Wooden lyre with a gold and lapis lazuli bull's head. Royal Tombs of Ur, 2600-2500 BC. Collection of University of Pennsylvania

Iraq's archaeological and historical heritage is priceless, for Iraqis and for the world. Iraq's national collections must be rebuilt.

That means making every effort to recover items recently looted before they can be absorbed by the world's art market, and restore them.

It also means promising to repatriate some of Iraq's most unique and important artefacts, which are held not in Iraq, but in European and American museums, as soon as it is safe to do so.

The looting of the Iraq National Museum and others around the country was a tragedy of world-historical proportions. Collection of immense importance were lost - at best scattered to the four corners of the illegal art market's universe, at worst destroyed.

Planners at Centcom, we are told, were aware of the threat of war to Iraq's cultural heritage. Apparently in planning the bombing campaign, they took special precautions to avoid hitting key sites. Yet they seem not to have considered the risk of looting. Perhaps they believed that Iraqis would respect the value of their heritage that none would consider stealing it. If so, they were clearly seriously off the mark. They were happy to allow the looting of Saddam's palaces and ministries; they should have anticipated that things would spiral out of control. Many Iraqis saw museums (and even hospitals) as official buildings, intimately linked to the ruling Baathists. In addition, many of the stolen artifacts owe their provenance to ancient Assyrian and Sumerians, who are not the direct ancestors of the majority Arab population of present-day Iraq. The looters seem to have had no qualms about stealing and selling their artifacts.

Tragic though the destruction is, and it certainly is mind-numbingly tragic, it may not be quite fair to blame it all on the plank-faced philistines in Centcom.

This picture was published on the Guardian's website with the caption "The hallway is littered with destroyed art". No it isn't! This is a scene you could find in the back corridors of almost any museum. If anything it seems fairly tidy.

Early reports about the scale of the looting are almost certainly exaggerated. We were told that up to 170,000 items were stolen from Baghdad's Iraq National Museum alone in a three-day orgy of looting. Well, imagine 1000 looters working to empty the museum. That's a lot of looters to get together in the thick of battle. Imagine them carrying three items per trip (and don't forget many items weighed several tonnes and would require several men to lift them). They would need to make 19 trips per day to shift 170,000 artifacts. That's a lot of trips through vicious crossfire each time to wherever they deposited the items. That's a lot of storage space. It doesn't sound very likely.

That's not to say that 170,000 items cannot have disappeared. But if they have, then many were surely gone long before the American tanks hove into view in the Baghdad suburbs and the Marines became the unwitting curators of one of the world's premier collections of antiquities.

Saddam had countless palaces, not to mention houses and offices, to furnish, and gifts to give. He was also accumulating wealth overseas, and Iraqi art has been turning up on the world market in large quantities since the first Gulf war.

The harm caused to Iraq's cultural heritage by the (UN-sanctioned) Gulf War in 1991 was severe. John Curtis, keeper of the Department of the Ancient Near East at the British Museum, says that looters emptied the museums at Dohuk of clay tablets, ivories and metalwork). Museums in Arbil, Sulaimaniya, Amara, Kufa and other towns suffered the same fate.

The destruction of Iraq's treasures under Saddam did not stop with the end of the first Gulf War, as this report by Kevin Tibbles of NBC on 19 February 1999 makes clear: 'During the Gulf War, priceless Babylon artifacts were removed for safekeeping from the Iraqi Museum in Baghdad. The items have since disappeared, and display cases sit dark and empty ... Prior to the Gulf War in the early 1990s, [Professor John Russell of the Massachusetts College of Art] helped excavate the ancient city of Ninevah in northern Iraq. He documented what he found. Recently, an Iraqi friend sent him photographs of the same site, showing that all of its priceless historical beauty had been stolen. "History is being erased, with no possibility of being recovered," Russell says. "In a sense, it is a total war against the past."' (my italics)

Were the display cases in the Baghdad Museum brim full of treasures until the moment Saddam stared up into the sky at the nose-cone of his personal J-DAM (or the moment he settled into the seat of his Syria-bound limo, or skipped down the steps to whatever bunker he is now holed up in)? Unlikely.

In addition, much of the looting seems to have been premeditated. It is suspicious that looters seem to have ignored reproductions to focus on the most valuable, genuine antiquities. It is suspicious too that the vaults of the museum were emptied without damage to their massive doors, suggesting either that antiquities were taken to safety before the fall of Baghdad, or that looters had long planned their raid and had received help from insiders.

