Going, Going, Going, Gone!

041

A great deal of attention has been paid to the events of April 2003—when Baghdad fell to Coalition forces and looters pillaged the National Museum. Fortunately, most of the high-value artifacts on display in the public galleries of the museum had been securely stored elsewhere by the conscientious museum staff. Nonetheless, the losses, especially from the storage rooms, 042are still enormous (see box).^a

For a number of reasons, however, the spotlight has not been focused as intensely on the plight of archaeological sites throughout Iraq, a country that encompasses most of the territory of ancient Mesopotamia. Due to the continuing lack of security, journalists tend to stick close to Baghdad; they are unable to venture out into remote desert areas where most archaeological sites are located. Moreover, these out-of-the-way sites, unlike the National Museum in Baghdad, do not have large, well-educated staffs, and they do not have spokesmen, certainly none who speak English.

There is also the problem of ignorance. Westerners are generally not very familiar with the principal form of archaeological site found in the Near East, the tell, and so apparently unimportant “hills” remain unprotected. But in Mesopotamia such “hills” are often tells, or earthen mounds consisting of settlement layers often accumulated over thousands and thousands of years. The most recent layers (or strata, for archaeologists) lie near the top, and the layers get older and older as you dig down from the surface. Any old hill, then, may actually contain the remains of thousands of years of human experience.

But looters know all about tells. When they dig into a rich deposit of ancient remains, they are looking for artifacts that will fetch a good price, such as cuneiform 043tablets, sculptures, relief plaques, objects made of precious metals or stones, decorated pots and seals. Anything else is shattered, broken, discarded. Needless to say, the archaeological context of the “good” marketable piece is not recorded—which, in any case, only a practiced archaeologist could accomplish. We would not know whether the object was found in a temple or a tomb, whether it was originally associated with other related objects, or, indeed, whether it is genuine, given the sophistication of modern forgers.

And what happens when looters come across unique artifacts, objects of a kind that has never before been excavated or documented? Do the looters simply smash these artifacts as unworthy trash, because there is not yet a market for them? How many of the world’s one-of-a-kind creations have been destroyed in this way, and how much knowledge have we thus lost about our ancient ancestors?

Before the 1991 Gulf War, the important archaeological sites in Iraq were fairly well looked after through an elaborate system of hundreds of State Board of Antiquities and Heritage (SBAH) guards. Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath regime considered cultural heritage to be essential in cementing the unity of Iraq, a nation consisting of diverse ethnic groups (Arabs, Kurds, Turkomans) and religious groups (Shi’ite and Sunni Muslim, Chaldean and Assyrian Christian). Hence it supported the country’s 20 museums, funded archaeological excavations and encouraged research. In the aftermath of the Gulf War, the rebellion of the Shi’ites in the south and of the Kurds in the north led to the plundering of 9 of the 13 regional museums. Of the 4,000 museum pieces that were then stolen, only 47 have so far been recovered.

In the aftermath of the war, the embargo imposed by the United Nations caused severe budget tightening, and the SBAH became a shadow of its former self. The effects were especially felt in the field, where looting became more and more common. As people had trouble making ends meet, archaeological objects provided a tempting way to make some quick money. After all, such objects were often easy to find at sites no longer being investigated by foreign expeditions or the budget-pinched SBAH. Local people who for years had been earning an honest living working for archaeological expeditions sometimes turned to looting.

The illegal trade in Mesopotamian artifacts from Iraq picked up during this period. Buyers in Europe, North America, Japan and the Persian Gulf became more knowledgeable and soon began making up “wish lists” of desired objects. Organized crime gangs increasingly became involved in smuggling artifacts out of Iraq and onto the black market. Some nomadic tribes offered services, on order, of looting archaeological artifacts and smuggling them out of the country. In response to reports of looting, the SBAH did stage salvage excavations—for example, at Tell Jokha (ancient Umma), Bismayyah (ancient Adab) and Umm el-Aqarib in the south. But these were only isolated efforts that did little to stop the looting. In one case of antiquities theft, a gang stole and hacked to pieces the head of a colossal gate sculpture at the first-millennium B.C. Neo-Assyrian palace at Khorsabad (ancient Dur-Sharrukin) in the north. Iraqi police were able to recover the damaged sculpture and arrest the thieves—who were convicted in court and, under the strict Ba’athist antiquities legislation, executed. This case, however, was the exception to the rule.

Bad as the years following the 1991 Gulf War were, archaeologically speaking, they pale in comparison to the devastating impact of the 2003 Iraq War. To date, 30 sites are known for sure to have been looted. The real number is bound to be much higher, with informed estimates starting at 130. The ancient heartland of Sumer in southern Iraq has been especially hard hit. Tell Jokha (ancient Umma), for instance, has been reduced to a cratered moonscape. Complete pots from 2,500 B.C. (the Early Bronze Age) are right at the surface, but the looters destroy the top occupation layers (the market is now glutted with artifacts from these strata) and go for the bigger money-making layers around 5,000 B.C. (the Neolithic period) and earlier. University of Chicago archaeologist McGuire Gibson made a helicopter visit to the site in May 2003 and witnessed about 200 armed 044looters digging in broad daylight. A subsequent Coalition raid resulted in the arrest of a hundred of these looters and seemed to have undercut large-scale plundering. But even as late as the spring of 2004, smaller-scale nighttime looting definitely continued at the site, which was only protected by a single armed guard, who even showed journalists a ten-foot-deep trench freshly dug by looters.

In January 2004 John Russell, the Coalition Provisional Authority’s Senior Adviser to the Iraqi Ministry of Culture, flew over Ishan Bakhriyyat (ancient Isin) and saw looters brazenly waving up at the plane. Tell Shmid, Umm el-Hafriyyat, Tell Abu Duwari (ancient Mashkan-Shapir) and Fara (ancient Shuruppak) are examples of southern sites that, for all intents and purposes, have been destroyed for further 045archaeological research. To use an oft-quoted metaphor, they are like books of which we were only able to read a few pages before the rest were ripped out and shredded.

Nuffar (ancient Nippur) was in many ways the religious center of Sumer. It has been excavated by the University of Chicago since 1948. McGuire Gibson visited the site in May 2003 and arranged to pay the guards a year’s salary to protect the grounds. Unfortunately, armed bandits overwhelmed them, and when Gibson returned a week later more than 100 new holes had been dug. A couple of months afterwards, Coalition troops put in a show of force at the site. According to Gibson, however, fresh Nippur artifacts have already appeared on the illegal market.

The site of Telloh (ancient Girsu), too, 046has been systematically looted, especially after the local sheikhs made an agreement with the looters that 20 percent of the profits would go to the local mosque. Tell el-Lahm (ancient Kisiga) had been unexcavated until swarmed by looters last year. By January 2004, the Sumerian cemetery was pockmarked with looters’ holes and littered with smashed terracotta jars and fragments of human bones. Gone were the more valuable ceramic urns, necklaces made of gold and shells, cuneiform tablets and other valuable objects.

The looters run the gamut from rank amateurs to well-organized armed gangs, hundreds-strong, equipped with bulldozers and trucks. In May 2003 the guards at the northern site of Nimrud (ancient Kalhu, biblical Calah) were confronted with AK-47-toting bandits who besieged the fenced-in site. After the guards’ ammunition ran out and the bandits threatened their families, they reluctantly retreated. The thieves, tribesmen from the region, then used sledgehammers and crowbars to pry loose and carry off two chunks of the famous monumental alabaster reliefs. Whole slabs easily weigh hundreds of pounds. One relief slab was badly fractured but left in place. Several bullet holes are left as reminders of what happened.

The site of Nimrud was later put under the protection of U.S. soldiers and, eventually, a unit of the new “antiquities police force” (part of the Facilities Protection Service). This Iraqi archaeological-site protection force, however, is still very much in development; although it is projected to have 1,300 officers, the force now lacks such basic equipment as all-terrain vehicles and communication devices.

Overall, only the Dhi Qar province (its capital is Nasiriyyah) has seen a sustained interdiction effort against looters and smugglers of antiquities. It was here that a contingent of the Italian Carabinieri brought their many years of hands-on experience with tombaroli (tomb robbers) to bear. They have meaningfully curtailed looting and arrested dozens of looters. In July 2004, for example, they confiscated a large quantity of ancient Sumerian artifacts during a raid on a house in el-Fajir. The owner of the house, who was absent, is 047believed to be one of the more important middlemen buying up looted antiquities in the region. Among the artifacts recovered were statuettes, decorated pedestals, small containers for ointments, cuneiform tablets and gold jewelry. Iraqi officers (of the Facilities Protection Service) are being trained by the Carabinieri to take over the policing of this southern province.

