Looting

Loss, and what was done about it. The 1991 and 2003 museum losses, the pitted sites, the damage done at Babylon by a military camp, the demolitions at Nimrud and the Mosul Museum, then the seizures, the forfeitures and the repatriations, including the Gilgamesh Dream Tablet. On the 2003 looting the number everyone knows is wrong: about fifteen thousand items were taken, not a hundred and seventy thousand, and roughly six thousand had come back by 2009. The larger and less filmable loss is the looting of unexcavated sites. Note that this is the thinnest facet in the archive, because free imagery of loss barely exists while imagery of possession is abundant.

Part of Mesopotamia

134 moments in this segment.

  1. - Ridpath's history of the world; being an account of the ethnic origin, primitive estate, early migrations, social conditions and present pro. (1897) (14803434373). The 2015 Mosul Museum video showed both replicas and genuine originals being destroyed, and accounts that present only one half of that are wrong in both directions. Nimrud, bulldozed the same year, was the real catastrophe.
  2. - Babylonian Marriage Market, by Sir Edwin Long. The larger loss was never the museum. Unexcavated site looting removed far more, and it gets less coverage because there is no dramatic footage of it.
  3. - Iraqi Looters in the Archaeological site of Isin 2. Looting pits at an Iraqi archaeological site. The larger loss was never the Iraq Museum: unexcavated site looting removed far more, and it gets less coverage because there is no dramatic footage of it.
  4. - Iraqi Looters in the Archaeological site of Isin 1. Looting pits at an Iraqi archaeological site. The larger loss was never the Iraq Museum: unexcavated site looting removed far more, and it gets less coverage because there is no dramatic footage of it.
  5. - Archaeologist critical of damage US military caused to ancient ruins. An archaeologist criticises damage caused by the US military to ancient ruins. Camp Alpha at Babylon involved trenching, vehicle traffic over archaeological deposits and the use of ancient material in defences.
  6. - Hatra-26682. Looting pits at an Iraqi archaeological site. The larger loss was never the Iraq Museum: unexcavated site looting removed far more, and it gets less coverage because there is no dramatic footage of it.
  7. - Stolen Ancient Artifacts Returned to Iraq Museums. Stolen antiquities returned to Iraqi museums. The 2003 theft from the basement store took roughly 10,000 small objects, mostly cylinder seals and beads, and those are the hardest to trace.
  8. - Looters target Iraq antiquities. Looters target Iraqi antiquities. Site looting is the larger loss and gets less coverage than the museum precisely because there is no dramatic footage of a field being dug over.
  9. - Iraq National Museum, looted in 2003, is open for special visitors only. The Iraq National Museum open only to special visitors, years after the looting. For long stretches the collection existed but the public could not see it.
  10. - A looter's pit (left) at the ancient Sumerian city of Kish, Iraq. Fragments of pottery (right) are scattered near the pit. Looting pits at an Iraqi archaeological site. The larger loss was never the Iraq Museum: unexcavated site looting removed far more, and it gets less coverage because there is no dramatic footage of it.
  11. - Abu Kemal pillage et destruction à Mari البوكمال تعديات حفر سري في ماري تل الحريري. Illegal digging and damage documented at Mari, Tell Hariri. Organised looting pits destroy stratigraphy, which is the information that makes an object more than a curiosity.
  12. - Lawrence Rothfield on Antiquities Under Siege. 2003 losses were foreseeable and that planning to prevent them was available and not acted on.
  13. - Aboukemal : Rapport sur Tell al-Hariri- Mari البوكمال : تقرير عن موقع تل الحريري ماري 30.10.2013. A report on the condition of Tell Hariri, Mari, during the Syrian conflict. Mari suffered heavy illegal digging after 2011.
  14. - IRAQ: BAGHDAD: MUSEUM REOPENS AFTER 10 YEARS. Baghdad's museum reopens ten years after the invasion. Museum staff had moved much of the collection to secure storage before 2003, including the Treasure of Nimrud, which survived in a flooded Central Bank vault and was found intact.
  15. - Royal Akkadian Head from Nineveh (inv.nr. IM 11331). The Iraq Museum in Baghdad. The widely reported figure of 170,000 items lost in 2003 is wrong: it came from a miscommunication by the first crews on the scene plus empty cases whose contents curators had removed before the First Gulf War. The accurate figure is around 15,000 items, of which roughly 6,000 had been recovered as of 2009.
