mentioned by Lamia Al-gailani. I can say confidently that the Iraq Museum and the SBAH managers during 2003 were responsible for the damage that was incurred. In fact, the 2003 invasion revealed the poor management of the SBAH and the Iraq Museum. We cannot place all the responsibility on coalition forces because the SBAH managers were responsible for much of the tremendous loss and damage of the museum’s collections. I believe that the 2003 looting disaster could occur again, since the Iraq Museum and the SBAH have not yet developed an emergency plan.

Though there are many projects conducted to help the SBAH and the Iraq Museum, there is no clear understanding of the urgent need to protect the SBAH and museum collections. All these programs and projects deal with other issues that are of less importance right now. As a result, millions of dollars have been spent with little to no impact on the SBAH’s or the Iraq Museum’s operations, except the Italian projects and the projects of the University of Chicago. I admit that the SBAH’s staff needs to be further developed, but we also need immediate assistance to develop an emergency plan that builds on strong research and determines the collections’ conditions and potential exterior threats.

Furthermore, a large part of the Iraq Museum’s collection is currently at risk for damage because of poor storage conditions. This also requires an emergency plan. In fact, what we have no already lost due to looting or vandalism will be destroyed by inappropriate and poor storage conditions.

Furthermore, for those who are unaware of these facts, the SBAH staff lacks the necessary techniques for dealing with artifacts, employing proper storage methods, documentation and registration, computerizing databases, as well as access to modern computer programs that would improve the SBAH’s and Iraq Museum’s operations. Since the end of the 1970s, the SBAH has not kept abreast of modern archaeology and museum techniques. This is partially due to the political situation in Iraq at that time; the country was essentially under lockdown, as nobody was authorized to enter or travel outside, except for managers in government departments. However, unqualified managers are also to blame for these issues.

The SBAH and the Iraq Museum depend heavily upon extremely obsolete methods and documentation practices; SBAH’s documentation should be used for a museum display, rather than daily functional purposes. These documents were the achievements of Taha Baker and his generation of Iraqi archaeologists. The SBAH and the Iraq Museum stopped improving upon this documentation system since the end of the 1970s. In other words, all of the SBAH managers since then have been unqualified to maintain the organization. Today, a new generation of Iraqi archaeologists leads the SBAH and the Iraq Museum, but they need help to raise the standard of the Iraqi archaeology field and museum industry. They require immediate help to establish an emergency plan, not just for the museum collections, but for the collections of other departments with the SBAH.

In response to those who believe that the ex-managers of the SBAH and the Iraq Museum were qualified, I would like to raise the following questions:

· Why did neither the SBAH nor the Iraq Museum implement an emergency plan, although they were under the same threats during the 1980s and 1990s?
· Why is there no electronic inventory for the museum collections, although a computer lab was established at the SBAH in 1995 with new computers?
· Why are there no computer databases for the documents belonging to the Archive Department, Microfilm Department, Photograph Department, Excavation Department, and other departments of the SBAH, despite the fact that these documents contain the most valuable information about the SBAH excavations and other works, and are at the risk of damage and loss?
· Why has the SBAH system not been updated since the 1970s until now?
· What are the achievements of the Department of Antiquities and Heritage managers during the 1980s and 1990s?
· What are the achievements of the seven general managers after 1999, when the Department of Antiquities and Heritage became the State Board?
· Why has the entire SBAH system (excavations, Sumer Magazine, research projects, studies, investigation of new and unregistered archaeological sites, and other important SBAH works) been slow and inadequate since the end of the 1970s, although Saddam Hussein gave the archaeology field a unique opportunity?

If somebody argues that the facts above were caused by wars and embargo, I would respond that this assumption is incorrect. Wars and embargo were used to conceal the weak and poor management of the SBAH departments. The real answer to the previous questions is bad management; managers were unqualified and irresponsible. However, some of them studied outside Iraq and traveled several times during the year. Thus, these managers maintained very strong relationships with outside scholars, and they are familiar with archaeological institutions in other countries. Though they could have requested help in order to improve the SBAH work, they did not work effectively to improve and update the SBAH operations. The managers who boast now about their accomplishments are exaggerating. I became more fully aware of the poor management of the SBAH and the Iraq Museum after my involvement in the Museum Studies Program at NYU. I had taken several courses about museum management, in addition to work in several museums in New York City. The SBAH, the Iraq Museum, and their staff were victims of irresponsible managers.