So it may be that the damage to Iraq's cultural heritage is not as severe as first thought, that much had occurred well before the current War on Saddam, that it more pre-planned heist than mindless looting. It may be that history absolves the men of Centcom of at least some of their guilt in the whole sorry episode.

But this is all irrelevant. What is important now is that no effort is spared to reconstruct the great collections of Iraqi antiquies. There is international unanimity over that. On 10 April, a group of international scholars of Mesopotamia and the Near East sent a Petition to the UN and Unesco demanding protection for Iraq's cultural heritage. I support their efforts wholeheartedly, and have asked to add my name to the petition. You can do the same by emailing here with your name, field of study, institutional affiliation, and country.

Petition for Protection of Iraq's Cultural Heritage

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Below is the text of the Urgent Petition of International Scholars of Mesopotamia and the Near East to for the Safeguarding of Iraqi Cultural Heritage which was delivered to UNESCO and the UN.

The petition in full, with list of signatories

Add your name to the petition by sending an email with your name, field of study, institutional affiliation, and country.

'Mesopotamia' designates the land where human beings first built cities, organized complex states, formulated elaborate religious beliefs, invented writing, developed sophisticated visual and literary expression, articulated measures for maintaining law and justice. The list of humankind's momentous "Firsts from Mesopotamia" is too long to detail. Mesopotamian religious, literary, and artistic traditions represent the origins of advanced culture, and their value to world civilization is inestimable. Understanding of Mesopotamia illuminates fundamental aspects of Judeo-Christian tradition and of Islam, and Mesopotamia has ties as well to ancient Greece--chapters of human history that gave shape to the world we inhabit today.

The geographical realm of ancient Mesopotamia extends into the modern states of Syria, Iran, and Jordan, but for the greatest part lies within Iraq. As scholars committed to the study and teaching of the history and culture of Mesopotamia, many of whom have been guests of the Iraqi people, we have deep ties to persons in Iraq as well as a profound appreciation for the cultural resources preserved within its borders. The only access that our and future generations have to ancient Mesopotamia is through the ancient physical remains left behind. Each artifact, written text, and archaeological context is unique and irreplaceable. Once destroyed, that link to humanity's past is lost, to us and to our descendants, forever.

Students of a civilization reaching back more than 5,000 years, we are accustomed to taking a long-term view of history and historical events. The present military conflict in Iraq will come to an end. We hope it will end as quickly and with as little loss of life as possible, and with a minimum of damage to excavated and unexcavated ancient sites as well as museum collections. Destruction of Iraqi cultural heritage will result in devastating and irrecoverable losses to human civilization, and to participate in or allow such destruction may inflame resentment and anger throughout the world, particularly in the Middle East. We believe, as is also recognized by the people and government of Iraq, that the ancient cultural heritage of the Iraqi people is at least as vital to their future as oil reserves are to their country's economic survival. Rigorous efforts by US and allied military forces and whatever body oversees post-war Iraq to protect ancient sites and artifacts can only enhance future goodwill. We believe that education can be a powerful tool, that cooperation among scholars and educators can serve as a vital bridge between Iraqi and Western people once the current conflict is over, and that steps must be taken now to protect the cultural heritage of Iraq before it is too late.

We, the undersigned members of the scholarly community devoted to the study and teaching of ancient Mesopotamia and Pre-Modern Iraq, urge the United Nations and UNESCO to forward the following recommendations to US-Allied military command:

1. That rigorous care be taken not to target archaeological sites directly or allow collateral damage to be inflicted on them.

2. That rigorous care be taken not to target museums, universities, academic libraries, or other buildings housing resources for the study of Iraq's ancient and more recent past. In addition, it has been publicized that our Iraqi colleagues have put themselves at risk in order personally to try to protect these collections. Utmost care should be taken that they come to no harm; Iraq, and the rest of the world, needs these devoted scholars and other personnel for the future.

3. That in the event a site or museum has been damaged, immediate efforts be made to control fires and otherwise consolidate compromised structures. Security details should be mounted immediately to protect the damaged site from looting.

4. That international military, humanitarian, and other personnel posted to Iraq be instructed as to the ethical and legal consequences of removing antiquities from the country. As soon as possible, certainly no later than immediately after the close of the military conflict, security personnel should be trained in the identification of antiquities and stationed in order to halt further removal of cultural heritage materials from Iraq.

