War and the cultural heritage of Iraq: A sadly mismanaged affair

Third World Quarterly

Volumn 26, Issue 4-5 SPEC. ISS., 2005, Pages 815-830

  Warren, John ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF YORK   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CULTURAL HERITAGE; SOCIAL BEHAVIOR; WAR;

ASIA; EURASIA; IRAQ; MIDDLE EAST;

EID: 32144449558     PISSN: 01436597     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/01436590500128048     Document Type: Article

References (35)

1. The Lancet, Vol 364, Issue 9448, Nov 20, 2004, pp 1857-1864.
2. For example, S Oppenheimer, Out of Eden, London: Constable & Robinson, 2003.
3. While the US government bears a grave responsibility for the 'storm of ignorance, greed, revenge, zeal and mayhem that swept through the Iraq National Museum after the invasion' (http://cctr.vinkc.edu/user/ fdeblauwe/iraq.html), it did subsequently (3 December 2004) pass into law an enactment empowering the president to impose 'import restrictions' on materials illegally removed from Iraq. By then the horse had bolted.
4. See http://cctr.vinkc.edu/user/fdeblauwe/iraq.html.
5. Among the very important sites reported to have lacked protection stand Nimrud (Barsippa), Hatra (el Hadr), Nineveh (Kuyunjik), Ctesiphon (el Madain), Nippur (Nu.ur), Ur, Larsa and Uruk (Warka). See web pages The 2003 Iraq War; and Archaeology, 2005, available at http://cctp.umkc.edu/ user/.deblauwe/iraq.htm. Many other sites (at least 30) of less prominence but great importance have been reportedly left vulnerable if not pillaged.
6. This information derives from Internet contributions by Dr Francis Deblauwe.
7. Guardian, 21 December 2004. The national collection of ancient manuscripts and subsequent archives was burned early in the occupation.
8. Succinct accounts of the many early kingdoms are to be found in F Masmachi, Treasures of the Iraq Museum, Baghdad, 1975.
9. There are divergent views on this period 1918-24 when a new kingdom was hastily forged. King Faisal was crowned in Baghdad on 23 August 1921. For a detailed account of events leading to this, see E Burgoyne, Gertrude Bell, From her Personal Papers, Vol 2, London: Ernest Benn, 1961.
10. J Warren & I Ferhi, Traditional Houses in Baghdad, Horsham: Coach Publishing, 1983.
11. J Warren, Greek Mathematics and the Architects to Justinian I, London: Art and Archeology Research Papers, 1975.
12. The clay tablet exhibiting the plan is illustrated in anon, Mesopotamia Yesterday, Iraq Today, Sartec Sa, Lausanne and Baghdad: 1977.
13. N Postgate, The First Empires, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977, pp 26 et seq, 76 et seq.
14. Ibid, p 80.
15. J Black & A Green, Gods Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia, London: British Museum Press, 1992.
16. M Roaf, Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990.
17. Postgate, The First Empires, p 99.
18. Ibid, p 136.
19. BBC interviews, 27 February 2005.
20. See R Hillenbrand, Islamic Architecture, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1994, where the crucial relationship between this pre-Islamic palace, the Taq-i-Khisra at Ctesiphon and subsequent Caliphal building is explored.
21. See also KAC Creswell, Early Muslim Architecture, Vol 11, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969;
22. and G Hermann, The Iranian Revival, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977. In Stierlin, Islam, Vol 1, Cologne: Taschen, 1996, the palace is shown in its current state of reconstruction.
23. Creswell, Early Muslim Architecture.
24. Of the many accounts of the Round City, the supportive analysis of Herzfeld is set out in Creswell, Early Muslim Architecture.
25. Creswell, Early Muslim Architecture;
26. and Hillenbrand, Islamic Architecture.
27. See Stierlin, Islam, in extenso on Abbasid Samarra and Baghdad.
28. G Bell, Ukhaidir, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1914.
29. A Guillaume, Islam, London: Penguin, 1954.
30. A comprehensive overview of early Muslim scholarship is to be found in A Papadopoulu, Islam and Muslim Art, London: Thames & Hudson, 1980.
31. SH Nasr, Science and Civilization in Islam, World of Islam Festival Publishing Company.
32. Ibid.
33. N Salim in Iraq Contemporary Art, Sartec SA, Lausanne and Baghdad 1977.
34. New Scientist, 26 April 2003.
35. At the University of York, 20 October 2004.