I ask anyone who got my massage to think about what I have mentioned and to research the SBAH and its management. It is very easy for anyone to present himself as a hero, but is this presentation factual? I ask you to compare what some ex-managers claim against their actual accomplishments.

Now, the SBAH and the Iraq Museum are in urgent need of an EMERGINCY PREPERDNESS PLAN in order to cope with the current unstable situation in Iraq. This emergency plan needs intensive research and study of the collections and their needs. It will be shameful to repeat the mistakes of 1991 and 2003. Both plans from 1991 and 2003 were extemporaneous and developed without any prior research or study. As a result, a large part of the hidden collections in 1991 were damaged to inappropriate securing methods, and later, a large portion of the collections was lost in 2003 because the plan was deeply flawed. Today, the Iraq Museum’s collections and the valuable documents of the SBAH Departments are at risk of loss and damage.

As an Iraqi who worked in this institution, I urge specialists, international organizations, and other relevant parties to assist the SBAH and the Iraq Museum in creating an emergency preparedness plan. It is illogical to plan to establish labs and supply the SBAH library with modern publications, while the SBAH’s collections are at risk due to the lack of an emergency preparedness plan.


Please see the attached file:


- Plan for the SBAH and Iraq Museum. I recently created this plan to help in developing the SBAH and the Iraq Museum operations and staff. I have already submitted the plan to the Iraqi Embassy and the U.S. Department of State in Washington, DC, from whom I have received positive feedback.

[the plan itself was posted on the Iraq Crisis List. The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs is presumably the involved entitity within the State Department]


Sincerely,

Zainab Mohammed
A Consultant at Columbia University, New York
A Visitor Guide at BMA, New York

ACCP to Restart in Response to Plea by Noted Academic for Inclusive, Neutral Forum?

"Cultural Property Observer" has learned that former members and supporters of the American Council for Cultural Policy indicate a growing interest in creating a neutral forum for the discussion of preserving cultural sites and antiquities in Afghanistan that appears to be otherwise unavailable elsewhere. They have noted calls by academic Larry Rothfield, among others, for a group (in Prof. Rothfield's words, "task force") that would include members of relevant US departments, as well as representatives of cultural heritage NGOs, "collectors, dealers and the museum community" to develop means to protect and preserve Afghanistan's most important cultural sites. See: http://safecorner.savingantiquities.org/

The ACCP, it is recalled, with a broad base of support from the communities that Prof. Rothfield mentions, is the only cultural organization to have had effective discussions with the Departments of Defense and State in the period immediately prior to the beginning of the Iraq War in 2003.

Former members of the ACCP indicate that given the apparent inability of any other NGO to provide an inclusive, neutral forum of the nature that is needed, they have begun to discuss the reactivation of the ACCP for this purpose.

Iraqi Government Officials Turn Over Artifacts

This curious report has turned up about Iraqi government officials turning over antiquities and coins in their possession to Iraqi cultural authorities:

Government officials surrender 531 artifacts to Iraq Museum, among them gold and silver coins

By Zainab Khudair Azzaman, March 9, 2009

The Iraq Museum has received 531 archeological pieces which were in the possession of senior government officials. The pieces were handed over to the Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Qahtan al-Jibouri who in turn gave them to the Iraq Museum, according to the ministry's spokesman Abdulzahara al-Talaqani.

Talaqani said the first batch comprising a magnificent collection of numismatic coins was returned to the museum by Minister of National Security Shirwan al-Waili.

This batch included 366 gold and silver coins of various colors, Talaqani said.

He said the second batch of 165 artifacts was kept by two members of parliament and included mainly statues and cylinder seals. Talaqani said Iraqi scientists who have examined both collections have said they were of astounding beauty and great value.

