From
the President
On
the Destruction
of Iraq's National
Museum
Word
of the looting and
wanton destruction
of Iraq's National
Museum, its National
Library and Archives,
and main Islamic Library,
as well as Mosul's
museum and its University
library, has deeply
saddened the world's
academic communities.
Those repositories
housed a treasure trove
of data on the ancient,
classical and early
Islamic eras in what
has rightly been called
the "cradle of
civilization," as
well as on the history
of the modern nation
state. While it is
still too soon to know
the true extent of
the loss to the world's
cultural heritage and
to understand fully
how it happened, the
loss clearly is substantial.
For
the University of Pennsylvania,
the destruction of
Iraq's past has been
particularly hard and "personal." The
University of Pennsylvania
Museum of Archaeology
and Anthropology was
founded in the late
19th century as an
outgrowth of work at
the site of Nippur,
early Mesopotamia's
pre-eminent religious
center, near Diwaniyah
in what was then part
of the Ottoman Empire,
and the University
Museum and the British
Museum co-sponsored
the first excavations
permitted by the newly
formed Iraqi government
in the early 1920s.
The excavations at
the site of Ur, directed
by Sir Leonard Woolley,
lasted for twelve years
and represent one of
the most extensive
archaeological projects
ever carried out in
Iraq. Cuneiform tablets
from Nippur, housed
in the Museum, have
made the University
the pre-eminent center
for the study of Sumerian
literature in the world.
The Museum's collection
from Ur, including
pieces such as the "ram-in-a-thicket" found
in the tombs of the
kings and queens who
ruled that city-state
around 2500 B.C.E.,
are among the most
remarkable treasures
from that ancient land.
Curators from the Museum
continued to work in
Iraq until recently,
when it became politically
impossible to conduct
research there.
Because
of the University
of Pennsylvania's long-standing
involvement in research
in the "cradle
of civilization," the
University of Pennsylvania
and its Museum stand
ready to help in
any
way we can to repair
the damage to Iraq's
museums and libraries,
where possible,
and
to rebuild its world-renowned
cultural institutions.
For example, the
Museum www.museum.upenn.edu/new/research/iraq/index.shtml will
work with the British
Museum to put
together a complete
catalog of the materials
from Ur, in order
to clarify the holdings
of the Iraq Museum.
The University plans
to cooperate with
museums
in this country and
around the world in
these crucial efforts,
and we call upon our
government to support
such activities.
--
Judith Rodin,
President
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