Further, we urge the UN and UNESCO to ensure that whatever body oversees post-war Iraq implements the following recommendations immediately after the close of the conflict:

5. That security personnel be posted throughout Iraq at its many archaeological sites and museum storage facilities as soon as possible to halt future thefts. In the aftermath of the previous Gulf War, Iraqi archaeological sites and museum collections suffered from extensive looting, the fruits of which continue to disappear into the international black market for illegally procured antiquities

6. That our Iraqi colleagues be continued in or restored to their positions in museums, archaeological projects, and universities.

7. That the Iraqi Antiquities Authority be offered the assistance of specialists from around the world to work with them (a) to begin restoration and preservation of antiquities that have been damaged or compromised in consequence of the current conflict and from the past 12 years of looting, and (b) to aid in training the next generation of Iraqi scholars to continue this vital work.

8. That whatever body oversees post-war Iraq be ready to offer material assistance to the Iraqi authorities and any concerned international agency prepared to apprehend and prosecute persons responsible for the theft and purchase of Iraqi cultural heritage materials, and to strive for the recovery of those materials and their restoration to the Iraqi people.

The petition in full, with list of signatories

Add your name to the petition by sending an email with your name, field of study, institutional affiliation, and country.

Call for repatriation of Iraqi treasures from America and Europe

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Guardian figure of a human-headed bull from the Northwest Palace of Ashurnasirpal II, 883–859 B.C., Nimrud, Iraq. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

It is essential that we do all we can to reassemble and restore the devastated collections of Iraqi museums as a matter of urgency. However, we can and should do more than that. As soon as it is safe to do so, we should repatriate a proportion of the Mesopotamian collections held in museums in America and Europe. At a stroke, Iraq would, for the first time, truly be the finest showcase of its own treasures.

Over the past two centuries, European and American archaeologists removed from Iraq's people a far greater proportion of Iraq's cultural heritage than the recent looters of Iraq's museums have done. There are fabulous collections of Iraqi artifacts in the British Museum, Berlin's Pergamon, the Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum, the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute.

It will make an unedifying sight if those controlling vast storehouses of Mesopotamian antiquities in Europe and America shed crocodile tears over the current damage to the Iraqi national collections, without considering whether the magnificence of their own collections is not, in fact, part of the same looting process that has stripped Iraq of many of its finest items, and deciding to make amends.

These great collections were not, in general, assembled illegally. Under Iraq's first Antiquities Law, established in 1922, foreign archaeologists undertaking explorations in Iraq split the finds 50-50 with their hosts. There were informal arrangements in place even before then. However, the excavations were underaken by colonial powers, and even under the Antiquities Law items central to Iraq's cultural heritage were removed, and removed in bulk. Plenty more antiquities were excavated and exported illegally, some eventually finding their way from private to public collections, such as the two ship-loads allegedly loaded with antiquities by Gertrude Bell, advisor to Winston Churchill, known as Uncrowned Queen of Iraq, which ended up in the British Museum.

Promising to restore a selection of all these treasures to Iraq (once their safety and accessibility by visiting academics and travellers can be assured, of course) would serve as a threefold gesture. First, as a token of acceptance of the democratic world's complicity in the tragedies that have befallen the Iraqi people over the past 30 years, from its past support of Saddam Hussein, through the casualties of the two wars and the pain of the years of sanctions, to the coalition forces' inadequate protection of museums and hospitals in the immediate aftermath of the liberation of the country. Second, it would send a strong signal that the current campaign is not a neo-colonial adventure, that the days of imperial powers asset-stripping their conquered domains are well and truly over, that in fact the opposite is now true. And third, it would be an unequivocal gesture of goodwill towards the Iraqi people and towards whatever new, democratically-elected regime is to emerge.

I first encountered the monumental gate-guardians and fabulous lion-hunt reliefs from the Palace of Ashurnasirpal, Nimrud, in the British Museum as a small child. Even now, I never leave the museum without paying them a visit. It would break my heart to see them disappear to Baghdad. But if I thought that sending them to Baghdad would help the Iraqi people keep faith as they build a new democratic, secular state, and if I knew that they would be safe in Baghdad, and if I knew I and people from around the world would be able to visit them, I would happily make a gift of them to the Iraqi people.

Objects that are so unique that they form a crucial part of the cultural identity of the people belong in their country of origin, subject to being able to ensure their safety, conservation and open access by visiting academics and travellers. The converse, by the way is also true: objects that are not unique should be exported to foreign museums, to encourage mutual understanding of all world cultures.

