Shiite stewardship threatens preservation of Iraq's pre-Islamic history

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT: New Concern Over Fate of Iraqi Antiquities
By MICAH GAREN and MARIE-HÉLÈNE CARLETON
Published: September 9, 2006


(Matt Moyer/World Picture News, for The New York Times)
Looting continues at archaeological sites like this one in southern Iraq. Money for guards to protect the sites is said to be running out.

BEIRUT, Sept. 8 — There is mounting concern among scholars that the appointment of religiously conservative Shiite Muslims throughout Iraq’s traditionally secular archaeological institutions could threaten the preservation of the country’s pre-Islamic history.

Donny George’s recent departure as chairman of the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage, and his flight to Syria with his family, is among the latest results of a transformation that began in December when a Shiite-dominated government was elected in Baghdad. The radical Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, who commands his own militia, emerged with enough seats in Parliament to take control of four ministries and to create a Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.

The State Board of Antiquities and Heritage, traditionally under the Ministry of Culture, now reports to this new ministry as well....The present departments of restoration and research would be eliminated, suggesting that preservation and scholarship would no longer be the institution’s focus.

The long history of secular scholarship in Iraq has covered all periods, including excavations at the Islamic site of Samarra and the restoration of Ukhaidir, an Islamic fortress near Karbala. Earlier sites include ruins from the Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian, Parthian and Sassanian civilizations....

***

A link between Islamic militants and looting at pre-Islamic archaeological sites has long been suspected, but is difficult to prove. The Nasiriyah Museum was burned and looted in 2004 by militants affiliated with Mr. Sadr. The museum’s guards reported that the militants promised to do to the antiquities there exactly “what the Taliban did.”...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/09/arts/design/09antiq.html

[Viva_La_Revolution]

1. Killing History should be covered under the Geneva Conventions

:mad:

[Bobbieo]

2. Those who destroy history, destroy themselves!

[Igel]

4. Hardly.

The Sa'udis having eradicated most of what occurred before Islam descended upon the peninsula, have turned their eyes to more recent times. Ottoman mosques and forts are being wiped out, rebuild in Wahhabi fashion. Can't have reminders of Turkish, non-Wahhabi presence.

Same-old/same-old in that part of the world.

Hell, even the Chinese have trouble dealing with non-Han civilizations in areas now firmly Han-dominated. Once Han, always Han; now Han, always Han.

[Eurobabe]

3. It's called Cultural Annihilation

Happens routinely during war...

And as a preservationist/architecural historian, I am always outraged when it does. :mad: