Babylonian archeological sites damaged
Jan. 16th, 2005 01:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ambitious_wench.S.-Led Forces Damaged Ancient Babylon-Report
Sat Jan 15, 2005 07:59 AM ET
By Kate Holton
LONDON (Reuters) - U.S.-led forces, using Iraq's ancient city of Babylon as a military base, have caused "substantial damage" to one of the world's most renowned archaeological treasures, a British Museum report said.
The report said U.S. and Polish military vehicles had crushed 2,600-year-old pavements in the city, a cradle of civilization and home to one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Archaeological fragments were used to fill sand bags, it added.
"This is tantamount to establishing a military camp around the Great Pyramid in Egypt or around Stonehenge in Britain," John Curtis, keeper of the museum's Ancient and Near East department, said in the report obtained by Reuters.
Curtis, invited to visit Babylon by Iraqi antiquities experts, said he had found cracks and gaps made by people who had apparently tried to gouge out the decorated bricks forming the famous dragons of the city's Ishtar Gate.
U.S. military commanders set up a base in Babylon in April 2003, just after the invasion to topple Saddam Hussein, and handed it over to a Polish-led force five months later.
Poland said it had decided to remove troops from the area when Warsaw realized having a military base there was not "beneficial to the site." The camp will be formally handed over to the Iraqi Culture Ministry on Saturday.
"We have moved our operations from camp Babylon and returned that site to the Iraqi people and to scientists because of its importance, not only to Iraq, but to the world's cultural heritage," said a spokesman for the Polish-led forces in Iraq.
"We realized the existence of a military base there was not beneficial to that site and when an opportunity of moving to a new camp arose we decided to move," Lieutenant Colonel Artur Domanski said.
Babylon was the capital of ancient Babylonia, an early civilization that existed from around 1,800 BC until 600 BC.
Most famous for the Hanging Gardens built by Nebuchadnezzar, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, large parts of it were reconstructed by Saddam in an attempt to associate himself with his country's past glories.
In the report, Curtis described the decision to set up a base in the area as "regrettable."
"Babylon is one of the most important archaeological sites in the world and the damage caused by the military camp is a further blow for the cultural heritage of Iraq," he said.
About 3.2 million square feet of the site was covered in gravel, the report said, brought in from outside which was compacted and sometimes chemically treated to make helipads and car parks. The report said the gravel would contaminate previously undisturbed archeological deposits.
The Guardian newspaper quoted U.S. Lieutenant Colonel Steven Boylan as saying the significance of Babylon was not lost on the foreign troops.
"An archaeologist examined every construction initiative for its impact on historical ruins."
Curtis said the Iraqi government should be urged to put Babylon forward for inclusion in the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO's) list of World Heritage Sites as soon as possible.
"Now, more than ever, Babylon needs the care, attention and advice that being a World Heritage Site would ensure it received," he said.
Domanski said Poland was aware of the charges that its forces had damaged the site and planned to reply to them no later than Sunday.
Sat Jan 15, 2005 07:59 AM ET
By Kate Holton
LONDON (Reuters) - U.S.-led forces, using Iraq's ancient city of Babylon as a military base, have caused "substantial damage" to one of the world's most renowned archaeological treasures, a British Museum report said.
The report said U.S. and Polish military vehicles had crushed 2,600-year-old pavements in the city, a cradle of civilization and home to one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Archaeological fragments were used to fill sand bags, it added.
"This is tantamount to establishing a military camp around the Great Pyramid in Egypt or around Stonehenge in Britain," John Curtis, keeper of the museum's Ancient and Near East department, said in the report obtained by Reuters.
Curtis, invited to visit Babylon by Iraqi antiquities experts, said he had found cracks and gaps made by people who had apparently tried to gouge out the decorated bricks forming the famous dragons of the city's Ishtar Gate.
U.S. military commanders set up a base in Babylon in April 2003, just after the invasion to topple Saddam Hussein, and handed it over to a Polish-led force five months later.
Poland said it had decided to remove troops from the area when Warsaw realized having a military base there was not "beneficial to the site." The camp will be formally handed over to the Iraqi Culture Ministry on Saturday.