It is not for me to decide which individual objects in European and American museums rank so highly in the Iraqi national culture that they belong back in Baghdad, that is a job for the experts. I would hope that the same academics rightly petitioning now for the safeguarding of antiquities currently under threat will come to support my call for the repatriation of selections of the great public collections in Berlin, Chicago, London, New York, Paris, and Philadelphia to put the leading collection of Mesopotamian artifacts back where it belongs, in Mesopotamia.

This logic, incidentally, also holds true for the Elgin Marbles. They are of such cornerstone importance to Greek cultural history, it is inconcievable that they should stay in London. Time was when they were not valued by the local population, they were under threat of destruction. Lord Elgin saved them for the world, and the world should be infinitely grateful. But now it is time for the marbles to go home. But please, do not link their return to the 2004 Olympic Games, which have more to do with popular than ancient culture. But enough about Greece, back to Iraq.

Given the apparently severe depletion of the Iraqi museum collections, there may also be a case for the repatriation of more than just the exceptional, culture-forming objects. If it indeed turns out that the Iraqi collections have been irreperably dispersed and destroyed, then they need to be replenished out of the collections of European and American museums. I am not suggesting that the collections be returned in full, far from it. But answer this: what proportion of their collections are on display at any time? I believe each of the main museums named could repatriate 25% of their Iraqi Mesopotamian collections with little or no impact on the quality of their Near-East displays.

If we want Iraq to remain coherent as a nation, then we need to ensure that the forces that bind its people are stronger than the forces which might drive them apart. Iraq needs museums to be proud of. It is inconcievable that Iraqis should have to go on pilgrimage to London, Berlin, Paris, New York, Pennsylvania and Chicago in order to understand what it is to live in their land. We need to put our antiquities where our convictions are.

Berlin: Mesopotamian Antiquities in the Pergamon Museum

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Lion from the Processional Way of Babylon, 6th Century BC. Pergamon Museum, Berlin.

The highlight of any visit to the Museum of Ancient Near Eastern Antiquities in the Pergamon Museum, Berlin, is the monumental reconstruction of the Ishtar Gate from Babylon, Iraq.

Babylon was excavated by Robert Koldeway between 1899 and 1917 on behalf of the Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft. Many of the artifacts, sculptures and even buildings he unearthed found their way back to Germany, where they are housed in the Pergamon museum.

Fourteen rooms of Berlin's Pergamon museum are devoted to its Near East collection. The collection contains many important examples of architecture, reliefs and smaller objects. Some are of great world significance, originating from the Sumerian, Babylonian, Assyrian and northern Syrian / eastern Anatolian regions which today include Iraq, Syria, and Turkey.

The most impressive rooms in the Pergamon feature the world-famous walk-through reconstructions of brilliantly coloured Babylonian monuments: the Processional Way, the Ishtar Gate and the facade of the throne hall of King Nebuchadnezzar II (604 - 562 BC). The Processional way consisted of 120 friezes, each depicting a golden lion, 60 on each side. The Germans took 118 of them.

Other outstanding works of ancient Near Eastern monumental architecture of the third and second century B.C. removed from Iraq include reconstructed sections of temple facades from Uruk. One of the facades is decorated with coloured clay inlays while the other is characterized by its stunning brickwork reliefs.

Other finds from Uruk offer insights into the beginnings of writing during the fourth century BC as well as into Sumerian art and culture. Clay tablets and seals provide evidence of the early use of writing throughout the whole of the ancient Near Eastern region.

The Pergamon's Assyrian palace reliefs from Nimrud (also known as Kalchu or Kalach), the one-time capital city, date from the ninth century B.C. The entrance to the reconstructed Neo-Assyrian palace hall is dominated by replicas of the colossal gatekeeping statues of mythical beasts. The artistic and crafting skills of the Assyrians during the first and second century B.C. are illustrated by vases, jewellery, tools, clay and stone reliefs, tiles and small sculptures made from a variety of materials.

Collections from Mesopotamia in the Pergamon Museum

Chicago: Mesopotamian Antiquities in the University Oriental Institute

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Sumerian Statuette, 2900-2600 B.C., Gypsum, inlaid with shell and black limestone. University of Chicago Oriental Institute.

The Mesopotamian collection of the Oriental Institute Museum was acquired almost exclusively through archaeological excavations at Adab and Nippur.

The first excavation, the University of Chicago Oriental Exploration Fund's expedition to Bismaya (ancient Adab), ran from 1903-1905. During the 1930's the Babylonian Section of the Iraq Expedition excavated four sites on the lower Diyala River. The Nippur Expedition is continuing work begun in 1948 at the holy city of Nippur.

