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How bad was the 2003 looting of
the Iraqi National Museum and the damage to other sites? What about the weapons depot story of October 2004? (updated 2009)
World History Students: This is part of "Sumer Supplements"; counts as 3 articles with your Chart)
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After U.S. troops took over Baghdad in the spring of 2003, they left unguarded the Iraqi National Museum, which was looted. Initial reports were that tens or hundreds of thousands of ancient Sumerian artifacts were looted. Later the number was reduced to just 37. But in June 2003, a new figure seemed to be agreed upon. 14,000 was cited by the New York Times in 2005. Before the war, American leaders had been specifically and repeatedly warned by experts, historians, and museum leaders to guard the museum and other cultural sites. The warnings went unheeded. Some other sites were still improperly guarded and being looted well into November of 2003. |
For example, a unique Baghdad library, with manuscripts dating from before the 1258 Mongol invasion, was left unguarded. It was burned to the ground.
In 2004 a marine bought some simple looking stones and took them to a Columbia University archeology Professor. She said that looting had increased almost uncontrollably. "Tens of thousand of objects have just gone completely missing in the past two years. It's a cultural disaster of massive proportion" (New York Times, 2/14/05). The looting has not just been limited to Baghdad. Addtionally, US troops damaged ancient Babylon by building a military base on some of the remains. Artifacts have been damaged and contaminated "in one of the world's most important archeological sites."
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What active (not passive) role has been played by the US military? |
The Times reported on January 16, 2005 that "military vehicles crushed a 2600-year-old brick pavement, and archeological fragments, including broken bricks stamped by King Nebuchadnezzar II, were scattered at the site. A leader of the report from the British Museum, concluded, "This is tantamount to establishing a military camp around the Great Pyramid in Egypt or around Stonehenge in Britain." Ancient Babylon is 50 miles south of Baghdad.
| Students of ancient Middle East history will recall that Babylon was home to Hammurabi about 1800 BCE. King Nebuchadnezzar ruled about 600 BCE. The Greek "Father of History", Herodotus wrote that Babylon "surpasses in splendor any city in the known world." |
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"Cradle of civilization endangered" warned the World Monuments Fund in June 2005. "This is the first time we have listed a country as endangered" said the group's President. Places in Iraq include Nineveh and Nimrud as well as "tens of thousands of artifacts threatened by decades of international [economic] sanctions and conflict with Iraq. The situation worsened" with the war, looting, and insurgency, limited access of conservationists. The Tower of Babel-inspired 9th century spiral minaret in Samara was damaged in April. A UN representative to Iraq proclaimed, "It is not only the heritage of Iraq that is at stake here... It is, in fact , world heritage."
In the fall of 2005, looting reports were rare in the media. The Washington Post ran a early November story reporting that thousands of ancient relics were slow to surface. About 5500 museum pieces have been recovered, of the 14,000 stolen. A "top 40" list has been compiled. The most well-known pieces will never be seen again, because "no art dealer would ever touch them", says Marine Col. Matthew Bogdanos, in charge of recovery. Bagdanos has left Iraq and reports that there is no systematic way to recover the items.
In addition, archeological sties continue to be looted and damaged on a regular basis. Says one archeologist who compared before and after satellite photos of well-known sites in southern Iraq, the holes are "denser than Swiss cheese."
Another foreigner kidnapped in November 2005 was a prominent German archeologist who had tried to stop the looting.
A detailed examination of the post-looting recovery effort came from Marine Colonel Matthew Bogdanos. His December 2005 book is Thieves of Baghdad. On NPR he disclosed that of the "top 40" artifacts sought, only 15 had been recovered. In his New York Times op-ed "The Terrorist in the Art Gallery" (12/10/05) he writes of the link between terrorists and antiquities. The traffic is in art for arms. Bulldozers illegally ransacking thousands of sties in Iraq "destroys not just the antiquities themselves, but context as well...yet Iraq's State Board of Antiquities has only 2600 guards, half of them newly trained, for more than 10,000 archeological sites." Some need tow dozen guards, but the few guards are lacking radio, vehicles and body armor.
