Guardian: Exhibition exposes modern tragedy of Babylon

[laststeamtrain]

Exhibition exposes modern tragedy of Babylon


· British Museum leads calls to preserve Iraq's heritage
· Coalition troops accused of destroying historic sites

Robert Booth
Monday April 14, 2008
The Guardian

For more than 2,000 years the city of Babylon has been a byword for depravity and hubris. The Old Testament depicts it as an evil city and the legend of the Tower of Babel, a symbol of human arrogance, began there.

Now, the British Museum is to give new currency to Babylon's legends with a major exhibition including details of how American and coalition troops have wrecked priceless archaeological remains in the ancient city during the occupation of Iraq.

As part of a survey of Babylon from the reign of Nebuchadnezzar in the 6th century BC to the present day, the museum plans to use film and photographs to show how coalition tank tracks, helipads and fuel spills have ruined unexplored archaeological remains on one of the world's most important historic sites.

The museum's curators have discovered how souvenir hunters have damaged the remains of the famous Ishtar Gate by stealing brick reliefs of dragons, and how military vehicles have ripped through parts of a 2,600-year-old Processional Way leading to Nebuchadnezzar's palace.

Although the exhibition represents a wide survey of the myths and realities surrounding the city famed for its tower and hanging gardens, the decision to analyse the impact of the war in Iraq is likely to make uncomfortable viewing.

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His report shows how archaeologically important deposits were used to fill sandbags and how gravel and fuel were poured over swathes of the site, damaging remains beneath. "It's a tragedy of the highest cultural consequence unfolding before us and nobody is caring," said Cruickshank. "The British Museum is absolutely right to raise this issue. We need to debate what is happening to this place and the 10,000 other archaeological sites across Iraq that have not been fully documented and recorded."

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http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/news/story/0,,2273427,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=worldnews

[NanceGreggs]

1. This is such an incredible tragedy ...

... but thanks for posting something that actually matters, the importance of which has had too little publicity or attention.

[laststeamtrain]

4. You've probably read this before but...

The Smash of Civilizations
By Chalmers Johnson

The Burger King of Ur

<snip>

Until April 2003, the area around Ur, in the environs of Nasiriyah, was remote and sacrosanct. However, the U.S. military chose the land immediately adjacent to the ziggurat to build its huge Tallil Air Base with two runways measuring 12,000 and 9,700 feet respectively and four satellite camps. In the process, military engineers moved more than 9,500 truckloads of dirt in order to build 350,000 square feet of hangars and other facilities for aircraft and Predator unmanned drones. They completely ruined the area, the literal heartland of human civilization, for any further archaeological research or future tourism. On October 24, 2003, according to the Global Security Organization, the Army and Air Force built its own modern ziggurat. It "opened its second Burger King at Tallil. The new facility, co-located with . . . Pizza Hut, provides another Burger King restaurant so that more service men and women serving in Iraq can, if only for a moment, forget about the task at hand in the desert and get a whiff of that familiar scent that takes them back home."<21>

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http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/4710/chalmers_johnson_on_robbing_the_cradle_of_civilization
*

I just can't figure out why "they hate us so much".

The Burger King of Ur

[Mojorabbit]

2. So much lost...

Thanks for the article.

[Karenina]

3. Isn't destroying cultural heritage

one of the bullet points of genocide?

[babylonsister]

5. Oh, man. Not only have we destroyed their country, we're

destroying their history. :(

[slipslidingaway]

6. Thanks K&R n/t

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. The guy mentioned, Dan Cruickshank, gets points for keeping on this

He's just an architectural historian, who started to present architecture programmes on the BBC. But he went to Iraq in November 2002, and then was straight back there in mid-April 2003, to find out what had happened to the Baghdad Museum: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/recent/iraq/iraq_after_the_war_01.shtml

It's possible that him turning up with cameras just a few days after Baghdad was occupied stopped even worse stuff happening to the museum contents.

[pleah]

8. K&R After our troops first went in to Iraq,

and news reports we talking about how the museums were trashed. I just wanted to cry all over again.
I still have trouble understanding why they had to destroy everything in that country.