BAGHDAD, May 17 (Xinhua) -- Notes on the Middle East Battlefield - Iraq Museum Calls for Lost Treasures to "Go Home"
Xinhua News Agency reporter Duan Minfu
This is an exhibit from the Iraqi Museum taken on May 17 in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq. Xinhua News Agency (photo by Khalil Dawood)
Walking into the Iraq Museum in the capital Baghdad, it is like being in the "cradle of civilization", where people can see a large number of cultural relics of the Sumerian, Akkad, Babylonian, Assyrian and other civilizations of the two river basins. However, Iraq still has a large number of precious cultural relics lost abroad, and when these treasures will "go home" affects the hearts of Iraqis.
Majid, who is over half a hundred years old, and his grandson Fatiha stop to look at a stone bench inscribed with intricately Kufi script. At the end of the introduction to the exhibits, it was written that "the cultural relics were repurchased", which made 8-year-old Fatiha very puzzled: "Grandpa, why do we have to spend money to buy our own treasures?" ”
This is an exhibit from the Iraqi Museum taken on May 17 in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq. Xinhua News Agency (photo by Khalil Dawood)
The childish voice shattered the silence of the museum and uncovered a scar engraved in the hearts of Iraqis.
In 2003, the United States invaded Iraq in a bypassing United Nations Security Council. On April 9 of that year, U.S. forces entered Baghdad. During the invasion and occupation by the United States military, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, adopted in 1954, led to the looting of Iraqi museums and the loss of at least 15,000 registered treasured cultural objects.
Tourists visit the Iraqi Museum in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, on May 17. Xinhua News Agency (photo by Khalil Dawood)
In this regard, Lawrence Rothfield, former director of the Center for Cultural Policy at the University of Chicago, bluntly stated in his book "The Looting of Mesopotamia: Behind the Looting of Iraqi Museums": "American policymakers basically did not discuss the issue of cultural heritage protection before the invasion [of Iraq]. ”
Majid recalls the scene and is still indignant, saying: "After the capture of Baghdad, American tanks surrounded the Iraqi museum, but in the face of the frenzied theft and looting inside the museum, the heavily armed American GIs were indifferent. This is the catastrophe of the Iraqi Museum, and it is the catastrophe of human civilization! ”
Tourists visit the Iraqi Museum in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, on May 17. Xinhua News Agency (photo by Khalil Dawood)
Haider, a docent at the museum, told reporters that the exact number of looted cultural relics in Iraqi museums has not yet been determined, and the whereabouts of a large number of precious cultural relics that have not been archived and registered are unknown, but they appear from time to time in the overseas illegal cultural relics trading market. "With the connivance of the U.S. military, the thieves have stolen not only priceless cultural treasures, but also the bloodline of civilization that has been rooted in the soul of Iraqis and has endured for thousands of years."
According to Haider, the U.S. military also used historical sites such as the ruins of the ancient city of your and the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon as military bases, and even used broken stone slabs engraved with cuneiform characters as raw materials for building military bunkers, resulting in the destruction of a large number of precious cultural relics.
Tourists visit the Iraqi Museum in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, on May 17. Xinhua News Agency (photo by Khalil Dawood)
Since the end of the Iraq War, the Iraqi government's antiquities recovery efforts have not stopped: in 2021, it successfully recovered about 17,000 looted or smuggled antiquities from the United States, including a fragment of the epic Gilgamesh carved in cuneiform script on a clay tablet about 3,500 years ago; In 2023, about 6,000 artifacts lent to the UK in 1923 for "scientific research" will be recovered.
Haider said that although the progress of the recovery work is gratifying, the loss of cultural relics in the two river basins can be traced back to the division of Mesopotamia (the two river basins) by Western countries at the end of the 19th century.
Tourists visit the Iraqi Museum in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, on May 17. Xinhua News Agency (photo by Khalil Dawood)
Heider firmly believes that these treasures of civilization originate from and will return to the two river basins. "Mesopotamia is like a loving mother, calling for her wandering sons to come home."
pagebreak
pagebreak
pagebreak
pagebreak
pagebreak
pagebreak
Tourists visit the Iraqi Museum in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, on May 17. Xinhua News Agency (photo by Khalil Dawood) pagebreak
This is an exhibit from the Iraqi Museum taken on May 17 in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq. Xinhua News Agency (photo by Khalil Dawood) pagebreak
This is an exhibit from the Iraqi Museum taken on May 17 in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq. Xinhua News Agency (photo by Khalil Dawood) pagebreak
Tourists visit the Iraqi Museum in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, on May 17. Xinhua News Agency (photo by Khalil Dawood) pagebreak
This is an exhibit from the Iraqi Museum taken on May 17 in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq. Xinhua News Agency (photo by Khalil Dawood)