Looters waving from Isin. the archaeological site
John Russell
More than two years ago the media was saturated with reports describing the massive looting and destruction to Iraqi museums and other cultural institutions. More devastating, however, is the destruction due to large-scale looting to Iraq's rich heritage in archaeological sites that continues to this very day, extending to ancient cities in the Diwaniya governorate, including at Isin, Mashkan Shapir and Drehem as well as lesser-known sites.
Ancient cities picked over in broad daylight
These aerial photographs taken in September, 2003 by the Italian Carabinieri (national police)—who were responsible for guarding archaeological sites in the region of Nassyriah—show the extent of the destruction at Abbas al-Kurdi, Jokha, Sifr, Tell Medinah, Tell Schmid, Umm al-Aqarib, and Zabalam. These buried ancient cities have been completely eaten away by crater-like holes, picked over by looters in broad daylight. A majority of these illicit digs are far more than small holes dug by local families with picks and shovels-they are massive quarrying efforts carried out by organized teams often involving hundreds of workers and mechanized equipment such as backhoes and bulldozers, sometimes financed by foreign dealers.
Scholars consider the destruction of archaeological sites a much greater tragedy than the loss of artifacts in the museums because of the information they provide. When archaeological sites are brutally plundered and objects hauled away at random, essential evidence is lost and it becomes impossible for archaeologists to painstakingly piece together ancient societies in a way that can tell us a coherent history of our past and our origins.
Many of the more than 10,000 archaeological sites identified in Iraq have yet to be excavated. Thousands of cuneiform tablets-the written documents preserved in clay from civilizations thousands of years old—have yet to be translated. "We just haven't gotten to them yet," said Dr. Elizabeth Stone, an archaeologist with the State University of New York at Stony Brook, one of the leaders of a USAID (The US Agency for International Development) project to support reconstruction efforts in Iraq, "Only a handful of people can read them."
Guards no match for armed looters
In an October, 2003 interview with Archaeology magazine, Colonel Matthew Bogdanos who led the US investigation into the looting of the National Museum of Baghdad said, "While guards are in fact deployed to the sites, I must point out that they are inadequately trained and equipped. Indeed, although approximately 1,675 guards have been rehired, they are assigned to protect over 3,000 sites. Moreover, they are usually alone at the sites they guard and have very little formal security training, communication assets, or vehicles. Thus disposed and with no support, they are no match for determined and armed looters. We need private organizations and the international community to assist in training and equipping a professional security force devoted exclusively to protecting the sites."
Members of the Italian Carabinieri who took these photographs were the only ones who guarded the Nassyriah sites in November, 2003. Tragically, 18 members of the team were killed by a bomb-blast later that month.
Later on in that same month, Dr. John Malcolm Russell, Deputy Senior Advisor to the Ministry of Culture for the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Iraq, said in a interview from Baghdad that "the retrieval of stolen artifacts and protection of archaeological sites is not a priority for the Coalition troops and depends on the efforts of individual soldiers", and the newly trained sites guards are lacking proper equipment and are still largely inadequate for the enormous task.
In January, 2004 the CPA organized a special archaeological protection service, which is currently training its first 168 senior officers and instructors. The Packard Humanities Institute, the CPA, and the Japanese government have set aside between $2- and $3-million for the project.
But, according to a New York Times report on April 4, 2004, the looting of archaeological sites has not subsided. The thieves have become more organized and better armed. Abdul-Amir Hamdani—in charge of antiquities in Dhi Qar province—said “We have 800 sites around Nassiriya alone, and one million thieves." "Of course we know the importance of what surrounds us," Faras Adhab, a border guard said, looking over the plundered pits. "But we have no power. They have weapons. They're afraid of nothing."
Unfortunately, as long as the security situation in Iraq remains tenuous, more help is unlikely, leaving Iraq's vital cultural heritage—some of the oldest civilizations in the world—vulnerable to further exploitation.
While we cannot physically protect all the archaeological sites in Iraq, we can support legislation that prevents the importation of looted material into the US. Without a market for these artifacts, looters will have no further incentive to continue their destructive activities.
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Isin was the home of a dynasty which ruled after the Ur III state collapsed ca 2000 BC, a time of political fragmentation in Mesopotamia. The city was also known for a law code written during the reign of King Lipit Ishtar.
Mashkan Shapir, excavated by Elizabeth Stone of SUNY Stonybrook, is considered important because it was occupied only relatively briefly, from ca 2000 to 1700, and therefore provides an unparalleled 'snapshot' of an early second millennium Mesopotamian city, primarily because it was possible to uncover a large area of the city, unlike at other sites of comparable date which lie under hundreds or even thousands of years of accumulated deposition. Mashkan Shapir became a secondary political capital under the dynasty of Larsa, which was conquered by Hammurabi (ca 1792-1750), although unlike Larsa itself it was not destroyed and continued to be an important city in the early Old Babylonian period.
Drehem, ancient Puzrish Dagan, is the source of hundred of thousand of cuneiform administrative texts written in Sumerian, dating from the Ur III Dynasty ca 2100-2000 BC. Many of these deal with vast numbers of livestock sent by the various Sumerian city states to support the Ur III temple cults.
Tell Sifr is the modern name for ancient Kutalla, an Old Babylonian (ca 1792-1595 BC) site.
Zabalam was an early Sumerian city associated with the goddess Inanna. It was one of the cities in the "city seal" league or organization which operated around 2900 BC.
Tell Shmid and Umm al Aqarib are both early sites from the Late Uruk (ca 3400-3100 BC) period, when urban civilization was first emerging.
First published 2004.
