The looting of the Iraq Museum, Baghdad : the lost legacy of ancient Mesopotamia / edited by Milbry Polk and Angela M.H. Schuster.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Polk, Milbry.

Schuster, Angela M. H.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Matḥaf al-ʻIrāqī.

Iraq War, 2003-2011--Destruction and pillage.

Iraq War, 2003-2011.

Destruction and pillage.

Archaeological thefts--Iraq.

Archaeological thefts.

Iraq--Antiquities.

Iraq.

Antiquities.

Physical Description:

xiii, 242 pages : illustrations (chiefly color), color maps ; 27 cm

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Harry N. Abrams, 2005.

Summary:

The world watched in shock as news was broadcast throughout the world showing the break-in and the looting of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad in April of 2003. Priceless antiquities, spanning ten thousand years of human history, were torn out from their glass cases, statues were thrown to the floor and smashed, and remains of temples and royal palaces were broken into pieces. Even so, few realized at that moment the extent of the crime, not only against Iraq's but also humanity's common cultural heritage.

The Looting of the Iraq Museum, Baghdad is a reconstruction in book form of one of the world's largest and most important museums, which will never be the same again. Focusing on the objects housed at the museum and collected over decades of painstaking archaeological research and study, the book traces the rich tapestry of the history of ancient Mesopotamia from its earliest prehistory to the advent of Islam. Iraq is a country of firsts: the earliest villages, cities, writing, poetry, epic literature, temples, codified religion, armies, warfare, world economy, and empire. The archaeological artifacts that were looted represent our collective history and help us understand how civilization first began and how it evolved.

The chapters in the book are written by a cadre of international archaeologists who spent years in Iraq excavating and piecing together the history of Mesopotamia and whose finds were collected, catalogued, and displayed in the Museum. The looting of archaeological sites throughout Iraq continues to this day, and along with the plundered collections of the Museum, relics from these sites feed the large illicit trade in stolen artifacts. Many of the contributors to the book have been actively engaged in protecting this cultural heritage since the days before the war began and continue to do so, working with international cultural institutions. A part of the book's royalties is being donated to a joint fund set up by the Getty Trust and the World Monuments Fund to aid in the reconstruction of the Museum and in the preservation of Mesopotamia's-and humanity's-greatest cultural treasures. Told through the destroyed, damaged, and pillaged art, artifacts, and writings of the Iraq Museum, this fascinating and tragic story is sure to be a timeless and enduring book.

Contents:

Introduction / William R. Polk

The illicit trade in looted antiquities / Angela H.M. Schuster

Smuggling and looting in Iraq / Micah Garen and Marie-Hélène Carleton

A short history of the Iraq National Museum Usam / Ghaidan and Anna Paolini

A museum is born / Lamia al-Gailani Werr

Shanidar, Iraq in the beginning / Ralph and Rose Soleki, Anagnostis Agelarakis

Dawn of civilization / Harriet Crawford

The small treasures of the Iraq Museum / Fiorella Ippolitoni Strika

The lion hunt stele / Diana McDonald

The Warka vase / Diana McDonald

From village to empire: the rise of Sumer and Akkad / Paul Collins

Akkadian victory stele / Diana McDonald

Akkadian head of a king / Diana McDonald

The birth of writing, the dawn of literature / Robert D. Biggs

Cylinder seal impression / Diana McDonald

Babylonians and Assyrians / Julian Reade

Assyrian ivory lioness from Nimrud / Diana McDonald

Decoration from the Kassite temple of Karaindash from Uruk / Diana McDonald

In the wake of Alexander: Parthians and Sassanians /Elisabetta Valtz Fino

Alexander coin /Diana McDonald

The coming of Islam / Alastair E. Northedge

Baghdad through the ages / Vincenzo Strika

The ravages of war and the challenge of reconstruction / Selma al-Radi

The recovery of the Nimrud gold / Diana McDonald

Epilogue / Angela M.H. Schuster and Milbry Polk

The gods and goddesses of ancient Mesopotamia

References and resources / Barbara A. Porter

About the authors.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 219-227) and index.

ISBN:

0810958724

OCLC:

56672169