  16. - Heritage Protection and Illicit Trafficking of Cultural Property in Iraq. 1970 UNESCO Convention is the main instrument and it binds only signatories going forward.
  17. - The Scourge of Looting: Trafficking Antiquities, from Temple to Museum. The scourge of looting, tracing objects from temple to museum. Provenance research is now standard practice for museums acquiring Near Eastern material, and it was not always so.
  18. - Heritage and Cultural Diversity at Risk in Iraq and Syria. 2011 have been to communities as well as to monuments.
  19. - UNESCO Director General condemns destruction of Nimrud in Iraq. UNESCO's Director-General condemns the destruction of Nimrud. UNESCO described the demolition as a war crime, and the site had been on its tentative list.
  20. - Looted ancient relics return to Iraq
  21. - Hundreds of looted artefacts return to Iraq. 1991 and again after 2003, destroying the context of tens of thousands of objects.
  22. - Museum looted at start of US-led invasion is reopened. The Iraq Museum in Baghdad reopens after the looting of 8 to 12 April 2003. The figure broadcast at the time, over 170,000 objects, was wrong by an order of magnitude and confused stolen items with the museum's total registered holdings; the established count is around 15,000.
  23. - Destruction of Iraq Artifacts Shocks Archaeologists. Archaeologists react to the destruction of artefacts in Iraq. The perpetrators produced and released the footage themselves, so the responsible sources here are documentation, survey imagery and before-and-after comparison rather than the video.
  24. - IS video shows destruction of ancient Assyrian city. News reporting on the released video of the Nimrud demolition. The destruction at Nimrud was genuine, catastrophic and irreversible in place, and it is the worst of the losses, more so than the Mosul Museum footage that drew more attention.
  25. - Archaelogical site of Nimrud before destruction. UNESCO footage of Nimrud before its destruction. Nimrud, ancient Kalhu, was bulldozed and then explosively demolished by ISIS in March and April 2015; the Northwest Palace of Ashurnasirpal II and the ziggurat were substantially destroyed.
  26. - Iraq's Nimrud before it was destroyed by Isis | Guardian Wires. Footage of Nimrud as it stood before the 2015 demolition. Before-and-after documentation is the appropriate way to show this loss without reproducing the perpetrators' own material.
  27. - 27/02/2015 - TG 2000, D. Morandi Bonacossi on Mosul Museum destructions. Daniele Morandi Bonacossi assesses the Mosul Museum destruction days after the February 2015 video appeared. Replicas were prominent in the footage because many originals had been moved to Baghdad, but genuine pieces including Hatra material and heavy Assyrian originals were destroyed.
  28. - Saving Ancient Syrian and Iraqi Sites From Looters. Efforts to protect Syrian and Iraqi sites from looters. The larger loss to Mesopotamian archaeology is not museum theft but the organised digging of unexcavated sites, which destroys context that cannot be recovered even when objects are.
  29. - #Unite4Heritage. Celebrating Iraq’s cultural diversity. UNESCO's Unite4Heritage campaign celebrating Iraq's cultural diversity. Iraq's heritage includes Assyrian, Yazidi, Christian, Jewish, Turkmen and Kurdish strands alongside the ancient sites.
  30. - Negotiations and Collaborations: Iraqi Institute with Jessica S. Johnson & Kym Rice. Negotiations and collaborations at the Iraqi Institute for the Conservation of Antiquities and Heritage in Erbil. The institute trains Iraqi specialists in conservation and collections care.
  31. - Using Satellites to Connect the Dots: Looted Antiquities, ISIL, and the Syrian Civil War. ASOR on using satellite imagery to track looted antiquities across Iraq and Syria. Satellite work is the only practical way to measure site looting, because the pits appear from above and nobody films the digging.
  32. - Heritage Under the Sword: The Story of the Destruction of Iraq's Cultural Heritage. Heritage under the sword, on the destruction of Iraq's cultural heritage. The losses run from 1991 through 2003 to 2014, and the pattern is that damage follows the collapse of ordinary policing.
  33. - Saving Our Cultural Heritage by Combating Illicit Excavation and Trade in Antiquities. Combating illicit excavation and the antiquities trade. The 1970 UNESCO Convention is the main international instrument, and it is not retroactive.
  34. - RecoVR: Mosul, a collective reconstruction
  35. - Nimrud: drone footage shows ISIL destruction of Iraqi ancient city. Drone footage surveys the destruction at Nimrud after the site was retaken. Aerial recording establishes the extent of a loss that cannot be assessed from the ground alone.