Material sent back to Chicago as a result of divisions of finds from these expeditions with Iraqi museums forms one of the major world collections, covering in depth the civilizations of ancient Mesopotamia.

Highlights of the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute collection from Mesopotamia.

London: Mesopotamian Antiquities in the British Museum

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Colossal statue of a lion. Nimrud (ancient Kalhu), northern Iraq. Neo-Assyrian, about 883-859 BC. British Museum.

It's hard to know where to start describing the treasures from sites within the borders of present-day Iraq in the British Museum (though here is a list).

In the mid-19th Century, a Briton called Austen Henry Layard crudely excavated the palaces at Nimrud, on the edge of Kurdistan, in what is now Northern Iraq. He discovered astonishing bas-reliefs which covered the walls of the palace of Ashurnasirpal II (883-859 B.C.). He resolved to bring back to London. And bring them back he did, although some were lost when one of Layard's barks capsized in the Tigris. The remainder made it back to London, and they are among the most dramatic objects on display in the British Museum to this day.

The next famous British archeologist to work in Iraq was C. Leonard Woolley. From 1922 to 1934, he excavated the site of the ancient Sumerian city of Ur. There he found a total of 1800 graves, of which 16 were particularly rich. These he called the 'Royal Tombs'. The gold and silver vessels of the first dynasty of Ur (24th to 23d century B.C.) found in the royal tombs were split between the Iraq Museum in Baghdad, the British Museum and the University Museum in Philadelphia.

There is also an extensive collection of Mesopotamian treasures at the Ashmolean, in Beaumont Street, among the finest outside Iraq. Its new display boasts 4,400-year-old jewellery from Ur, made of African gold and lapis lazuli from Afghanistan. There is also a ninth-century extract from the Koran in Kufic script and a 13th-century Christian manuscript from a monastery in the northern city of Mosul.

Objects from Babylon in the British Museum

Objects from Nimrud in the British Museum

Objects from Nineveh in the British Museum

Objects from Sippar in the British Museum

Objects from Ur in the British Museum

Objects from Uruk, birthplace of Gilgamesh in the British Museum

Description of treasures from Iraq at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

New York: Mesopotamian Antiquities in the Metropolitan Museum of Art

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Nubian with oryx, monkey and leopard skins. 8-7th Century B.C., neo-Assyrian period, Phoenician style. Fort Shalmaneser, Nimrud. Metropolitan Museum.

The Metropolitan Museum's Ancient Near Eastern Art collection was assembled through donations of purchased items, rather than directly from excavations, so it offers a fabulous selection of objects from Mesopotamia through the ages.

It coveres a lengthy chronological span ranging from 8000 B.C. (the Neolithic period) to the Arab conquest and rise of Islam beginning in A.D. 651.

Particular strengths of the department's collection include an extraordinary group of Assyrian stone reliefs depicting scenes of warfare and ritual and by enormous guardian figures, all from the Northwest Palace of Ashurnasirpal II (883–859 B.C.) at Nimrud, as well as fine ivory carvings, many of which originally served as furniture ornaments at that site.

There is also a large collection of stamp and cylinder seals representative of the various cultures of the ancient Near East, and an unrivalled collection of Sumerian sculptures.

Highlights from the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Near East Collection.

Paris: Mesopotamian Antiquities in the Louvre

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Seated Statue of Gudea, Prince of Lagash. Neo-Sumerian, around 2115 B.C., diorite, Tello (ancient Girsu), the Louvre.

In 1877 a French diplomat, Ernest de Sarzec, vice-consul in Basra discovered the remains of a long-forgotten civilization.

Sarzec had become interested in archaeology during a postings Egypt and Ethiopia. Bored of his daily diplomatic activity, and of riding and hunting, he was informed by the manager of a French post office of the existence of several strange ancient brick inscriptions, together with parts of a human statue, on the territory called Tello, about 155 miles south of Baghdad. Inspired by a spirit of adventure, Sarzec hurried to Tello, hired a team of locals, and got started in the archaeology business.

In 1881, Sarzec was to sell his collection of figurines, cylinders, seals, and slates upon which strange inscriptions had been carved to the Louvre for 130,000 francs. The museum's experts did not realize immediately that they had acquired relics of a civilization older than the Babylonian or Asian ones - the 6,000-year old Sumerian civilization.