"We have moved our operations from camp Babylon and returned that site to the Iraqi people and to scientists because of its importance, not only to Iraq, but to the world's cultural heritage," said a spokesman for the Polish-led forces in Iraq.
"We realized the existence of a military base there was not beneficial to that site and when an opportunity of moving to a new camp arose we decided to move," Lieutenant Colonel Artur Domanski said.
Babylon was the capital of ancient Babylonia, an early civilization that existed from around 1,800 BC until 600 BC.
Most famous for the Hanging Gardens built by Nebuchadnezzar, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, large parts of it were reconstructed by Saddam in an attempt to associate himself with his country's past glories.
In the report, Curtis described the decision to set up a base in the area as "regrettable."
"Babylon is one of the most important archaeological sites in the world and the damage caused by the military camp is a further blow for the cultural heritage of Iraq," he said.
About 3.2 million square feet of the site was covered in gravel, the report said, brought in from outside which was compacted and sometimes chemically treated to make helipads and car parks. The report said the gravel would contaminate previously undisturbed archeological deposits.
The Guardian newspaper quoted U.S. Lieutenant Colonel Steven Boylan as saying the significance of Babylon was not lost on the foreign troops.
"An archaeologist examined every construction initiative for its impact on historical ruins."
Curtis said the Iraqi government should be urged to put Babylon forward for inclusion in the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO's) list of World Heritage Sites as soon as possible.
"Now, more than ever, Babylon needs the care, attention and advice that being a World Heritage Site would ensure it received," he said.
Domanski said Poland was aware of the charges that its forces had damaged the site and planned to reply to them no later than Sunday.
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no subject
Date: 2005-01-16 01:22 pm (UTC)If you go to Greatest Journal and look up 'ginmar' you can see photos of Babylon.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-16 01:55 pm (UTC)Edie
no subject
Date: 2005-01-16 02:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-16 01:49 pm (UTC)Curtis, invited to visit Babylon by Iraqi antiquities experts, said he had found cracks and gaps made by people who had apparently tried to gouge out the decorated bricks forming the famous dragons of the city's Ishtar Gate.
Barring the stupid people I've written about, isn't it kind of biased of this guy to assume that it was military people who did this? CPT. Grumpy was an archeology minor and he was enraged when I told him someone we knew had taken things from the ruins.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-16 01:59 pm (UTC)I will draw the line at being called an ignorant slut, though. *wink* *grin*.
I watched the Reuters TV video, and some idiot was spouting nonesense about how the carved "lions" were supposed to "keep the people in line through fear".
Where do they come up with this shit?
Edie
no subject
Date: 2005-01-16 02:20 pm (UTC)Yes, I'm a bleeding-heart liberal, and the looting of Babylonian antiquities brought me to tears.
Now, for something completely off-topic: Do you read Riverbend's blog? Low traffic, not updated very often. Written in perfect English by a woman in Baghdad. I believe she is Iraqi, but I could be wrong.
I'm of the sort to be deeply impressed by intelligence, and this woman has it by the boatload.
Edie
no subject
Date: 2005-01-16 02:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-16 02:56 pm (UTC)And yes, I'm well aware that some people are more outraged by this than what is being done to women--not only the women of Iraq, but to US military women as well.
I am not justifying the disparity. For *me*, I can't equate the two. But I do see the same sort of mentality at work, the idea of "take what you want, you're entitled", whether antiquities or women. It's a matter of degree, and the horror of it happening to women is staggering. By focusing on it happening to antiquities (for me, at least), I can get outraged without being paralized with fear. This isn't to say that I don't think and recoil in horror at what's being done to women. I do.
So I start small, take small bites, so to speak, of horror and outrage. And by fighting against this mentality of entitlement at a low level, maybe I can change the mindset.
You've brought up some good points, Ginmar.
Edie
no subject
Date: 2005-01-17 05:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-17 05:08 am (UTC)And thanks for correcting where the Istar Gate is. Stay safe, come home to us whole.
Edie