U.S.-Led Soldiers Said to Damage Babylon

[Bluebear]

US soldiers enter the ancient city of Babylon. A damning report by the British Museum revealed that US-led forces in Iraq have caused irreparable damage to the site of the ancient city of Babylon, contaminating the soil and destroying archaeological evidence.
The decorated bricks forming the modelled dragons of Babylon's celebrated Ishtar Gate have been cracked and dislodged, where American troops have tried to pry them out of the wall.

Military vehicles crushed a 2,600-year-old brick pavement, and archaeological fragments, including broken bricks stamped by King Nebuchadnezzar II around the same time, were scattered across the site, a museum report said.

John Curtis, keeper of the British Museum's Near East department, who was invited by the Iraqis to study the site, also found that large quantities of sand mixed with archaeological fragments have been taken from the site to fill military sandbags.

"This is tantamount to establishing a military camp around the Great Pyramid in Egypt or around Stonehenge in Britain," Curtis said in the report.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=6&u=/ap/20050115/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_babylon_2

[chicagojoe]

1. Some of our best and brightest!!!!

[Bluebear]

2. Winning hearts and minds!

[lenidog]

6. I am not insane

I read the article ealier on today and something kept bugging me about it. I had some recollection that the Ishtar Gate or remnants of it were sitting in a museum somewhere. Well I looked it up. I was right the real gate is sitting in the State Museum of Berlin. So though the jerkoffs damaged a gate they only damaged a reproduction made sometime this century.

[neweurope]

8. True. But there is (was) a lot more to the site than just the gate.

They did real damage there.


--------------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[Cleita]

12. Yes, the site of the murder of innocent people.n/t

[medeak]

9. thank god... but it looks like more damage was done

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2955589

[Bluebear]

11. Yikes. The world ain't gonna be happy with this.

[Blue_In_AK]

3. This just sucks.

Just like the Taliban blasting down the Buddhas.

[murray hill farm]

4. And they did this, why?

This is sooooooo bad!!

[Bluebear]

5. Souvenirs, of course n/t

[Cleita]

7. The good news is that the real Gate of Ishtar is

in the British Museum. The gate in Babylon was reconstructed by Saddam as was much of Babylon on the original site. It still doesn't say much for the mentality that would destroy these ancient sites.

[Bluebear]

10. Indeed. The ancient streets have been crushed by tanks, however