The 2003 looting was re-examined in March 2006 by columnist John Tierney in the Times (3/21/06). He quotes US weapons inspector David Kay as worrying as the war began. Kay "had one of the worst feeling ever in my gut, that this was going over a cliff." As Tierney writes, "But the looing and disorder were easily predictable, and Kay wasn't the only one making the predication...Some Pentagon officials did warn of civil disorder and crime, but they didn't do anything about it. They passed the buck to Gen. Tommy Franks," who didn't have enough troops.
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Further re-examination came in a front page Times article of April 18, 2006. The Tower of Babel and site of the Hanging Gardens are crumbling. Babylon "has been ransacked, looted, torn up, paved over, neglected and roughly occupied. Archeologists said American soldiers even used soil thick with priceless artifacts to stuff sandbags." Polish troops dug trenches through an ancient temple and American contactors paved over ruins to make a helicopter landing pat, reported Iraq's head of the Board of antiquities. Donny George asked, "How are we supposed to get rid of the helipad now? With jackhammers? Can you imagine taking a jackhammer to the remains of one of the most important cities in the history of mankind? I mean, come on, this is Babylon." |
Citing hope, Iraqi and UN officials are not giving up to the home of one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Ancient Babylon is in Hilla, about 60 miles south of Baghdad. Might Americans someday travel there safely as tourists? Donny George concluded the Times report of April 18 thusly, "One day millions of people will visit Babylon. I'm just not sure anybody knows when."
The "Iraq Culture" story from March 2007 was in the form of a Times op-ed piece from Matthew Bogdanos, a Marine Colonel, attorney, and author of Thieves of Baghdad. He opens his March 6 commentary, "With the situation in Iraq growing seemingly graver by the day Americans are increasingly reluctant to risk American blood to save Iraqi lives. So it's a pretty tough sell to ask people to care about a bunch of old rocks with funny writing. But what if they understood that the plunder of Iraq's 10,000 poorly guarded archeological sites not only deprives future generations of incomparable works of art, but also finances the insurgents?" He worries that since we "cannot keep pace" with the antiquities still leaving the country the "failure to protect an artistic heritage going back to the dawn of civilization has convinced many in Iraq and the Middle East that we do not care about any culture other than our own."
So, what to do? Bogdanos suggests that about five European countries volunteer to guard and "adopt" the sites they had previously worked on, while training Iraqis to take over the job. "In this way, Mesopotamia's cultural patrimony would be safe, Al Jazeera would have to find other ways to show TV clips of Western indifference to Arab culture, and the terrorists would have to find another income source...The lesson for the US is that we must never again cede the moral high ground on cultural issues like this one." He closes by quoting from General Eisenhower just before D-Day: "Inevitably, in the path of our advance will be found historical monuments and cultural centers which symbolize to the world all that we are fighting to preserve. It is the responsibly of every commander to protect and respect these symbols whenever possible."
Re-examined in March 2007 in a front page Tribune article (3/22/07) on the looting of the "vast sea of antiquities." Thought the Iraqi National Museum is now deemed safe, most of the 12,000 sites are unprotected. The long-time director of antiquities fled to the US after a direct death threat. Guards can't get to sites due to violence. Perhaps hundreds of thousands of objects have been taken from these sites. About 50-60% of sites have been looted, totalling hundreds of million square feet. Comments a leading US anthropologist, "Somewhere there are a lot of warehouses bulging at the seams." The evidence of early civilizations goes back 11,000 years to mankind's earliest farming, through the evolution of cities, "the invention of the wheel, creation of writing, and codes of law." The sites are rich with artifacts, with clay pots stuffed with ancient wills, business dealings and census information. Gibson, at the University of Chicago Oriental Institute, cannot return. Sadly, "after brief exposure to sun and open air, artifacts such as cuneiform tablets quickly decompose and therefore could be lost forever." If that is the case, says the anthropologist, "a huge amount of Mesopotamia is turning to dust."