  36. - At Iraq's Nimrud, remnants of fabled city IS sought to destroy. What remains at Nimrud after the site was retaken. Iraqi teams have worked since on recording and stabilising the fragments rather than rebuilding.
  37. - Nimrud: Iraqi troops visit destroyed ancient city - BBC News. Iraqi troops visit the destroyed ancient city of Nimrud after its recapture in 2016. Assessment could only begin once the site was militarily secure.
  38. - Destroyed Ancient City of Nimrud Emerges From Under ISIS Rule. Nimrud emerges from occupation, wrecked. The consolation, and it is a bitter one, is that major Nimrud reliefs survive in London, New York and Boston because of nineteenth-century partage.
  39. - Wall of a church destroyed by ISIS in Bakhdida city. the Nineveh Governorate, Northern Iraq, Western Asia. 12 November, 2016. The 2015 Mosul Museum video showed both replicas and genuine originals being destroyed, and accounts that present only one half of that are wrong in both directions. Nimrud, bulldozed the same year, was the real catastrophe.
  40. - Warka Vase. The Warka vase is a large white limestone vase, one of the central pieces of the Iraqi Museum. Found in Warka, it dates back to the time of Djemdet Nasr (3150-2900 BC. B.C.) and is engraved with scenes illustrating religious rituals, processions of priests carrying baskets and fruit pots, oil and wine.
  41. - Chariot Group. Nimrud, ancient Kalhu, capital under Ashurnasirpal II and the site of the Northwest Palace, the Nimrud ivories and the queens' tombs found by the Iraqi archaeologist Muzahim Mahmud Hussein between 1988 and 1990, a discovery usually left out of Western tellings. It was bulldozed in 2015, and it was the real catastrophe of that year, more than the Mosul Museum video.
  42. - Mask of Warkaa. A face made of white stone (marble) representing a Sumerian woman, the eyes and eyebrows were inlaid with precious stones. In Warka, its time dates back to the era of Jemda Nasr (3000-29,000 BC), and this piece was one of the pieces that were returned to the Iraqi Museum after it was stolen in the events of 2003 AD.
  43. - Rekrei: A public platform for digitally preserving lost heritage. Rekrei, formerly Project Mosul, a public platform that rebuilds lost heritage digitally from crowdsourced photographs. Tourists' snapshots of the Mosul Museum before 2015 became the raw material for photogrammetric models of objects that no longer exist.
  44. - September 11, 2016. The upper surface of Yasin Tepe ancient mound, innumerable looters' pits. Sulaymaniyah Governorate, Iraqi Kurdistan. Looting pits at an Iraqi archaeological site. The larger loss was never the Iraq Museum: unexcavated site looting removed far more, and it gets less coverage because there is no dramatic footage of it.
  45. - September 11, 2016. The upper surface of Yasin Tepe ancient mound, ruins of a building with looters' pits. Sulaymaniyah Governorate, Iraqi K
  46. - First Aid to Cultural Heritage in Times of Crisis
  47. - A Momentary Erasure of Millennia: The Cultural Heritage Crises in Syria and Iraq. A momentary erasure of millennia, on the cultural heritage crises in Syria and Iraq. Palmyra, discussed alongside Iraq in these surveys, is in Syria and is Roman-era, and it is not Mesopotamia.
  48. - Little left of Jonah's grave in Mosul. Little remains of the shrine of Jonah in Mosul, destroyed in July 2014. Nabi Yunus sits on an Assyrian mound at Nineveh, which is why demolishing the shrine opened a palace beneath it.
  49. - Priceless remains lie in ruins at Mosul museum. Reporting from inside the wrecked Mosul Museum after the city was retaken. The honest account is a mix, with replicas prominent in the video and real losses alongside them, rather than either it was all fake or everything was original.
  50. - Mosul Museum Left In Ruins | NBC News. The Mosul Museum left in ruins. The video released in February 2015 was made by the perpetrators to be broadcast, which is why documentation, before-and-after comparison and survey work are the better sources here.
  51. - Reduced to rubble by ISIS, archaeologists see a new day for ancient city of Nimrud. Archaeologists assess Nimrud after ISIS and consider what can be done. Reconstruction at a bulldozed mudbrick and stone site is a matter of recording and consolidation, not of putting the palace back.
  52. - Jihadist tunnels uncover Assyrian winged bulls in Mosul. Tunnels dug by militants beneath Mosul expose Assyrian winged bulls. The destruction of the shrine of the Prophet Yunus in July 2014 and the tunnelling under it revealed a previously unknown Assyrian palace, probably of Esarhaddon.
