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Museum Honers the Assyrian Heritage

...How`s it feel to be Honered??? The crappiest mish mash of papier mache pride anywhere in the world...read on...

Posted By: News (host-66-81-182-35.rev.o1.com)
Date: Monday, 12 January 2004, at 9:54 p.m.

Posted on Sun, Jun. 29, 2003

In little-known museum, labor of love honors

Assyrian heritage

BY ROBERT K. ELDER

Chicago Tribune

CHICAGO - (KRT) - Retired psychologist and museum curator Norman Solhkhah

is surrounded by fakes. A whole building of them, in fact. Since 1997,

Solhkhah's Mesopotamian Museum in Chicago has been home to full-scale

facsimiles of ancient Middle Eastern artifacts.

A half-block from a bustling avenue, the yellow-brick building sits across from a

preschool. Inside is Solhkhah's collection of marble-colored plaster casts and

vibrant paintings of Assyrian kings. On one wall, five human-size Assyrian

infantrymen stand armed with lances and shields - frozen in plaster and time.

Only viewing the slabs up close do cracks betray the white plaster beneath.

"My purpose is to teach people about history, not show the expensive pieces,"

says Solhkhah (pronounced "SOLE-kah," he says, "like polka").

It's not only a way for him to honor his family, his Assyrian heritage, but also an

opportunity to educate others about his cultural roots.

The fast-walking Solhkhah, 74, can be difficult to keep up with. The left front

pocket of his blue, button-down shirt bulges with business cards. Some are his

own full-color cards with a map of ancient Mesopotamia, but most are from

friends and contacts. They serve as a Rolodex-in-waiting for numbers that he

hasn't yet programmed into his belt-clipped cell phone that seems to constantly

ring.

Solhkhah, although born in Iran, introduces himself as Assyrian, a political and

cultural distinction held by a modern population of Christians with origins in the

modern-day Iran, Iraq and Syria. In1959, he moved to the U.S., fleeing the

climate of religious persecution in Iran. Starting at age 29, Solhkhah settled in

Chicago, married an Irish girl, had two sons and worked on multiple degrees at

the Illinois Institute of Technology.

After retiring from his psychology practice in 1988, Solhkhah filled the days

managing his strip mall properties in Chicago. Still restless, however,

Solhkhah's interest in his ancestral history turned into obsession when he and

his youngest son, Siris, traveled to Helsinki, Finland, for an Assyrian conference

in 1995.

Near the end of the event, he learned that a 600-square-foot wooden

reproduction of king Shalmaneser II's painted palace, commissioned for the

conference, was to be dismantled. Solhkhah considered purchasing it, although

at the time his plans ended there.

"Dad, if you don't buy it, you're going to be sorry for the rest of your life," said

Siris, a Chicago psychiatrist. And buy it he did, from the University of Helsinki for

$15,000 (and $5,500 in shipping).

"That became the beginning of my hobby, if you want to call it a hobby,"

Solhkhah says. "It's history, it's my history. I get satisfaction doing what I'm

doing. When you retire, what are you

going to do? Go sit home and rock yourself in a chair? I don't want to rock

myself, I'm coming here."

OCCUPIES A SPECIAL PLACE

Today, Shalmaneser II's throne room occupies the back right corner of

Solhkhah's 2,800-square-foot museum. In the front gallery, five glass cases full

of maps and ancient stone contracts take up most of the floor space. There

isn't much room for a rocking chair.

But before the museum's current Chicago location, Shalmaneser's throne room

set up temporary residence in the middle of one of Solhkhah's area shopping

centers.

"You know, it's funny," Solhkhah jokes. "I had more visitors there than here."

After searching extensively, Solhkhah bought the current museum's home in

1997, setting up it as a nonprofit organization the same year. Outside, three

regal-looking Assyrian bulls guard the front entrance of his modest, single-floor

museum. In ancient times, Assyrian kings posted these guardians at their

palatial gates, Solhkhah says, to symbolize power and wealth of the nation.

