Looting of Iraq's Past: A Preview
Catastrophe! at Oriental Institute Explores Destruction of Sites
The Oriental Institute Museum's exhibition "Catastrophe! The Looting and Destruction of Iraq's Past" describes the plundering of important archaeological sites.
Catastrophe! The Looting and Destruction of Iraq's Past (April 10-December 31, 2008) at the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute Museum illustrates the widespread pillaging of archaeological sites in the presently war-torn Middle Eastern country. The exhibition premieres poignantly on the fifth anniversary of the looting of Baghdad's Iraq National Museum.
Ancient Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) was home to the invention of writing, the calendar and the wheel; its civilization developed cities and highly sophisticated art. Widely reported and immediately exaggerated by the media worldwide was the looting of Iraq's National Museum that occurred shortly after the country's invasion by American and allied forces on March 20, 2003. What has not received the same amount of attention in the mainstream press is the tragic and continued obliteration of Iraq's cultural heritage, the ongoing plundering of archaeological sites by Iraqis and their complicity in the illicit trade of the country's antiquities on an international scale.
The Exhibition
Catastrophe!... is organized around seven themes:
- archaeology's importance to the understanding of Western civilization's ancient Near Eastern origins;
- native and foreign devastation to Iraq's archaeological sites as illustrated by graphic satellite photography that concretely documents looting;
- shameful warfare and construction damage caused by the United States military at the historically important sites of Ur, Babylon and Samarra;
- archaeological context or what the location from where an object is excavated can tell us about the region's culture and past history;
- the illegal trade of Mesopotamian artifacts on the international art market and their seizure by Interpol and the United States' Department of Homeland Security;
- the lengthy rehabilitation of the Iraq National Museum; and
- suggestions for ending the looting of Iraq's patrimony.
Symposium
The Oriental Institute will host Looting the Cradle of Civilization: The Loss of History in Iraq, a public symposium, on Saturday, April 12, 2008. Distinguished speakers include McGuire Gibson, Professor of Mesopotamian Archaeology, University of Chicago and Donny George Youkhanna, former Director, Iraq National Museum and Visiting Professor, Department of Anthropology, State University of New York at Stony Brook.
Sources:
- André-Salvini, Béatrice (ed.), et al. Babylone (exh. cat.). Paris: Musée du Louvre Editions and Hazan, 2008.
- Aruz, Joan (ed.), with Ronald Wallenfels, et al. Art of the First Cities: The Third Millennium B.C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus (exh.cat.). New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2003.
- Harper, Prudence O., Evelyn Kengel-Brandt, Joan Aruz and Kim Benzel (eds.). Assyrian Origins: Discoveries at Ashur on the Tigris. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1995.
- Zettler, Richard L. and Lee Horne (eds.). Treasures from the Royal Tombs of Ur (exh. cat.). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