Reopening of the National Museum was delayed, party due to money problems. The Tribune of 12/12/07 reported that 15,000 artifacts were lost while 4000 have been recovered. "The pace of the recovery picked up" with news of rewards. The most valued items, piece of Assyrian gold known as the Nimrud treasures, were saved because they had been locked in a bank vault.
Looting came back to the LA Times in January 2008. The article, "Ancient Civilization...Broken to Pieces" provides new details about the looting in 2003 and the subsequent ancient sites left unguarded and looted. The damage is immense and recovery is unlikely.
The Chicago Tribune continued the cultural looting story into February 2008. Cultural and archeological treasures are at risk--"at best neglected, at worst looted, vandalized and bombed...One can talk about cultural genocide." The citadel of Irbil, in northern Iraq, is said to be the longest continuously inhabit urban area on earth, over 8000 years. One Turkish bath is 650 years old. The citadel's secret is water, in abundant supply. It sits atop a roughly 100-foot-tall "mound formed by layers of successive settlements, including Assyrians, Akkadians, Babylonians, Persians and Greeks." In fact, students of World History, who recall Alexander the Great, would be interested that he defeated Darius, the Persian King, at the nearby battle of Gaugamela. A member of the newly formed committee to restore Irbil, concludes, "It is for all mankind. For Kurdistan, it's our pride."
However, Irbil is in danger. Kurdish authorities hope to turn the citadel and "the vast archeological wealth buried within the mount on which it stands, into a world-renowned tourist site complete with hotels, coffeehouses, art galeries--and a vibrant, permanent living community." This "beacon of hope" may be unrealistic.
Ongoing looting was the feature of Worldview on April 9. the five year anniversary of the fall of Baghdad. Jerome McDonnell of WBEZ interviewed experts from the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago. Valuable cultural heritage is still being lost, mostly in the south of the country. When sites are looted, those artificats found or left have no context and thus lose value. There are hundreds of these sites being destroyed. The US could try to shut down the daily taxi service that takes looters to the sites. A new exhibit opened April 10 at the Oriental Institute, "Catastrophe: The Looting and Destruction of Iraq's Past."
The Chicago Tribune continued their looting story in November, 2008, in a Springsteen reference, "Plunder Road." (11/9/08). Tom Hundley, a reporter with much experience in Iraq, again refers to Chicago's Oriental Institute, the ethics of archeology, the black market, the role of museums, Bogdanos, and the pursuit of profits. Hundley examines James Cuno's new book, Catastrophe! The Looting and Destruction of Iraq's Past. The Tribune also published a photo gallery of the antiquities.
The Iraqi National Museum "re-opened" in February 2009, making front-page news.. Over half the exhibition halls are still closed, thousands of works remain lost, there is no heating or cooling system, and museum is not open to regular Iraqis. Maliki pushed for the opening, despite advice from his own Culture Ministry, whose head boycotted the ceremony Police blocked streets for miles around and helicopters hovered over head. The Times describes the scene: "Glass cases displaying ancient pottery and sculptures, cuneiform tablets from Sumerian nd Babylonian items, and the stunning 2700 year old stone reliefs from the palace of the Assyrian king Sargon II." Only now being seen is the human-headed bull from the Assyrians. The Iraqi minister for tourism and antiques said Iraq wanted visitors to "'see that Baghdad is still the same as it was in their eyes and has not turned to ruins, as the enemies of life wanted.'" Readers of this site will recall Rumsfeld's line in 2003, in reaction to widespread looting, that "stuff happens." The museums former director believes the museum needs much more work and is being used "in this case for political reasons only." At least two questions arise from this piece. Should museums buy looted artifacts? What is a good solution to this problem, in 2009?
Artifacts would be put online, google announced in November 2009. At its own expense, the company would make 4000 years of images available free by early 2010. Only 8 o the museums 26 galleries have been restored, as most of the collection is in secret storage.