Of Iraq’s neighbors, Jordan has from the beginning been exemplary in helping to catch antiquities smugglers coming from Iraq. Kuwait, Syria and Saudi Arabia have also started to co-operate in the investigations, though, as of last June, Turkish and Iranian authorities were still unwilling to become involved. According to my own rough tally based on published reports, at least 6,000 artifacts looted from provincial museums and sites had been recovered by August.

Not surprisingly, the movements of armies have also disturbed archaeological sites. For example, the new U.S. air base at Kirkuk, in the north, needed sandbags. Oblivious to the fact that practically every hill in Mesopotamia is a tell, American soldiers simply filled bags with earth from some of these hills. An officer with some interest in history stumbled upon sherds and other artifacts, reported the problem and put a stop to the practice. The local SBAH representative dated some of the finds as early as 3,000 B.C.

In the south, at the site of ancient Babylon, a U.S. military camp was established in 2003 soon after the major campaign had ended. Protecting the famous site from looters was actually one of the reasons given at the time for putting the camp in that location. It turns out that members of the Coalition Provisional Authority planned to restart excavations at Babylon, even though occupying forces are not allowed to do so under international law. These plans were aborted.

Later, in June 2004, we learned that the archaeological site had earlier been damaged when U.S. bulldozers were used to expand three parking lots and to build helicopter landing pads. The military also erected new buildings and brought in heavy trucks and trailers. Here, too, sandbags had been 050filled with artifact-rich local earth. The Coalition Provisional Authority chief, L. Paul Bremer, and the top U.S. military commander, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, themselves issued orders to close the camp by the end of the year. Last August, however, Iraqi minister of culture Mufid el-Jaza’iri complained that the SBAH was not being kept up-to-date about activities at Babylon.

Lately there have been a few successes in apprehending smugglers and intercepting antiquities before they leave the country. Last June, for example, the Iraqi police arrested four smugglers in Baghdad with almost 3,000 artifacts robbed from southern sites. In July, 2,000 artifacts about to be smuggled into Iran were intercepted by the Iraqi border police.

The international uproar over events in Iraq—especially the looting of the National Museum in Baghdad—has also had some effect. Switzerland has now ratified the 1970 UNESCO convention against the illegal art and antiquities trade. The German government has promised to join, too, but has not yet actually passed legislation.

In March 2004 Qal’at Sherqat (ancient Assur) was recognized by UNESCO as a world heritage site.^b This may very well be the final nail in the coffin of the old Makhul dam project, which would have inundated this and many other archaeological sites in northern Iraq. Also, the post-war reconstruction and infrastructure projects had stipulations in their 051contracts that archaeological and cultural-heritage finds needed to be reported to and assessed by the SBAH. It is not clear, though, how this would work in practice, considering the scale and number of projects. As the problems in Babylon have shown, rules on paper are one thing, but compliance is another.

In any event, a country with so rich a heritage as Iraq needs to have a strong, independent antiquities authority (the SBAH with teeth), with the power to protect known sites and to supervise all archaeological excavations and building projects (which often come across archaeological remains). And it needs to be supported by a strong Iraqi police force and international cooperation, especially from the West. We are still far from achieving that goal.

See my Web site (http://cctr.umkc.edu/user/fdeblauwe/iraq.html), The 2003 Iraq War & Archaeology, for thorough and up-to-date news and information on the plight of archaeology in Iraq. Its searchable, exhaustive archive goes back to early 2003.

A great deal of attention has been paid to the events of April 2003—when Baghdad fell to Coalition forces and looters pillaged the National Museum. Fortunately, most of the high-value artifacts on display in the public galleries of the museum had been securely stored elsewhere by the conscientious museum staff. Nonetheless, the losses, especially from the storage rooms, 042are still enormous (see box).a For a number of reasons, however, the spotlight has not been focused as intensely on the plight of archaeological sites throughout Iraq, a country that encompasses most of the territory of ancient Mesopotamia. Due to the […]