The tallest is a 10-foot, tan-colored plaster statue with the bearded head of a

man, with wings and the body of a lion. The other two guard a darkened glass

door under an awning with the words "The Museum" printed in black. From the

street, the property's guardian bulls appear caged behind white steel fence

that encloses a small, six-car parking area.

"I couldn't fit `Mesopotamian Museum,'" Solhkhah says, laughing. "I didn't have

room." The Museum shares the L-shaped complex with the Assyrian Media

Center - home of newspaper Assryian Times and a developing television studio.

AMC coordinator and publisher Yousip Bet Rasho, Solhkhah's friend of 30 years,

moved into the neighboring space four months ago and is developing it into a

fully-functional ethnic multi-media facility.

Local businesses like Karbon Kopy Printing and A Charlie's Fine Upholstry

speckle the neighborhood. On the corner, advertised by huge Vienna Beef sign,

sits Mike's #2, a gyro and hotdog sit-down diner with baklava on the menu - a

tiny indication of the neighborhood's multicultural roots.

Although Solhkhah claims 98 percent of his artifacts are copies with origins in

modern-day Iraq (the rest from Syria), Solhkhah says the name

"Mesopotamian" Museum is more fitting because it means "between the two

rivers" - namely the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers - which run through the Middle

East.

"It's not Iraqi," Solhkhah says. "Iraq only showed up after the first World War."

The museum's collection, he points out, is devoted to art and culture in the

region since 2800 B.C. Solhkhah walks from case to case, showing off artifacts -

many of which do not yet have labels or historical markers to give them

context. With absent labels, Solhkhah himself brings the objects to life with

stories and dates, directing you to maps and even looking

up facts to refresh his memory.

Most of Solhkhah's collection was molded circa 1891, from items in the British

Museum. The casts later made their way to Harvard University's Semitic

Museum, which, short on space for its growing collection, gave its pieces to

Solhkhah on permanent loan in 2000.

John Russell, archeologist and art historian near Boston at the Massachusetts

College of Art, says replica collections used to be very common in museums and

in historical studies.

"In the 19th century, it was understood you could learn a lot by studying

those," says Russell, author of "The Final Sack of Nineveh." "Today, museums

tend to focus on the unique artifact, so they don't want fakes and casts."

However, that doesn't diminish their value to the public, he says. "A well-done

reproduction is a great way to experience things that you can't get from the

fragments alone." Russell says. "It's a very good introduction to the ancient

roots of modern Assyrian culture."

The ancient empire of Assyria (roughly 2400 B.C. to 612 B.C.), with its

agricultural origins and rich art heritage, has fascinated archeologists such as

Russell for years.

But this "dead civilization" has very lively roots in modern Assyrians, who have

been migrating to the U.S. since the early 20th century after forced

conversions, persecution and murder by Islamic powers.

"We aren't welcomed too nicely in the Islamic world," Solhkhah says. "I don't

want to make my life sound tragic, but my father and my brother were killed by

Islam in 1946 because they were Christians. It's a continuing process there ... "

CENSUS RESULTS

Nearly 14,000 Cook County (near Chicago) residents checked

"Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac" in their 2000 census survey, although Solhkhah

says there are probably more.

"We have a lot of businesses, grocery stores and bakeries in Skokie, Niles and

Rogers Park (northwest areas of Chicago)," says Isho Lilou, director of the

Assyrian National Council of Illinois. Lilou estimates that, contrary to census

data, the Assyrian community in Cook County may be as large as "80,000 to

100,000" because some may have marked their ancestry as "Arab/Arabic,"

"Iranian" or some other geographical distinction.

Lilou says the most visible face of the Assyrian community in Chicago is the April

1 parade for the Assyrian New Year, attended by about 10,000 people each

year. "And we have clubs, banquets. It's a very old nation. We're scattered all

over. We're homeless, no country. Some of us are in Canada, Australia,

Europe," Lilou says.

