Large traces of Iraqi, world history wiped out

Al Jazeera ^ | April 14, 2003 | K S Dakshina Murthy

[WaveThatFlag]

When mobs in Baghdad entered the Iraqi national museum and destroyed the artifacts, little did they know that they were wiping out large traces of history. Not just of Iraq, but that of the entire world.

So, when the museum deputy director Nabhal Amin openly wailed and cried in anguish it was perfectly understandable. She picked up the broken pieces of the artifacts, her helplessness on display for the entire world to see. "They have looted or destroyed 170,000 items of antiquity dating back thousands of years...They were worth billions of dollars," she said, sobbing.

The museum grounds were full of smashed doors, windows and littered with office paperwork and books.

Twenty eight galleries of the museum and vaults with thick steel doors were ransacked through Thursday and Friday with almost no intervention by the US troops. A 4000-year-old copper visage of an Akkadian king, golden bowls, colossal statues and ancient manuscripts were all looted and destroyed.

The museum housed items from ancient Babylon and Nineveh, Sumerian statues, Assyrian reliefs and 5,000-year-old tablets bearing some of the earliest known writing. There were also gold and silver helmets and cups from the Ur cemetery.

Iraq, a cradle of civilisation long before the empires of Egypt, Greece or Rome, was home to dynasties that created agriculture and writing and built the cities of Nineveh, Nimrud and Babylon -- site of Nebuchadnezzar's Hanging Gardens.

On the eve of the invasion in March, archaeologists around the world had warned the US government it had a responsibility to ensure the safety of Iraq’s heritage, of the remnants of the Mesopotamian civilization. To no avail.

The museum deputy director blamed the US troops for failing to heed appeals from museum staff to protect it from looters. "The Americans were supposed to protect the museum. If they had just one tank and two soldiers nothing like this would have happened," she said. "I hold the American troops responsible for what happened to this museum."

The plundering was ruthless. "We know people are hungry but what are they going to do with these antiquities," said Muhsen Kadhim, a museum guard for the last 30 years but who said he was overwhelmed by the number of looters. "As soon as I saw the American troops near the museum, I asked them to protect it but the second day looters came and robbed or destroyed all the antiquities," he said.

According to archaeologists, a full accounting of what has been lost may take weeks or months. The only hope now is that at least some of the museum's priceless gold, silver and copper antiquities, ancient stone and ceramics, and perhaps some of its fabled bronzes and gold-overlaid ivory had been locked away for safekeeping elsewhere before the looting.

During the first Gulf war in 1991, nine of Iraq's 13 regional museums were plundered. Fortunately, the Baghdad museum was spared because the war did not replace the government and policing of the city was not disrupted. The museum incidentally, had been closed during much of the 1990s, and had been reopened only in April 2000.

The museum’s deputy director has now asked the guards to keep guns and protect whatever remains -- a case of “too little too late” ?

[WaveThatFlag]

I love how all the media sources that hate George Bush/America have conveniently forgotten about the quagmire and are now fixated on the looting. See for yourself on TV: For the most part these people are looting garbage. Everywhere are pictures of ragged Iraqis carting off cheap crap. Office chairs, old computers. Doors. Wire. Garbage.

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[sarasota]

Wish I had taped Rummy's conversation with Tim Russert yesterday when Timbo asked him how our military "allowed" the Iraqis to loot the museum. Don was brilliant and kept pressing with the word "allowed? It just happened" Russert was so desperately trying to get his foot out of his mouth...

[Hodar]

When mobs in Baghdad entered the Iraqi national museum and destroyed the artifacts, little did they know that they were wiping out large traces of history.

And as we all know, this is the USA's fault. However, when these same unwashed, uneducated muslums used cannons to blow up statues that were over 2,000 years old; that was because they were an affront to Allah. Strange,isn't it that these statues didn't bother Allah for the thousands of years they stood before they were blown up.

[Bluntpoint]

The complete set of "Sex with Goats" has been destroyed. Volumes I thru XXXXII

[ffusco]

That's a shame. (who cares)

[1Old Pro]

Maybe they should have cared more about their own history and STOPPED Saddam from taking power.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Large traces of Iraqi, world history wiped out

Like the rape rooms and prisons for children?

[1Old Pro]

Rummy made russert look foolish.

[CedarDave]

Looting is a good way to make money. What do you want to bet that many of the pieces will be ransomed back to the museum? Of course, others may well end up in the hands of private collectors in Europe and maybe the US.

[sinkspur]

"We know people are hungry but what are they going to do with these antiquities,"

E-Bay.

Seriously, these goofy people think the military is going to high-tail it to protect a friggin' museum when they're getting shot at?

[mass55th]

Jeeze Al, did you guys care enough to write about Kuwait's antiquities being looted during the Gulf War? Probably not.

[OldFriend]

Like most libs, they never seem to blame the perpetrator, but some other entity is always at fault. This is no different. If the Iraqi's looted their own history, shame on them.

Not one of our military ought to die for a trace of history. Lives, yes........shards, NO.

[MEG33]

I am sure of it.

[Billthedrill]

The complete set of "Sex with Goats" has been destroyed.

Now that's just not true! I have a complete se...uh...hey, great weather we're having today...gotta go now...

[chachacha]

Which History?

The bad or the worse!

[cloud8]

"When mobs in Baghdad entered the Iraqi national museum and destroyed the artifacts, little did they know that they were wiping out large traces of history..."

Oh relax. They can get it all back on ebay. </sarcasm>

[vetvetdoug]

How is it that a population with a religion that is so willing to die for a Jihad and practice religion so fervently is so willing to steal that which does not belong to them? I think the moslem population is riddled with hypocrits and ignorant ragheads that have no honor or faith.

[headsonpikes]

Most valuable antiquities have been loot and plunder many times over.

Fixing the world in aspic is simply not possible. For all their hand-wringing over the emptied museum, these people are hopelessly ahistorical in their perspective.

[OneRatToGo]

Actually the traces of history still remain. It's now in the hands of the Iraqi people. They're just keeping it safe until the bands of American invaders leave. [/sarcasm off]