Lawless in Mesopotamia: Iraq's antiquities were looted mostly by professional thieves, not by random hooligans. Archaeological sites are still imperiled by looters, as well as by hastily planned reconstruction

Natural History, March, 2004 by Zainab Bahrani

The work of the U.S. State Department in the renovation of the Iraq Museum and the adjoining offices of SBAH is an encouraging step toward protecting Iraq's heritage. As of this writing, many international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that specialize in cultural heritage have made long-range plans for monument surveys and inventories of sites, as well as for conservation and curatorial assistance. Those moves are much appreciated by archaeologists and Iraqis.

One major obstacle for those outside Iraq who would like to take part in such efforts, of course, is the serious personal security risk of working in Iraq. Largely because of that risk, only a small number of international specialists, out of passionate commitment, have bravely traveled to participate in the rescue effort so far. For their part, Iraqi archaeologists are limited in what they can do by the lack of supplies and lack of access to the sites. They are frustrated, too, by delays in the execution of plans, even as they witness the daily destruction of unsurveyed terrain, of sites that may conceal treasures destined to remain forever lost. The best hope is that the authority for coordinating national and international efforts will be fully restored to the men and women of the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage--those who best know how to protect and conserve this great human heritage.

After her first encounters with the magnificent ruins of such cities as Babylon and Hatra, says ZAINAB BAHRANI ("Lawless in Mesopotamia," page 44), she became fascinated with ancient Mesopotamia. The Iraq National Museum,, in her native city of Baghdad, was a favorite haunt of her early youth. When news of the museum's looting first emerged, in April 2003, she was determined to return and help with the rescue effort. Educated in Europe and the United States, Bahrani is now the Edith Porada Associate Professor of Ancient Near East Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University. She is the author of Women of Babylon: Gender and Representation in Mesopotamia (Routledge, 2001) and The Graven Image: Representation in Babylonia and Assyria (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003).