Monthly Archives: April 2003

This tour gives a glimpse of some of the artifacts previously on display; it doesn’t even hint at the items from other museums stored for safe keeping during the war, or the thousands of cylinder seals and cuneiform tablets, most of which have not been inventoried. Of course, even if they had been inventoried, it wouldn’t help much since the looters took or destroyed the computers and completely destroyed the card catalog which was the most accurate inventory.

Teresa and Kip have said it better than I can. But I wanted to point to some more information about the tragic looting of Iraq’s National Museum, the world’s best collection, by far, of Mesopotamian artifacts. First of all, an enormous cultural loss for humanity could have been avoided, rather easily. It’s not like looting and collateral damage were new ideas; the art history and archaeological communities have discussed, written, and published their fears for quite a while. Even I posted about it.

Since 1922 Iraqi law mandated that Iraq has an equal share in any archaeological finds within Iraq. Most of those finds were in the National Museum. In fact, the majority of all archaeological finds made in the country since its foundation in 1920 were stored there. These include Iraq’s share of the royal burials of Ur, as well as thousands of unrecorded, un-imaged cuneiform tablets, with who knows what texts, laws, and records.

There’s a long history of archaeological piracy in Iraq, including sales on e-bay. In part this is encouraged by the embargo; people are selling anything they can for cash. So there’s already a system in place for fencing stolen archaeological treasures, those that survive after being looted.

And here’s what Rumsfeld has to say:

“The images you are seeing on television you are seeing over, and over, and over, and it’s the same picture of some person walking out of some building with a vase, and you see it 20 times, and you think, ‘My goodness, were there that many vases? Is it possible that there were that many vases in the whole country?’ ”

Rumsfeld’s attitude is barbaric, of course, as is his thinly veiled ethnocentrism. No, I’m not arguing that “stuff” is more important than human lives (though frankly, I know some scholars who would willingly sacrifice their own lives for a particular artifact’s life). But this tragedy could have been avoided, and it should have been. Rumsfield, Bush and their barbaric coeterie just didn’t care.

Catching Up: SF, Celtic Archaeology, and Space

I know, I’ve been exceedingly delinquent regarding posting, but between teaching and dissertating, and tech editing, I’ve had no time for blogging.

So I’m going to post a bunch of very quick links, with almost no commentary. First of all, I’ve added a couple of links over there on the left. There’s Cronaca, from one David, who has all the markings of a medievalist. Then there’s the new SF and Fantasy category. It contains links to the Nielsen Hayden duo, Patrick’s Electrolite, and Teresa’s Making Light. They’re writers and editors, but I’ve been reading their blog since ConJose, so I thought I should link. Especially since entries like this on the dubiousness of saints imply a certain medieval tinge to Teresa’s writing. Then there’s Will Shetterly‘s blog Small Candle, Much Wind. Also there is a link to Diane Duane’s Out of Ambit blog. Now then; things I wanted to post about, but didn’t.

A new sort of Gaulish tomb was discovered at Gondole, near Clermond-Ferrand in central France, prior to the construction of a new highway. Inside the tomb were bodies of seven adult males, an adolescent, and eight horses, carefully arranged in a rectangle. The bodies, which appeared undamaged, were arranged with their heads to the south, looking eastward. The left arm of each adult was placed on the body before it. There were no grave goods. There are a number of interesting things about the burial, not the least of which is the ritual placement of the bodies. The horses are interesting too, given other instances of equine burials in this Gaulish territory.

Speaking of French archaeologists, Philippe Charlier, a French paleopathologist with degrees in archaeology and medicine, has studied Gaulish warriors from Burgundian graves. Apparently, one in ten Celts carried treponema, a bacteria related to syphilis. Several of the skeletons had hip deformities caused by riding, and many suffered from arthritis.

Over in Ireland, National Geographic reports on a decline in Gaelic speakers in the Gaeltacht. Perhaps recent efforts to translate the Quaran into Irish will help slow the decline of Irish speakers. And again, Irish Neolithic monument builders have proven to be clever computational astronomers. This isn’t exactly new, but it is interesting.

On South Uist, one of Scotland’s Western Isles, one of the outer Hebrides, Europe’s oldest known mummies have ben discovered, preserved in the Cladh Hallan quarry. They may date as far back as 3,500 years.

Over in Wales, Pembrokeshire native, archaeologist Dr Mark Merrony has followed in the footsteps of a nineteenth century antiquarian Richard Fenton, and found the remains of a large rectangular Roman building near Wolfscastle, Pembrokeshire.

And finally, there are these strange, but beautiful images from the Hubble of a dramatically erupting star.