  53. - Cultural Heritage in Armed Conflict: The 1954 Hague Convention and its two (1954 and 1999) Protocols. UNESCO on the 1954 Hague Convention for the protection of cultural property in armed conflict and its two protocols. Deliberate destruction of cultural property is a war crime under this framework.
  54. - Bridging cultures in post-Daesh Iraq: safeguarding the world's oldest bridge. Work to safeguard the ancient bridge at Girsu after the Daesh occupation of northern Iraq. Conservation in Iraq has run alongside conflict for two decades and the labour is largely Iraqi.
  55. - UNESCO Initiative “Revive the spirit of Mosul”. An introduction to UNESCO's Revive the Spirit of Mosul initiative, launched in 2018. The programme treats the city's built fabric and its communities together rather than restoring monuments in isolation.
  56. - 🇺🇸 🇮🇶 'We have a kinship with these artefacts': US returns Iraq's stolen relics | Al Jazeera. The United States returns stolen relics to Iraq, with Iraqi officials describing a kinship with the objects. Repatriation ceremonies are as much about acknowledgement as about the items handed over.
  57. - Bridge of nineveh. The oldest bridge connecting the banks of the Tigris River in the city of Mosul - called the Old Bridge - was destroyed during the military operations and was reconstructed. The 2015 Mosul Museum video showed both replicas and genuine originals being destroyed, and accounts that present only one half of that are wrong in both directions. Nimrud, bulldozed the same year, was the real catastrophe.
  58. - Revive the Spirit of Mosul - 3D immersion. A three-dimensional immersion in Revive the Spirit of Mosul. Digital recording of the damaged fabric guided the physical reconstruction.
  59. - This Ancient Iraqi Shrine is a Window to the Story of Jonah. The shrine of Jonah at Mosul and its layered history. The site was venerated across communities before its destruction, and the Assyrian levels beneath it had never been excavated.
  60. - Recovering Stolen Treasures from Iraq's National Museum (2003). A documentary account of the effort to recover treasures stolen from Iraq's National Museum in 2003. The investigation was led by Colonel Matthew Bogdanos of the US Marine Corps reserve, a New York prosecutor in civilian life.
  61. - British Museum returns looted Iraqi artefacts. The British Museum returns looted Iraqi artefacts. Museums increasingly act as identifiers and intermediaries in returns rather than as end holders.
  62. - Recovered Mesopotanian antiquities in Baghdad. Recovered Mesopotamian antiquities on show in Baghdad. Cylinder seals dominate the recovered material because roughly 5,000 of the 2003 losses were seals from the basement store.
  63. - Mosul museum reopens to exhibit contemporary art. The Mosul Museum reopens partially to exhibit contemporary art, before its antiquities galleries were restored. Using the shell of the wrecked building was an early step back to public life.
  64. - National Museum to recover 15,000 stolen artefacts. Iraq's National Museum works to recover the roughly 15,000 artefacts stolen in 2003. The theft had three distinct profiles: about 40 major display pieces taken by people who knew exactly what to take, some 3,150 from above-ground storerooms, and around 10,000 small objects from a basement store in what looked like an inside job.
  65. - Bassetki Statue, Akkadian period, 23rd century BCE, from Bassetki, Iraq. Iraq Museum. The name of the Akkadian king Naram-Sin appears on the statue's base. The Bassetki statue was looted somewhere between April 10-12, 2003 CE, after the fall of Saddam's regime.
  66. - Cueniform inscription on the the Bassetki statue, Akkadian period, 23rd century BCE, from Bassetki, Iraq. Iraq Museum. There is an Old Akkadian text inscribed on the upper surface of the pedestal before the left leg, which states that this statue guarded an entrance into a palace of Naram-Sin (in what we call today southern Iraq). The Bassetki statue was looted somewhere between April 10-12, 2003 CE, after the fall of Saddam's regime.
  67. - The upper surface of Yasin Tepe ancient mound, innumerable looters' pits. Sulaymaniyah Governorate, Iraqi Kurdistan. Looting pits at an Iraqi archaeological site. The larger loss was never the Iraq Museum: unexcavated site looting removed far more, and it gets less coverage because there is no dramatic footage of it.
  68. - Views of the ruins and markets at the mound where the Shrine of Nebi Yunis was built, in summer of 2019 after its destruction by the Islamic. 01. The 2015 Mosul Museum video showed both replicas and genuine originals being destroyed, and accounts that present only one half of that are wrong in both directions. Nimrud, bulldozed the same year, was the real catastrophe.
