While Saddam Hussein seemed not to well-respect the lives of many Iraqis, his regime did in part solidify itself by both appearing and attempting to preserve sites of historical note. In 1983, seven years before the onset of the Gulf War, Hussein embarked on a particularly ambitious, if ill-advised mission to rebuild the ruins of Babylon. Many archaeologists doubtlessly paled at the thought of a modern reconstruction of Nebuchadnezzar’s palace, built atop the crumbling remains of the original. Despite the fact that any new works, walls or ramparts could render their predecessors unavailable to researchers, construction was continued even after the conclusion of the Gulf War.
Babylon was further degraded in 2003 by the erection of an American “Camp Alpha” over-top historic ruins. According to Dr. John Curtis of the British Museum’s Near East Department:
US Forces "caused substantial damage to the Ishtar Gate, one of the most famous monuments from antiquity [...] US military vehicles crushed 2,600-year-old brick pavements, archaeological fragments were scattered across the site, more than 12 trenches were driven into ancient deposits and military earth-moving projects contaminated the site for future generations of scientists [...] Add to all that the damage caused to nine of the moulded brick figures of dragons in the Ishtar Gate by soldiers trying to remove the bricks from the wall."
This is not to negate or to ignore the immeasurable value of having armed soldiers watching over one of the most fantastic archaeological sites in the entire world – without a military presence in Babylon, it’s likely that the city would have suffered from more looting and vandalism than it already did before reopening to the public in 2009. $800,000 was contributed to the new Iraqi government by the United States for the purpose of rehabilitating Babylon from damages incurred by military personnel.
In a relevant United Nations report, it was noted that the American armed forces were not the only group at fault – as was the case with the Egyptian pyramids and Roman coliseum, locals had long been developing the land around Babylon for agricultural and structural purposes.
I find it almost ironic that while Hussein was trying to preserve the history of the land, America was destroying it. We were sent to Iraq to bring peace and make Iraq a safe democracy, but in the mean time we were completely destroying their history without caring one bit. It is good that we did pay for the damage at least. I think that Mesopotamia is very interesting, but hard to really learn too much about because of the age of it and the area it is located in seems to be constantly at war.
ReplyDeleteOnce again, interesting topic. I wish there were pictures of Saddam Hussein’s reconstruction. The fact that Hussein took an interest in historical sites reminds me of the first video we had to watch in class. It seems like the past and what it may prove is very important to powerful leaders.
ReplyDeleteIt is a shame to see such valuable archeological sites damaged both on purpose and accidently. However, sometimes it is unavoidable. Like in Rome, there is probably an archaeological site anywhere you would want to build something. At least the U.S. government made a gesture to compensate Iraqi for the damage.
However, it seems that even more damage came from misguided archaeologists trying to reconstruct Babylon. Something similar happened in Pompeii, my blog topic, where artifacts and bodies were rearranged to increase funds when the site first opened. And not having the military there, like you said, will probably result in greater damages as anyone and everyone would be free to steal artifacts and sell them on the antiquities market.
It seems that similar problems of damage and looting are at most archeological sites. The key is preservation, education and protection. Hopefully as the political situation calms down, Babylon can be better protected and preserved.