WASHINGTON, D.C.- An appeal to protect Iraq’s antiquities was sent by a group of prominent archaeologists. Representing 15 of the world’s leading museums and most prominent universities, the scholars urged combatants to take steps to prevent the destruction of relics from what many believe to be the cradle of civilization.
The appeal, signed by 18 specialists in the preservation and restoration of Iraq’s archaeological treasures, was released on Friday in a letter to Science magazine.
"The extraordinary significance of the monuments, museums and archaeological sites of Iraq - ancient Mesopotamia - imposes an obligation on all peoples and governments to protect them," the letter said.
’Not to aid in targeting, but rather to aid in not targeting’
"In any military conflict, that heritage is put at risk and it appears now to be in grave danger," it said.
The letter appeared as the US-led invasion of Iraq entered its "shock and awe" phase with massive bombings of Baghdad and other cities around the country.
The signatories of the letter called on the international community to take a post-war role in assisting in the protection of antiquities from looting and themselves pledged to help Iraqi Department of Antiquities do its job.
The appeal was accompanied by a detailed report on the dangers facing the country’s heritage written by McGuire Gibson, president of the American Association for Research in Baghdad, who raised grave fears about the impact of sustained fighting on Iraq’s patrimony.
"Measured against human suffering, material items seem less significant, but also under threat is an important part of the world’s cultural heritage," he said.
"Iraq is ancient Mesopotamia, where the earliest civilization was developed in the fourth millennium BC," he said.
Gibson noted that Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Seleucid Greeks, Parthians, Iranian Sasanians and then Arabs had all ruled increasingly complex empires from capitals in modern-day Iraq.
Gibson was one of several scholars to approach the Pentagon late last year to help identifying sites that should be protected from bombing and conflict.
That team pointed out about 4 000 sites of significance to strategists in the defence department, "not to aid in targeting, but rather to aid in not targeting," Gibson said in the article entitled Fate Of Iraqi Archaeology.