  69. - Views in Mosul at the base of the Shrine of Nebi Yunis was built, in summer of 2019 after its destruction by the Islamic State 03. The 2015 Mosul Museum video showed both replicas and genuine originals being destroyed, and accounts that present only one half of that are wrong in both directions. Nimrud, bulldozed the same year, was the real catastrophe.
  70. - Views in Mosul at the base of the Shrine of Nebi Yunis was built, in summer of 2019 after its destruction by the Islamic State 06. The 2015 Mosul Museum video showed both replicas and genuine originals being destroyed, and accounts that present only one half of that are wrong in both directions. Nimrud, bulldozed the same year, was the real catastrophe.
  71. - Views in Mosul at the base of the Shrine of Nebi Yunis was built, in summer of 2019 after its destruction by the Islamic State 07. The 2015 Mosul Museum video showed both replicas and genuine originals being destroyed, and accounts that present only one half of that are wrong in both directions. Nimrud, bulldozed the same year, was the real catastrophe.
  72. - Views of a partially destroyed Aghawat Mosque in the old city of Mosul, in summer of 2019 after war with the Islamic State 01. The 2015 Mosul Museum video showed both replicas and genuine originals being destroyed, and accounts that present only one half of that are wrong in both directions. Nimrud, bulldozed the same year, was the real catastrophe.
  73. - Views of a partially destroyed Aghawat Mosque in the old city of Mosul, in summer of 2019 after war with the Islamic State 02. The 2015 Mosul Museum video showed both replicas and genuine originals being destroyed, and accounts that present only one half of that are wrong in both directions. Nimrud, bulldozed the same year, was the real catastrophe.
  74. - Views of a partially destroyed Aghawat Mosque in the old city of Mosul, in summer of 2019 after war with the Islamic State 03. The 2015 Mosul Museum video showed both replicas and genuine originals being destroyed, and accounts that present only one half of that are wrong in both directions. Nimrud, bulldozed the same year, was the real catastrophe.
  75. - Views in Mosul at the base of the Shrine of Nebi Yunis was built, in summer of 2019 after its destruction by the Islamic State 01. The 2015 Mosul Museum video showed both replicas and genuine originals being destroyed, and accounts that present only one half of that are wrong in both directions. Nimrud, bulldozed the same year, was the real catastrophe.
  76. - Views in Mosul at the base of the Shrine of Nebi Yunis was built, in summer of 2019 after its destruction by the Islamic State 04. The 2015 Mosul Museum video showed both replicas and genuine originals being destroyed, and accounts that present only one half of that are wrong in both directions. Nimrud, bulldozed the same year, was the real catastrophe.
  77. - Views in Mosul at the base of the Shrine of Nebi Yunis was built, in summer of 2019 after its destruction by the Islamic State 08. The 2015 Mosul Museum video showed both replicas and genuine originals being destroyed, and accounts that present only one half of that are wrong in both directions. Nimrud, bulldozed the same year, was the real catastrophe.
  78. - Views in Mosul at the base of the Shrine of Nebi Yunis was built, in summer of 2019 after its destruction by the Islamic State 09. The 2015 Mosul Museum video showed both replicas and genuine originals being destroyed, and accounts that present only one half of that are wrong in both directions. Nimrud, bulldozed the same year, was the real catastrophe.
  79. - Views in Mosul at the base of the Shrine of Nebi Yunis was built, in summer of 2019 after its destruction by the Islamic State 10. The 2015 Mosul Museum video showed both replicas and genuine originals being destroyed, and accounts that present only one half of that are wrong in both directions. Nimrud, bulldozed the same year, was the real catastrophe.
  80. - (AV17210) The Looting of the Iraq Museum and Cultural Property at War. A lecture on the looting of the Iraq Museum and cultural property in wartime. The initial figure of over 170,000 objects came from a miscommunication by the first crews on the scene, compounded by empty display cases whose contents staff had removed before the First Gulf War.
  81. - Reaching a milestone to Revive the Spirit of Mosul. UNESCO reaches a milestone in the Revive the Spirit of Mosul programme. The initiative covers the al-Nuri Mosque and its leaning al-Hadba minaret, churches and heritage houses as well as the museum.
  82. - Helping Recover and Preserve Cultural Heritage in Iraq. Smithsonian work to help recover and preserve cultural heritage in Iraq. The Smithsonian has been a principal partner at Nimrud and at the Mosul Museum.
