Web site on risk to cultural heritage in Iraq

Iraq - The cradle of civilization at risk (H-Museum's Current Focus)

H-Museum <URL:http://www.h-museum.net> presents its new current
focus:

    Iraq - The cradle of civilization at risk.
    Cultural heritage and historical monuments.
    <URL:http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/~museum/iraq.html>

The current focus contains:

    Introduction, Iraq News Digests, Selected Articles and
    Documents, Journals and Magazines,
    Museums/Collections/Institutions, Online-Resources

The current focus looks from a cultural and historical perspective
at present developments concerning the military conflict in Iraq.
Included are also special editions of the News Digest, which
contains articles from the time of the first Gulf War to the present
dealing with the historical monuments, archaeological sites, and
museums in Iraq.

Iraq is a country with a rich history. A great number of monuments
of the history of civilization, archaeological sites, and museums
are situated on the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and in other areas.
Already in 1990/91, during the first Gulf War, these historical
monuments and other places of historical importance were put at
direct risk by military action as well as by the abuse as Iraqi
military positions. The war in Iraq in 2003 again exposes these
historical monuments and other places of historical interest to
great danger. War always carries with it not only suffering and
misery for the population but also always hurts the cultural and
historical evidence.

Present-day Iraq occupies the greater part of the ancient land of
Mesopotamia, the plain between Euphrates and Tigris rivers. Some of
the world's greatest ancient civilizations were developed in this
area. Therefore the region is often referred to as the cradle of
mankind. Present-day Iraq possesses a huge amount of historical
monuments and archaeological sites, e. g. Niniveh, the seat of
government of the 7th century BC king Assurbarnipal; Ur, where the
Sumerian civilization had its final flowering at the close of the
third millennium BC and where according to the Bible Abraham was
born; Uruk, the scene of the Gilgamesh Epic; the Parthian desert
city of Hatra, which is on the UNESCO's list of cultural world
heritage; Assur, the first capital of the Assyrian kingdom with the
famous Ishtar temple; and Babylon, in the 18th century BC the seat
of king Hammurabi, who is primarily remembered for his codification
of the laws governing Babylonian life.

Experts guess that there are about 100,000 sites of cultural and
historical importance in Iraq, most of them not yet excavated; about
10,000 are known. However, the cultural heritage of Iraq is
primarily Arabic. One of these famous Islamic monuments is the 55
meters high spiraling minaret of the great mosque in Sumarra, built
in 850 AD. In addition this land is the home of the three world
religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Ralf Blank M.A., Dr. Stephanie Marra
H-Net Network for Museum Professionals


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 16:54
                 Distributed: Thursday, March 27, 2003
                       Message Id: cdl-16-54-001
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