U.S. troops damage archaeological treasures at Babylon

[quaoar]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050115/wl_nm/iraq_babylon_dc

U.S.-Led Forces Damaged Ancient Babylon

By Kate Holton

LONDON (Reuters) - U.S.-led forces, using Iraq (news - web sites)'s ancient city of Babylon as a military base, have caused "substantial damage" to one of the world's most renowned archaeological treasures, a British Museum report said.

The report said U.S. and Polish military vehicles had crushed 2,600-year-old pavements in the city, a cradle of civilization and home to one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Archaeological fragments were used to fill sand bags, it added.

"This is tantamount to establishing a military camp around the Great Pyramid in Egypt or around Stonehenge in Britain," John Curtis, keeper of the museum's Ancient and Near East department, said in the report obtained by Reuters.


Curtis, invited to visit Babylon by Iraqi antiquities experts, said he had found cracks and gaps made by people who had apparently tried to gouge out the decorated bricks forming the famous dragons of the city's Ishtar Gate.

[Pooka Fey]

1. *shaking my head in sorrow*

[toymachines]

2. i second that shake

[Benhurst]

3. Barbarians at the gate. NT

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

4. But but but the Bible sez Babylon is EEEVIL! They're doing JEEBUS' work!

</talibornagain>