  83. - Youth recreate Iraq's ancient Nineveh in VR technology. Young people in Iraq recreate ancient Nineveh in virtual reality. Digital reconstruction has become a way for Iraqis to work on their own heritage without waiting for physical restoration.
  84. - ‘Artefact detectives’ in Iraq aim to end the theft of their history. Iraqi artefact detectives working to end the theft of their own history. Enforcement inside Iraq is the part of the story that repatriation ceremonies abroad tend to obscure.
  85. - 3000 year-old Nimrud still lies in destruction. Nimrud five years on, still in ruins. Because of nineteenth-century partage, major Nimrud reliefs survive in London, New York and Boston, so the dispersal criticised by the repatriation debate is also why the material exists at all.
  86. - Combatting Illicit Trafficking of Cultural Property during COVID-19 - illicit excavations and online. UNESCO on combating illicit trafficking of cultural property, including illicit excavation and online sale. Social media marketplaces changed the trade by removing the need for a gallery.
  87. - Kent Severson | Nimrud Rescue. Kent Severson of the Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative on the Nimrud rescue work. The response has focused on sorting and stabilising relief fragments so that future study remains possible.
  88. - Jessica S. Johnson | Capacity Building After Conflict: Case Studies from The Iraqi Institute. Jessica Johnson on capacity building after conflict at the Iraqi Institute. Training Iraqi conservators is the durable answer to a century of expertise being exported along with the objects.
  89. - Brian Michael Lione | Reconstructing Iraq’s Heritage Sector. Brian Michael Lione on reconstructing Iraq's heritage sector. Rebuilding institutional capacity matters more in the long run than any single restoration project.
  90. - Katharyn Hanson | Cuneiform Tablets After Crisis. Katharyn Hanson on cuneiform tablets after crisis. Tablets recovered from looting arrive without context, so conservators and epigraphers work together to establish what can still be said about them.
  91. - Brian Lione, MCI International Cultural Heritage Protection Program Manager. Brian Lione on the Smithsonian's international cultural heritage protection programme. Protection now means training, documentation and emergency planning rather than removal.
  92. - The Old City of Mosul, a symbol of tolerance and co-existence. The old city of Mosul presented as a symbol of tolerance and coexistence. The city's mixed religious fabric is the thing the destruction was aimed at.
  93. - Safeguarding Cultural Heritage and Supporting Livelihoods in Crises. ALIPH on safeguarding cultural heritage and supporting livelihoods in crises. ALIPH funds conservation projects in conflict zones and is a principal funder at Mosul.
  94. - 'Rebuilding Mosul – from the ground up' with Dr. Rohit Jigyasu.. Rohit Jigyasu on rebuilding Mosul from the ground up. Post-conflict recovery treats heritage as infrastructure for a returning population.
  95. - US returns stolen Gilgamesh tablet to Iraq. The Gilgamesh Dream Tablet is returned to Iraq after forfeiture in a United States court. It was bought by Hobby Lobby for the Museum of the Bible with a false provenance and seized as stolen property.
  96. - Covid-19 pandemic sees sharp rise in looting of antiquities in Iraq. Antiquities looting in Iraq rose sharply during the Covid-19 pandemic. Site protection depends on guards and patrols, and both weakened when movement was restricted.
  97. - Iraq marks return of looted Gilgamesh Tablet from the US. Iraq marks the return of the Gilgamesh Dream Tablet from the United States. The tablet carries part of the Standard Babylonian Gilgamesh, a text edited late from older Sumerian poems and Old Babylonian Akkadian versions.
  98. - US returns ancient Gilgamesh tablet to Iraq • FRANCE 24 English. The United States returns the Gilgamesh Dream Tablet to Iraq. The tablet had been sold to Hobby Lobby with a fabricated provenance and was forfeited in a civil action rather than a criminal one.
  99. - US returns more than 17,000 looted artefacts to Iraq. The United States returns more than 17,000 looted artefacts to Iraq in 2021, the largest single repatriation to the country. Most were cuneiform tablets, and a large share came from the Hobby Lobby and Museum of the Bible seizures.
  100. - U.S. returns 3,500-year-old clay tablet to Iraq. The United States returns a 3,500-year-old clay tablet to Iraq. Tablets travel easily and sell readily, which is why they dominate the trafficking cases.
  101. - UNESCO project to reconstruct Mosul’s al-Nouri Mosque complex destroyed by ISIS begins. UNESCO begins reconstruction of the al-Nuri Mosque complex in Mosul. The mosque and its leaning al-Hadba minaret were destroyed in 2017 during the battle for the city.
