Archaeology: This is a collection of essays by experts both Iraqi and foreign that covers the whole span of Iraqi archaeology, extending back to remote prehistoric times when Neanderthal beings inhabited the Shanidar cave in the Zagros mountains, writes Eamonn Kelly.
The book also outlines a brief history of the Iraq Museum, which housed a breathtaking collection of antiquities that are fundamentally important to an understanding of the origins of Western civilisation. It is no overstatement to describe Mesopotamia - the lands between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers - as the cradle of civilisation. It was here that agriculture, urban living, pottery making, metallurgy and writing were developed. All of the topics are dealt with in the book, illustrated by superb colour photographs of stunning treasures.
Nevertheless, the title of this book is misleading - the work imparts very little information about the looting of the Iraq Museum and what information it does provide is often at odds with other reports. When one turns elsewhere for information about what happened to the Iraq Museum a more complex picture emerges than the one provided by William Polk in his introduction.
Fierce fighting broke out around the museum on April 8th, 2003, shortly after US troops entered Baghdad. Two days later, armed looters stormed the museum, forcing the guards to unlock the door, allowing a mob to pour into the building while other looters entered through a broken window. A section of the looters attacked the museum offices removing furniture, computers and air conditioners. Members of the museum staff were known to be Ba'ath party members and the museum itself was seen as part of the party apparatus so this assault may have been an act of vengeance against the party and its members.
The activity of other looters was far more sinister. Witnesses reported seeing well-dressed men walking through the galleries talking into mobile phones while one museum official claimed that two "European-looking" men pointed out artefacts and then left. Their associates were equipped with lifting equipment to remove some of the heavier pieces and carried glass cutters of a type not available in Iraq. They had a shopping list of objects and acted in a very organised manner, using a floor plan of the museum.
It seems also that some of the people who entered the museum removed artefacts to prevent them from being stolen and these objects were returned to the museum later when the situation had stabilised. Throughout the looting museum staff and journalists pleaded with US tank crews to protect the museum but to no avail. The big question that this book addresses nowhere is why US forces failed to act. Was it a case of a culturally blinkered Bush administration remaining indifferent or was there, as some suspect, active collusion to allow the museum treasures to be stolen?
There is material to support both hypotheses. The Iraq museum was not the only cultural institution to be pillaged following the American occupation. Another victim was the National Library of Iraq, which housed rare illuminated Korans and other ancient examples of Islamic calligraphy as well as valuable documents pertaining to the Ottoman Empire. When the building was set on fire, resulting in the destruction of numerous irreplaceable historical documents, reporter Robert Fisk sought the assistance of US marines but they refused to help. The suspicion persists that the fire was used as a cover to conceal the theft of selected illuminated manuscripts stolen for wealthy collectors.
The American Council on Cultural Policy (ACCP) represents the interests of wealthy collectors and dealers in the US and it aims to change US law so as to facilitate the legal acquisition in the US of antiquities and cultural objects that have been removed illegally from their countries of origin. In an interview William Pearlstein of the ACCP condemned Iraq's legislation on the export of cultural objects, which he branded as "retentionist". In a post-Saddam setting the ACCP sought to ensure that the new Iraq would agree to artefacts being "certified for export".
The ACCP is habitually at odds with the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA), but it was the ACCP that succeeded in becoming the interlocutor with the Pentagon and State Department during the formation of policy and regulations relating to archaeological issues in post-war Iraq. A question that needs to be answered is whether this influence had any bearing on the apparent inaction of US forces when major Iraqi cultural institutions were looted within the gunsights of US soldiers. Until the truth of what happened is exposed there will be deep suspicions that official collusion and private interest skulduggery lay at the heart of the destruction of one of the world's most important archaeological museums.
Eamonn P Kelly is keeper of Irish antiquities at the National Museum of Ireland. He has regularly assisted the Garda Art and Antiques Unit in recovering stolen Irish antiquities and has worked with police and security agencies abroad in the recovery of illegal exports
The Looting of the Iraq Museum, Baghdad: The Lost Legacy of Ancient Mesopotamia. Edited by Milbry Polk and Angela MH Schuster, Harry N Abrams, 242pp. £20