Iraq archeology playing cards

American troops in Iraq are being sent another deck of playing cards, this time showing some of the country's most precious archaeological sites and advice on how to respect them.

The Pentagon is sending 40,000 new decks to units in Iraq and Afghanistan, four years after it issued soldiers with a more gung-ho pack showing pictures and information about the most-wanted former members of Saddam Hussein's regime.

The cards are part of an archaeology awareness programme designed to make troops aware of the damage they can cause to sites and to discourage the illegal trade in artefacts.

No info on where civilians can get decks of their own. From the Telegraph, which really should have shown more care in the following passage:

After the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Americans built a helicopter pad on the ruins of Babylon and filled their sandbags with archaeological fragments from the ancient city.

What happened was serious enough, but it would have been better to have written "in the ruins of Babylon", and "disturbed the soil of the site filling their sandbags". As it stands, it gives the impression that the landing pad was put right on top of the palace, and that potsherds were used to fill the bags.

Posted by David on June 21, 2007 10:37 PM