  102. - Looted Gilgamesh tablet returns to Iraq in formal ceremony • FRANCE 24 English. The formal ceremony returning the looted Gilgamesh tablet to Iraq. The Standard Babylonian Gilgamesh is a late text, conventionally attributed to Sin-leqi-unninni around 1300 to 1000 BC, who edited older material rather than composing it.
  103. - Thousands of stolen artefacts returned from US to Iraq. Thousands of stolen artefacts return from the United States to Iraq. Objects like these are typically identified by their cuneiform text, since a tablet's content can be traced to a known site archive even when its excavation record is gone.
  104. - Batnaya Destroyed Wall. A photo taken of a destroyed wall in Batnaya, years after its liberation from ISIS. The 2015 Mosul Museum video showed both replicas and genuine originals being destroyed, and accounts that present only one half of that are wrong in both directions. Nimrud, bulldozed the same year, was the real catastrophe.
  105. - Beit al-Tutunji, marble carving, Mosul, Iraq. Marble carving at the Tutunji House, Mosul, Iraq, during 2021 restoration; workers trained to pursue this traditional local art while repairing damage inflicted during the occupation of Mosul by Islamic State (ISIL) forces. The 2015 Mosul Museum video showed both replicas and genuine originals being destroyed, and accounts that present only one half of that are wrong in both directions. Nimrud, bulldozed the same year, was the real catastrophe.
  106. - Human Heritage: Preserving Palmyra, Petra, and Hatra. Preserving Palmyra, Petra and Hatra, a Getty Research Institute discussion. Palmyra is in Syria and is Roman-era, Petra is in Jordan, and only Hatra is in Iraq, where it is Parthian rather than Mesopotamian in the older sense. None of the three is Mesopotamia proper.
  107. - Timelapse of work at Beit al-Tutunji, Mosul, Iraq. A timelapse of the work at Beit al-Tutunji in Mosul. Rebuilding a single house takes years, which puts the scale of the old city's damage in perspective.
  108. - The rehabilitation of Tutunji House, Mosul, Iraq. The rehabilitation of Tutunji House in Mosul. Reconstruction in the old city uses traditional materials and local craftspeople.
  109. - The rehabilitation of the Mosul Museum, Iraq. The rehabilitation of the Mosul Cultural Museum, funded through ALIPH with Louvre and Smithsonian involvement. Reopening has been repeatedly rescheduled and should not be described as complete without checking.
  110. - Bringing Mosul Cultural Museum Back to Life: Mshakht Concert Performance. A concert performance inside the Mosul Cultural Museum during its restoration. The building has been used as a public space through the conservation work rather than sealed off.
  111. - EU - UNESCO collaboration to ‘Revive the Spirit of Mosul’. European Union and UNESCO collaboration on Revive the Spirit of Mosul. Funding, permits and local labour all have to align for work to proceed.
  112. - Mosul Cultural Museum - Schoolchildren visit. Schoolchildren visit the Mosul Cultural Museum during its restoration. Returning a museum to public use is part of the reconstruction rather than a postscript to it.
  113. - Iraqi antiquities recovered in New York
  114. - Out of the Ashes: Post-Conflict Recovery - Mosul Museum Project Zero (Jan 2021). Out of the ashes, on the Mosul Museum Project Zero. Reopening dates for the museum have been repeatedly rescheduled and should be checked before any claim that it has reopened.
  115. - The restoration of the Mosul Cultural Museum in Iraq.. World Monuments Fund on the restoration of the Mosul Cultural Museum. Conservators are reassembling smashed sculpture from fragments recovered on the gallery floor.
  116. - 105. The archeological site of Bakr Awa, an ancient mound near Halabja, Shahrizor Plain, Sulaymaniyah, Iraq. November 4, 2022. The tell and . 2014. An area before the tell. Looting pits at an Iraqi archaeological site. The larger loss was never the Iraq Museum: unexcavated site looting removed far more, and it gets less coverage because there is no dramatic footage of it.
  117. - Othman Imad Abdulelah Al-Hayali, Site Engineer at Al Nouri Mosque and Al-Hadba Minaret in Mosul. A second site engineer at the al-Nuri Mosque and al-Hadba minaret reconstruction. The minaret's famous lean had to be reproduced deliberately in the rebuild.
