Iraq national museum long way from public opening

tlm724 · 1 Iraq national museum long way from public opening Thu Apr 11, 2013 7:20 am

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Associated Press/Hadi Mizban, File - FILE - In this Tuesday, April 2, 2013
file photo, school students visit the restored Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad,
Iraq. Ten years after Iraq’s national museum was looted …[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and smashed by frenzied thieves during the U.S.-led invasion in
2003 to topple Saddam Hussein, it’s still far from ready for a public
re-opening. Work to overcome decades of neglect and the destruction of war has
been hindered by power struggles, poorly-skilled staff and the persistent
violence plaguing the country, said Bahaa Mayah, Iraq’s most senior antiquities
official. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban, File) [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

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In this picture taken on
Tuesday, …

BAGHDAD (AP) — In Iraq's national
museum, home to some of the world's most precious artifacts of ancient Mesopotamia,
a caption beside a skeleton simply reads in English: "dated to very old
time."

And some of the museum's most impressive
pieces carry no labels at all — like a giant stone head lying on the ground that
may or may not belong on a nearby empty pedestal labeled "Assyrian King
Nimrod," the Biblical tormentor of the patriarch Abraham.

Ten years after Iraq's national museum was
looted and smashed by frenzied thieves during the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 to
topple Saddam
Hussein, it's still far from ready for a public re-opening. Work to
overcome decades of neglect and the destruction of war has been hindered by
power struggles, poorly-skilled staff and the persistent violence plaguing the
country, said Bahaa
Mayah, Iraq's most senior antiquities official.

"I wish that the great historical Baghdad
would appear in her finest face and that the Iraq museum opens," said Mayah, the
head of antiquities in the Tourism and Antiquities Ministry.

"But our wishes crash against the unfortunate reality we live in."

The museum was once the showcase for 7,000 years of history in Mesopotamia,
birthplace of some of the first cities and one of the first writing systems —
cuneiform — and home to a succession of major civilizations, including the
Sumerian, Babylonian and Assyrian, through to a flourishing Islamic empire.

The museum was left a wreck the day after Baghdad fell to U.S. troops on
April 10, 2003. Ancient clay scrolls and pottery littered the floor. Looters
made off with everything from gold bowls and ritual funeral masks to elaborate
headdresses. The U.S. was sharply criticized for not protecting the museum.

Because the museum's inventory was never
completed, it's uncertain how many pieces were stolen, but the number is
estimated at 15,000 pieces. More than a quarter have been retrieved, said Mayah,
who has overseen the museum formally since 2012 but has been involved in its
renovations for
the past five years.

Renovations began soon after the museum was smashed up in 2003, starting with
the basics, like computers, office furniture, air conditioning. By mid-2004, the
museum was rewired for electricity and most basic repairs to its structure
completed. Since then, the U.S. and Italian governments have helped renovate the
halls.

But work has been slow. Only five of 30 exhibition halls have been renovated
so far — and two of those have to be done again because they were improperly
done. As a result, the museum is still not open to the general public. Its only
visitors are specially arranged foreign delegations, Iraqi officials and field
trips by Iraqi students.

It's part of a broader problem of preservation of antiquities in Iraq. There
are over 12,000 registered archaeological sites in Iraq but they are mostly not
protected, allowing for widespread, ongoing looting, Mayah said.

The museum itself was shuttered from the early 1990s by regime officials who
said they feared for its safety, as Saddam mired the country in war, leading to
crippling sanctions. The closure meant the museum's inventory wasn't updated.
Sanctions meant staff couldn't update their skills, and many qualified employees
left amid an exodus of Iraqis from the country.

In a central Baghdad quarter, the museum is surrounded by high concrete blast
walls. Guards check bags in a caravan set up in the neglected museum garden. The
main entrance is under construction, so visitors enter through a corridor
leading to administrative rooms.

