Posted on 03/05/2004 2:51:50 PM PST by blam
Expert Says Iraq Could Rewrite Archaeology Books
Thu Mar 4,10:15 AM ET
By Luke Baker
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq, torn apart by years of war and sanctions, remains so rich in hidden ancient wonders that a leading expert believes the world's archaeology books will have to be rewritten over the next decade.
Reuters Photo
As security improves to allow excavation, evidence may emerge that advanced societies existed in the area much earlier than previously thought, said Dr John Russell, professor of archaeology at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston.
"A decade of research in Iraq could rewrite the books of archaeology, no question," Russell, who is currently serving as a senior adviser to Iraq's ministry of culture, told Reuters on Thursday at the opening of new conservation and restoration laboratory at Iraq's National Museum in Baghdad.
"There is just a phenomenal amount of history in this country and much of it is yet to be discovered. But over time it will be and we'll have to totally rethink what we know."
In 1989 and 1990, Russell led excavations at the site of Nineveh, the ancient capital of the Assyrian empire, which lies on the Tigris river in northern Iraq, near modern-day Mosul.
In each year, he said, his team made discoveries that essentially pushed back the timeline for ancient civilization by a millennium. "It was just absolutely incredible, they were unprecedented discoveries. But Iraq is like that," he said.
Often referred to as the cradle of civilization, Iraq's modern-day boundaries encompass ancient Mesopotamia, the area between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, which was the foundation for the world's earliest societies.
Over the centuries, hugely important discoveries have been made in the area, from the Sumerian city of Ur in southern Iraq with its massive ziggurat, to ancient Babylon south of Baghdad.
TREASURES ON SHOW
Beyond those widely known sites, there are scores of other, lesser known settlements that are steadily being excavated and perhaps dozens more that have yet to be discovered.
But the big hurdle is security. Almost a year after Saddam Hussein was overthrown, many areas remain unsafe and armed looters are a common enemy, particularly at remote sites.
In April last year, days after Saddam's fall, looters struck another terrible blow against Iraq's ancient heritage, stealing scores of priceless artifacts from the National Museum, many of which have yet to be recovered.
Some 5,000 cylinder seals, small cylindrical stones carved with decorative designs and used to identify tablets and ceramics, were stolen, along with the so-called Sumerian Mona Lisa, a 5,000-year-old alabaster sculpture of a woman's face.
That mask and some 1,000 of the seals have been recovered, but Russell, who is helping to oversee the restoration of the museum, says about 20 "unique, world-class pieces" are still missing, along with an estimated 10,000 smaller works.
Some of the pieces were smuggled out of Iraq, and investigators are working through the courts to try to recover items taken to Switzerland, the United States and Britain.
But Russell believes most of the outstanding artifacts are still in Iraq, and says the recovery rate for those stolen, at around 25 percent, is far better than it might have been.
He hopes the museum, which has been extensively renovated, will re-open in the next couple of months if security permits, allowing many of Iraq's greatest treasures to be on show again.
"This is one of the great museums of the world," he said. "In time, we hope to turn it into a truly viable academic research institute that draws art historians and archaeologists from all over the world."
The Lost Civilizations of the Stone Age
by Richard Rudgley
Plato Prehistorian
Mary Settegast
You're not the first to have that same difficulty with Comic Sans MS. :') I like it, not least because it makes my posts easy to spot while scrolling fast. One problem that emerges sometimes is that the surfer's computer displays the font in a larger size (and/or does a substitution if the font isn't available, although I think it's one of MicroSoft's, hence the MS in the title), not sure why.
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest -- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)
bttt, with a link to a related topic:
Macro-Etymology: Paleosigns [writing 20,000 years ago?]
Macro-Etymology Website | prior to May 20, 2005 | the webmasters thereof
Posted on 05/19/2005 11:00:18 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1406892/posts
Indiana Jones found a WMD buried in the desert.
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Gods |
Just updating the GGG info, not sending a general distribution. |
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Iraq is a huge area. Iran is even huger. My uncle spent his entire career digging in that region and he barely touched what is there.
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