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=> Joanne Farchakh: "Mesopotamia Endangered - Witnessing the Loss of Hist

Joanne Farchakh: "Mesopotamia Endangered - Witnessing the Loss of Hist

Posted by Jeff (Guest) jeff@attoz.com - Wednesday, February 2 2005, 6:28:35 (CET) from 69.14.30.71 - d14-69-71-30.try.wideopenwest.com Commercial - Windows XP - Mozilla Website: Website title:

I saw a presentation today at the Chaldean Community Cultural Center (CCCC) in West Bloomfield. It was given by Joanne Farchakh, a journalist and archaeologist, and it was entitled "Mesopotamia Endangered - Witnessing the Loss of History". The speaker, a Lebanese woman, showed slides of photos that she took herself in many of the most famous (and also lesser known) archaeological sites in Iraq, including Nimrod, Nineveh, Ashor, and many sites in the south. She broke down the lecture into several sections, including an in-depth description of the historical, political, social, religious, political, cultural, and economic aspects of the looting of Archaelogical sites. She added that while she spoke at Harvard and other well known institutions, she was really looking forward to speaking with IRAQIS about this crisis. While she put on a good presentation, I couldn't help but to be depressed at conclusions that I drew based on her lecture: - The majority of the archaeological sites in Iraq are irreversibly ruined. What were once magnificent cities are now shards of broken pottery and mounds of dirt and rubble. - The people who used to live in proximity to these sites, the modern day Iraqis (who are undoubtably descendants of the creators of the Cradle of Civilization), who used to live transparently in a modern society filled with ancient treasures, are now starving and dying, forced by economic and political pressures, to loot their own heritage for pennies on the dollar. - The Iraqi archaeologists like Donny George and others are threatened every day and have to take different roads and be extra cautious as their colleagues are murdered one-by-one. Some interesting notes: In the south, Saddam used to purchase wheat and other farm products that these peasants grew and these people never had to worry about starving to death. When the US soldiers came in and took over the country, they didn't purchase the agricultural products from the Iraqis, and they didn't fill the void and guard the archaeological sites as the Iraqi government used to, creating a perfect opportunity for these people to be hired by looters. Some archaeological sites had as many as 400 looters working 7 days a week, at one INDIVIDUAL site! The looting began in 1989 but picked up significantly after the first gulf war. 5 years later, the Iraqi government hired the looters to assist THEIR archaeologists. All they had to do was pay them more than the professional black-market art dealers paid... and this worked, until the SECOND war. When the US came in, these looters turned archaeological assistants again went back to work as looters for the art dealers. The only foreign occupying force that protected any of Iraq's sites was the Italian Carabeniaeri (I don't have a clue as to how to spell that) When someone asked: "Why do private collectors pay such a high price for these antiquities?", the answer was that these private collectors are wealthy, and if they can have a piece of history from the world's greatest ancient civilizations, it boosts their ego. Also, they could donate the piece to a museum and take a tax write off. ...and it goes on and on from there. Iraq is fucked. So interesting, but so much more depressing. --------------------- - BACK TO INDEX - REPLY - QUOTE - EDIT - DELETE -

The full topic: Joanne Farchakh: "Mesopotamia Endangered - Witnessing the Loss of Hist Jeff - Wednesday, February 2 2005, 6:28:35 (CET) Re: Joanne Farchakh: "Mesopotamia Endangered - Witnessing the Loss of Jeff - 02/02 17:01 Re: Joanne Farchakh: "Mesopotamia Endangered - Witnessing the Loss of pancho - 02/02 21:44 Joanne Farchakh: "Mesopotamia Endangered - Witnessing the Loss of Hist pancho - 02/02 21:35

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