  118. - Interview with Omar Yasir Adil Taqa, Site Engineer at Al Nouri Mosque and Al-Hadba Minaret in Mosul. An interview with a site engineer at the al-Nuri Mosque and al-Hadba minaret in Mosul. Iraqi engineers lead the reconstruction on the ground.
  119. - Nadya Saad Hussein Al Aghidi, Team Leader in the reconstruction of Heritage Houses in Mosul, Iraq. A team leader in the reconstruction of heritage houses in Mosul. Much of the workforce on these projects is local and includes women in technical roles.
  120. - Session (6): “Post-Conflict Heritage Reconstruction in Iraq”. A session on post-conflict heritage reconstruction in Iraq. The debate runs between restoring what was there and recording what was lost.
  121. - [Audio Only] Project Mosul Digital Restoration of Mosul's Lost Heritage. Project Mosul and the digital restoration of Mosul's lost heritage. A photogrammetric model is a record and a teaching object, not a replacement for the destroyed thing, and the projects are careful to say so.
  122. - Experts working to piece together destroyed artefacts in Iraq's Cultural Museum in Mosul. Conservators piece together destroyed artefacts at Mosul's Cultural Museum. Reassembly from fragments is slow, and some objects cannot be put back at all.
  123. - Iraq's looted artefacts: Thousands of antiquities still on black market • FRANCE 24 English. Thousands of looted Iraqi antiquities remain on the black market. Cylinder seals and tablets move easily because they are small, numerous and hard to distinguish from legally held pieces without provenance research.
  124. - Iraq starts major project to renovate Mosul Museum. Iraq begins a major project to renovate the Mosul Museum. The programme runs with UNESCO, ALIPH, the Louvre, the Smithsonian and the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage.
  125. - The Gilgamesh Dream tablet. From Iraq. Middle Babylonian Period, First Sealand Dynasty, 1732-1460 BCE. Iraq Museum, Baghdad. The Iraq Museum in Baghdad. The widely reported figure of 170,000 items lost in 2003 is wrong: it came from a miscommunication by the first crews on the scene plus empty cases whose contents curators had removed before the First Gulf War. The accurate figure is around 15,000 items, of which roughly 6,000 had been recovered as of 2009.
  126. - A late 1960s photograph captures students from Saint Thomas Private High School for Girls in Baghdad, Iraq, visiting the colossal lamassu at. ’s Nergal Gate. A lamassu, the human-headed winged bull that guarded Assyrian palace gateways. Several were carved with five legs, so the figure reads as standing when seen from the front and as walking when seen from the side. The Nergal Gate lamassu at Nineveh was destroyed in 2015.
  127. - Boshell Lecture Series: Modern Deconstructions & Reconstructions of Nimrud | the Walters Art Museum. A Walters Art Museum lecture on the modern deconstructions and reconstructions of Nimrud. The site has been dismantled twice: once by nineteenth-century excavators shipping reliefs abroad, and once by demolition in 2015.
  128. - UNESCO and culture in emergencies: Protecting heritage and rebuilding hope. UNESCO on culture in emergencies. Heritage response is now treated as part of humanitarian work rather than as separate from it.
  129. - Protecting Cultural Heritage under Siege. 1954 Hague Convention and its protocols set the legal framework, and enforcement remains the difficulty.
  130. - Restoring Iraq's history: Thousands of stolen artifacts back on display. Thousands of recovered artefacts go back on display in Baghdad. Roughly 6,000 of the 15,000 stolen in 2003 had returned by 2009, and recovery has continued since.
  131. - Old city destruction. An old heritage neighborhood has been destroyed due to the war in mosul. The 2015 Mosul Museum video showed both replicas and genuine originals being destroyed, and accounts that present only one half of that are wrong in both directions. Nimrud, bulldozed the same year, was the real catastrophe.
  132. - A Future for Nimrud Conference: Cultural Heritage Preservation at Nimrud 2022–2024. A conference on heritage preservation at Nimrud covering work from 2022 to 2024. Nimrud is under active conservation with international funding and Iraqi teams doing the work on the ground.
  133. - Mosul's revival: A lasting legacy built through international cooperation. Mosul's revival through international cooperation. Reconstruction funding has come through UNESCO, ALIPH, the European Union and the United Arab Emirates, with Iraqi engineers and craftspeople doing the work.
  134. - Rebuilding Hope: Tutunji House Reopens in the Heart of Mosul. Tutunji House reopens in the heart of Mosul after restoration. Restoring an Ottoman merchant house is part of returning the old city to use, not a separate antiquarian exercise.
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