Iraqi archeological site plunder update

"The great majority of Iraqi sites are in great danger,'' warned McGuire Gibson, a University of Chicago archaeologist who has been involved in Iraqi excavations since the early 1960s. He said the plundering of Iraq's hundreds of archaeological sites began much earlier than the looting of the Iraqi National Museum, which drew international attention in the hours and days after the capture of Baghdad by U.S. forces last month. . .

UNESCO said the looting has picked up since the U.S.-led war on Iraq began March 20 and that plunderers are thought to have started some digs as recently as early May. "I have seen with my own eyes new digging on sites that were never touched before,'' Gibson said. He singled out Nippur, the religious center of Sumerian and Mesopotamian civilization. . .

Gibson also mentioned the nearby site of Isin, where German archaeologists have worked for years; Larsa, in the south; and sites in Diala province, northeast of Baghdad. "We know of many more sites, mostly in the south and isolated areas, that are being systematically looted by 80 men, 100 men, and 300 men per day and the material is going out of the country at an increasing rate,'' Gibson said at a news conference.

Several important archaeological sites, including those in Nimrud and Kish, are being protected by U.S.-led coalition forces, he said.

Mounir Bouchnaki, assistant director-general of Paris-Based UNESCO, said the experts he led on his current visit to Iraq found that Baghdad's heritage sites remained unsecured. He speculated that it is worse outside the capital.

Posted by David on May 20, 2003 5:32 PM