One magnificent piece, he said, was a pottery statue of a standing woman holding a beaker made of glass. It is the first time senior government officials are reported to have been in possession of so many artifacts.

The officials say the pieces were passed to them by ordinary people. Under a new law in Iraq holders of ancient relics whether stolen or dug up illegally cannot be prosecuted if they choose to hand them over to the authorities willingly.

In fact, the law makes it incumbent on the authorities to compensate and reward anyone returning antiquities by their free will. It is not clear whether the officials will get any compensation and Talaqani declined to say whether the pieces were among the thousands of missing artifacts or part of relics which are being dug up illegally by smugglers across the country."

See: http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news/2009-03-09/kurd.htm

This fragmentary report raises some questions. First, it is unclear why the report indicates that the coins are "of various colors." In any event, I'm not exactly sure what the Iraq Museum intends to do with more coins. Bogdanos has reported that the Iraq Museum already holds about 100,000 or so in storage. See: http://web.mit.edu/ssp/seminars/wed_archives_04spring/bogdanos.htm

It would also be interesting to learn if these artifacts were in some one's collection or whether they were looted after the fall of Saddam's regime. Finally, it is interesting that Iraq has evidently enshrined into law an amnesty for those who turn over such artifacts along with the promise of some compensation.

Addendum: Larry Rothfield has more details about the Iraqi program courtesy of Dr. Donny George: http://larryrothfield.blogspot.com/2009/03/more-on-iraqs-amnestyrewards-program.html

Greek Monument in Iraq Commemorating the Clash of Civilizations?

The jingoism of the Greek and Greek Cypriot Governments that collectors and museums have certainly experienced firsthand apparently carries over to flying the Greek Nationalist flag as far away as Mosul, Iraq.

The Museum Security Network listserv reports as part of Greek help to Iraq on cultural matters, Greece plans to build a monument to Alexander the Great's victory over the Persians near Mosul.

Greece to help Iraq cultural reconstruction

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece pledged Tuesday to provide financial and technical aid to help Iraq restore and conserve its damaged archaeological sites and museums.

Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis said Greece and Iraq have also agreed to build a monument honoring the Greek warrior-king Alexander the Great at an ancient battlefield in southern Iraq.

She was speaking after talks in Athens with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.

Iraqi museums and sites suffered extensive damage and looting in the wake of the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. The National Museum of Baghdad, a treasure trove of artifacts from the Stone Age through the Babylonian, Assyrians and Islamic periods, fell victim to bands of armed thieves. Up to 7,000 pieces are still missing.

Zebari welcomed the Greek offer of cultural assistance, which he said followed an Iraqi request."We have great need of such assistance," he said, adding that technical committees from both countries would meet to discuss the details. Zebari said the battlefield monument would underline the interaction of civilizations in the region. It will be built near the city of Mosul, where Alexander won a crushing victory over a Persian army in 331 B.C. At the time, Iraq was part of the Persian Empire, which stretched throughout most of the Middle East.

While I am glad Greece will offer Iraq some "cultural assistance" and would personally love to see a monument to Alexander, I wonder how that monument will really play in Mosul.

In Persian folklore, Alexander is damned as "Alexander the Accursed." In particular, the few remaining adherents of Zoroastrianism carry a visceral dislike for Alexander and his destruction of the Persian Empire. See: http://tenets.zoroastrianism.com/truthabtalx.html

This should raise an obvious question to anyone but the most ardent Greek nationalist. As we all know from the long running Arab-Israeli and Greek-Turkish disputes, old scores never seem to be settled in the Middle East. While modern Iraq is not exactly Ancient Persia (or even modern Iran), I have to really wonder whether any monument to Alexander will just become a likely target for those who hate the West and view Alexander as merely the first Westerner to target the Middle East for conversion to Western ideals.

Still, I know any misgivings that may be expressed on this blog will likely fall on deaf ears. Who knows. I could be wrong. And, if this monument is actually built and succeeds in bringing in the tourists rather than the terrorists, I would become the first to suggest that perhaps Greece can build another to Alexander in Afghanistan as well.