On a recent visit by The Associated Press, the renovated exhibition halls
were eerily quiet, with gleaming floors and shining display cases, the artifacts
encased neatly inside. The sound of workers employing drills was palpable as
they renovated another hall. A ladder was strewn under a map of ancient
Mesopotamia.

Two of the renovated rooms are meant to
showcase the Sumerian
civilization, which emerged some 3,000 years ago. But the sparse labels
on the artifacts shed little light on the antiquities that represent some of
humankind's most important milestones. Many labels lacked the age of the
artifact, where it was found, what civilization it belonged to, or what its use
was. Some didn't have labels at all. Nowhere in the hall — or anywhere else — is
it explained who the Sumerians were or how they influenced later
civilizations.

In one of the displays lay a skeleton in the earth it was found in, alongside
rings and jars. A printed label beside it read: "A human skeleton found in situ,
put beside him some Jars and rings between him dated to very old time."

The label on a fist-sized figurine of a monkey clutching his ears simply
identifies it as "some monkey."

A hand-sized stone carving in one display case was described as "the
legendary hero Gilgamesh wrestling with two lions, early 3rd millennium," with
no further explanation of who Gilgamesh was — the Sumerian hero-king of one of
the first written stories in history.

U.K.-based Iraqi archaeologist Lamia al-Gailani, who follows the museum's
renovations, said labels were lacking because the outdated inventory didn't list
the pieces and the staff, lacking expertise, weren't familiar with the pieces'
background. A U.S. State Department official advising on the renovation said it
was better to display the pieces imperfectly than keep them hidden. The official
spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with department rules.

But more problematic and confusing, the displays in the Sumerian halls mix in
artifacts from the later Babylonian era, as well as from the Neanderthals, an
entirely different hominid species from Homo Sapiens that died out some 30,000
years ago.

Mayah said the two halls would be renovated again this year. Sometime this
year, he hopes, all the finished halls can be opened to the general public.

Other renovated halls fared better. Displays in the hall on Baghdad's Islamic
dynasty were clear. Another hall explained the significance of the 5,000
year-old Arab city of Hatra, adorned with rare statues.

The museum's prize is the soaring Assyrian hall, chronicling the kingdom that
rose to become a major empire in the region in the 2nd and 1st millennia B.C.
The hall is lined with stone etchings of giant winged creatures and statues of
hand-clasped Assyrian kings.

Yet even here, at the hall's rear, lay the unidentified broken stone head the
size of an exercise ball, bearded and wearing a crown. Nearby stood an empty
pedestal labeled for a statue of Nimrod.

"Even the renovations that have been done are disappointing. I won't compare
it to the great museums of the world, but still — it's way behind," said a U.N.
adviser to the museum who spoke anonymously, not wishing to offend local
staff.

Turf battles over the museum haven't helped.

The Culture Ministry and Tourism Ministry both claimed authority over the
museum in 2005, confusing staff and delaying renovations. The body that directly
oversees the museum — the State Antiquities Authority — was leaderless from 2006
onwards. In 2012, the Iraqi parliament finally definitively put the museum under
the Tourism Ministry.

Ongoing violence, particularly suicide bombings ravaging Baghdad during most
of the past 10 years, also kept away foreign experts who could have helped speed
the process, said al-Gailani. The violence also means tourists are staying away
from Iraq, reducing the incentive for staff to speed up renovations.

Although Iraq is relatively safer since the height of violence in 2007, there
are still frequent attacks against government institutions, mostly the hallmark
of al-Qaida.

Ultimately, the museum didn't have to be world-class, said al-Gailani.

"The antiquities are so unique and rich, sometimes you forget if they are
exhibited well or not," she said.

The museum's woes mattered little to a visiting group of Iraqi schoolgirls.
They rushed into the room, gaping at the statues, taking notes.

"It's not like television," said Sawsan Kadhim, 19. "Now if somebody says
something about our history, I can say I saw it in reality."

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Iraq national museum long way from public opening

1 Iraq national museum long way from public opening Thu Apr 11, 2013 7:20 am

tlm724