Heritage Destruction in Iraq: What are the Lessons Learned? (original) (raw)

Abstract

Presentation at "Iraq 10 Years On: Intervention, Occupation, Withdrawl and Beyond" conference: Everyone is familiar with the looting of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad in April of 2003, while this was a devastating incident, there are many cultural sites located throughout the country that also suffered from a variety of other problems between 2003 and 2012. These range from targeted bombings of sites, unlawful construction of modern structures on ancient ruins, and severe conservation neglect of sites due to fear of conservators visiting volatile provinces. Each of these has led to varying degrees of damages to many of Iraq’s cultural heritage sites. This paper will discuss the different types of destruction inflicted on cultural heritage sites in Iraq, including ancient archaeological ruins, modern and historical cultural material, and religious sites. I will provide examples outlining lessons learned over the course of the past decade, what was done properly, and what could have been done better. Why were the ruins of Babylon used as a military base, and what was the impact on the site? Was tearing down the numerous Saddam Hussein murals and statutes ultimately beneficial to the Iraqi population? The bombing of the Al-Askari Mosque in Samarra incited Sectarian violence, could this have been prevented? From these and other examples, we should be able to piece together a plan to prevent or at lest mitigate a repeat of past mistakes.

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