Ancient Babylon officially reopened in May of 2009. This was the city, now just south of Baghdad by the Euphrates, of Hammurabi, Nebuchadnezzar and where Daniel read the writing on the wall and where Alexander the Great died. The local government has reopened the excavated ruins, shuttered since the US invasion of 2003. Back in the 1980s, Saddam Hussein had reconstructed Nebuchadnezzar's palace and the Ishtar Gate, using cheap bricks which were nearly 3000 years old. The Times reports that many of the bricks "were stamped with a tribue to the 'Protector of Great Iraq' in the way Nebuchadnezzar marked bricks with his own stamp in cuneiform, still visible today.
"To Catch A Looter" was a Times op-ed in October 2009. Roger Atwood is the author of Stealing History: Tomb Raiders, Smugglers and the Looting of the Ancient World. He watched, during the invasion as "swarms of looters dug huge pits and passages all over southern Iraq in search of cuneiform tablets and cylinder seals....Men sifted through tons of soil for 4000-year-old objects to sell to Baghdad dealers. It was mass pillage." With the worst of the looting appearing to be over, Atwood sees lessons learned from his days in Peru. Grassroots organizing is critical. Rural citizen patrols aren't expensive. Repatriation of valuable artifacts is important "but an immense amount of historical information is lost whenever looting occurs and sites are damages, even if the objects are later recovered. The government's time would be better spent expanding the patrols to prevent looting in the first place.
Turning to the military/weapons looting story, we knew in the spring of 2003 that barrels used to store nuclear materials had been looted. Civilians took the barrels from unguarded sites to use for things such as storing drinking water. The U.S. ended up denying that radiation levels were high in and around these barrels but eventually offered cash to buy them back.
In October 2004 the looting question made the headlines
again as about 380 tons of weapons and explosives were announced stolen
by the Iraqi authorities. This was at a site the UN inspectors had
monitored before the war but evidently left unguarded by the U.S.
military. The UN had specifically warned about the importance of guarding
this and other sites. One week before the U.S. election, Kerry labeled the
story an example of "incompetence and arrogance" on the part of the
administration. The Bush team suggested it was unclear when the weapons
became missing. The
issue quickly became part of the political race.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A1733-2004Oct27?language=printer
For example, a Washington Post editorial of October 28
("Missing
and Explosive") examined the various HMX explosives used to destroy the Pan
Am jumbo jet over Scotland in 1988, the RDX and PETN explosives. The
disappearance "must be counted as a potentially deadly cost incurred"
by the war. However, the Post continues, "It may not be fair
to claim, as Sen. John F. Kerry did...that the loss represents 'one of the
greatest blunders of this administration.' Apart from the doubts about
whether the explosives disappeared before or after US troops reached the site,
Iraq was covered with some 10,000 weapons sites under Saddam Hussein...We have
said repeatedly , however, that President Bush erred in not dispatching enough
troops to Iraq to secure the county after the war. We'll never know if a larger
invasion force might have been able to prevent this looting, but the chances of
avoiding this and other terrible reverses surely would have been much
higher."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A3936-2004Oct27?language=printer
The weapons looting story continued into March 2005, with a detailed, front page, New York Times report. An senior Iraqi official labeled the looting "systematic" and "highly organized" leading to the removal of tons of machinery and high-precision equipment. Sami al-Araji, the deputy minister of industry, said, "'They came with the cranes and the lorries [trucks]...This was sophisticated looting.' The threat posed by these types of facilities was cited by the Bush administration as a reason for invading Iraq.'" The UN's IAEA estimated that 90 important sites had been looted or razed in 2003 and chief US weapons inspector Charles Duelfer spoke of looting in his reports. The UN was monitoring these sites before the war. Tons of industrial scrap, some radioactively contaminated, has been discovered in other countries. The Times report continued, "Dr. Araji said equipment capable of making parts for missiles as well as chemical, biological and nuclear arms was missing from 8 or 10 sites that were the heart of Iraq' s dormant program on unconventional weapons." Araji felt that making money was a greater motivation for the looters than making weapons. Gary Milhollin, a nuclear expert said that "targeted looting of this kin...has to be seen as a proliferation threat." (3/14/05)