The Louvre's collection includes objects not just from Tello, but from throughout Mesopotamia, including Assur, Babylon, Khorsabad and Uruk.

Objects from Mesopotamia in the Louvre

Pennsylvania: Mesopotamian Antiquities in the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

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Cuneiform clay tablet featuring the earliest written medical prescription ever found, circa 2100 B.C., Nippur. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

In 1889 two members of the American Babylonian Exploration Fund purchased a great trove of antiquities, including cuneiform tablets and set out to Nippur to find more. Their finds form the core of the collection in Pennsylvania.

The expedition did not look like it was going to be such a success. Seven months after setting out, the archaeologists were still waiting for official permission to excavate; the Wali had just denied them an audience because of a toothache. When they eventually were allowed to begin their dig, at Nippur, some 60,000 Sumerian tablets and fragments bearing Cuneiform writing would be unearthed over the next decade. Everything was given to a new museum being established by Provost Pepper of the University of Pennsylvania.

Extravagant jewelry of gold, lapis lazuli, and carnelian, cups of gold and silver, bowls of alabaster, and extraordinary objects of art and culture were among the Mesopotamian treasures uncovered in the late 1920s by renowned British archaeologist C. Leonard Woolley in a joint expedition by the British Museum and the University of Pennsylvania Museum. One of the most spectacular discoveries in ancient Mesopotamia, the royal tombs at Ur opened the world's eyes to the full glory of ancient Sumerian culture (2600-2500 BC) at its zenith.

Sumerian Dictionary Project at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Web feature on the Cultural Heritage of Iraq.

Treasures from the Royal Tombs at Ur from the University of Pennsylvania collection.

Iraq's Main Archaeological Sites

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The importance of Iraq's archaeological heritage cannot be overstated. The list of ancient sites, dating back to biblical and pre-biblical times, is enough to send a shiver down the spine of the most hardened Philistine.

Assur German Expedition to Assur (Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Deutsche Orient-Gesselschaft & Martin Luther Universität, Halle-Wittenberg) Heidelberger "Assur-Forschung" im Rahmen des Leibniz-Förderprogramms Ashur - COMPASS (British Museum) Babylon Babylon - COMPASS (British Museum) Jarmo Excavations at Jarmo - Robert Braidwood, Letters from the Field, 1950-1951 (Chicago, Oriental Institute) Khorsabad (Fort Sargon) Excavations at Khorsabad (Oriental Institute, University of Chicago) Thorkild Jacobsen, "Crusading to the Past" (Oriental Institute, University of Chicago) Nimrud Excavations at Nimrud (New York Metropolitan Museum website) Website includes pages on the Nimrud ivories, the Northwest Palace and its Reliefs, and the various excavators of Nimrud from Layard to Mallowan and beyond. Nineveh (Mosul) Austen Henry Layard, Discoveries at Nineveh, 1854. Article: Archaeology Online (1996) - John Malcolm Russell, "Stolen Stones: the Modern Sack of Nineveh" Nippur The Nippur Expedition (Oriental Institute, University of Chicago) Article: Oriental Institute News and Notes (September-October 1990) - McGuire Gibson, "Nippur, 1990: Gula, Goddess of Healing, and an Akkadian Tomb" Seleucia-on-the-Tigris Seleucia-on-the-Tigris, Excavations 1927-1932, 1936-1937 (Kelsey Museum Online) Sippar Sippar - COMPASS (British Museum) Tell Harmal (Shaduppum) New Excavations at Tell Harmal (German Archaeological Institute) Images of Tell Harmal The Oriental Institute, University of Chicago Tello (Girsu) Tello (ancient Girsu) - COMPASS (British Museum) Ur (Tell el-Muqayyar) Ur - COMPASS (British Museum) Royal Graves of Ur - COMPASS (British Museum) Uruk (Warka), birthplace of Gilgamesh Uruk - COMPASS (British Museum)

Gold helmet of King Meskalamdug, from the Royal Cemetery at Ur, around 2400 B.C., from the collection of the Iraq National Museum, Baghdad. May be among items looted. White marble head of a woman from Uruk, around 3000 B.C., from the collection of the Iraq National Museum, Baghdad. May be among items looted.

Iraq Antiquity Links

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Oriental Institue, University of Chicago: Listing of items in the Iraq Museum that may have been looted. Complete with photos.

The petition to the UN and UNESCO on the safeguarding of Iraq's Cultural Heritag, with list of signatories.

Add your name to the petition by sending an email with your name, field of study, institutional affiliation, and country.