Earlier in the 20th century, Assyrians started settling in places such as North

Chicago and Gary, Ind., Solhkhah says. Large communities still exist near

Modesto, Calif., and New York City. Parts of Solhkhah's family are spread out

from California to New York.

"There's no question that the personal part (of the museum) has been the

family legacy," says Roman, the eldest of his two sons and also a psychiatrist,

based in New York.

Solhkhah's passion for the museum isn't shared by everyone, however.

"Most of the rest of the family thinks he's kinda crazy and doing wasteful things

with the money," Roman says, laughing. "Maybe they think it is better spent on

them."

Only this year, after a seven-year battle, did Solhkhah's local county cut him a

tax break on his building. Previously property taxes had been around $28,000

annually but are now $18,000, he says.

Absent any sponsors or patronage, Solhkhah pays for most of the restorations,

maintenance and additions to the museum. The museum does not support

itself, nor does it have any sponsor, Solhkhah says. In effect, his real estate

investments fuel his archeological interests.

"The museum itself does not produce money. You cannot take the money with

you," Solhkhah says, philosophically. "God is not interested in your money.

What am I going to do with it?"

A staff of volunteers run the museum on weekdays from 1 to 6 p.m., although

Solhkhah himself says he spends 20-30 hours a week at the site - more if he's

restoring a piece. Although the Mesopotamian Museum has been open for more

than six years, Solhkhah says few people outside the local Assyrian community

have visited it.

Solhkhah has a tough climb ahead of him, says Isho, attracting visitors to the

museum.

"To tell you the truth, I haven't been there in awhile. But I believe it's a very,

very good idea. That man is working very hard to establish the museum," Lilou

says. "He's advertising on Assyrian radio, but I don't know what else he can

do, besides (more) advertising. He's just not trying to reach a neighborhood,

but everywhere."

It's an uphill battle Solhkhah is fighting and he's hoping to increase community

awareness of the museum by reaching out to high schools, offering it as a field

trip opportunity. He's also participating in the education program for the 70th

Annual National Convention of the Assyrian American National Federation near

Chicago Aug. 28-Sept. 1. During those five days, Solhkhah will book shuttles

between his museum and the convention center.

And for the second year in a row, he'll have a handful of interns helping out -

"four or five" area high school students from the Urhai Community Service

Center, through the Cook County Board of Education's community service

program.

"They learn a lot of things, and he's right next door to the Assyrian Media

Center," says Angel Kindo, executive director of the Urhai center. "He always

needs help, so we provide him with students. It's good for them to work with

something historic, and they enjoy it."

"His museum is pretty idiosyncratic," says Martha Roth, professor of Assyriology

at the University of Chicago. "It's not something that stands up to the rigor of

stricture archeological standards, but it's very accessible to people and

colorful."

In the meantime, Solhkhah continues to do restoration work, talk to the

occasional Assyrian tour group and collect small pieces for the museum.

Although Solhkhah often travels abroad for conferences and archeological digs,

he has declined to visit his native village in Iran.

"I talked with him about it and he's absolutely refused to go because he thinks

it'd be too painful," Roman says. "Remembering the persecution is too difficult.

Very painful."

HONORING HIS FATHER

Roman says Solhkhah seldom discusses his father, Abraham, or his brother,

Owner, but Roman says the museum is his father's way of paying tribute to

them.

"It's a way to honor them and share with the future generations," Roman says.

When asked directly about this, Solhkhah only grows uncharacteristically quiet.

What would his father say about the museum?

"`Bravo,'" Solhkhah says. "I think he would say, `Bravo.'"

...I think your father is about as stupid a man as you are then. Your fucking museum is a travesty...and you merely tried to inflate its worth and pawn it off on someone...Helen Schwarten to be exact and then the Civic Club in Turrlock for the tax benefit...you thought your scam was going to work till we had our chat. That place is an insult to the Human Race and you aren`t far behind. Sue me you prick..

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