Reclaiming a Plundered Past: Archaeology and Nation Building in Modern Iraq

NOTES

NOTES INTRODUCTION 1. The Web sites of the Middle East Librarians Association Committee on the Iraqi Library, hosted at the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago, and the Middle East Library Committee at the University of Exeter contain useful links pertaining to Iraq’s library collections. A group of Middle East specialists (Keith Watenpaugh, Edouard Méténier, Jens Hanssen, and Hala Fattah) formed the Iraqi Observatory and visited Iraq in June of 2003 to survey the damage and issued a report entitled Opening the Doors: Intellectual Life and Academic Conditions in Post-War Baghdad, which also is available online (http://www.h-net/org/about/press/ opening_doors/). 2. The first news stories suggested that over two hundred thousand pieces had been taken. Subsequently, with more information and research, it became clear that Iraqi museum officials had removed many important museum pieces for storage in the country’s central bank, among other places. See newspaper article by Eric Rich in the Hartford Courant, “A Treasure beneath the Rubble,” June 3, 2003. 3. The Internet site http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/~museum/iraq .html contains an exhaustive digest of news relating to the looting of Iraqi museums. Of the many articles on this topic, see, for example, Jonathan Steele, “Museum’s Treasures Left to the Mercy of Looters” in The Guardian, April 14, 2003. The Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago also initiated an Internet-based project that tracked developments regarding Iraqi archaeology (http://listhost.uchicago.edu/pipermail/iraqcrisis/). 4. “Pentagon Was Told of Risk to Museums. U.S. Urged to Save Iraq’s Historic Artifacts” in Washington Post, April 14, 2003, p. A19. 5. Although a term that is laden with problems, in this book the term “Western” will be used to designate European and North American nationals or countries. Most often, it suggests the British, but American, German, and French nationals also played important roles. 6. The events of 2003 indicate what happens to artifacts when there is an absence of power. 7. In this study, the terms “Iraq” and “Mesopotamia” will be used interchangeably . In general, the former will only be used to denote the modern state that was established in 1921. Therefore, if the discussion is centered before that date, the term Mesopotamia will be used to describe the area which today is known as Iraq. 8. On the formation of modern Iraq and its early political history see Peter Sluglett, Britain in Iraq 1914–1932 (London: Ithaca Press, 1976); Stephen Longrigg, Iraq 1900–1950 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1953); ‘Abbas al-‘Azzawi, Ta’rikh al-‘iraq bayna al-ihtilalayn, 8 vols. (Baghdad: Matba al-Baghdad, 1955); ‘Abd al-Razzaq al-Hasani, Ta’rikh al-wizarat al- ‘iraqiyyah, 10 vols. (Sidon, Lebanon: Matba’at al-Irfan, 1933–1967). For an excellent article on nationalism in interwar Iraq see Reeva Simon, “The Imposition of Nationalism on a Non-Nation State: The Case of Iraq during the Interwar Period, 1921–1941,” in Rethinking Arab Nationalism, ed. James Jankowski and Israel Gershoni (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997), pp. 87–105. 9. In 1921 there were numerous religious and ethnic groups in Iraq. In addition to Arabs (both Sunni and Shi‘i), Iraq was also home to Kurds, Turkomans, Assyrians, Sabeans, Persians, Armenians, Chaldeans, Jews, and Yazidis. For the best and most detailed discussion on the diversity of Iraqis see Hanna Batatu, The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1978), especially Chapters 2 and 3. For population estimates see R. I. Lawless, “Iraq: Changing Population Patterns,” in Populations of the Middle East and North Africa, ed. J. I. Clarke and W. F. Fisher (London: London University Press, 1972), pp. 97–127. 10. Eric Davis, Memories of State: Politics, History and Collective Identity in Modern Iraq (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004), p. 2. 11. Quoted in Batatu, The Old Social Classes, pp. 25–26. 12. Samir al-Khalil (pseud.), Republic of Fear: The Inside Story of Saddam’s Iraq (New York: Pantheon Books, 1990), p. 152. This work was subsequently published under the author’s real name, Kenan Makiyeh. 13. Sami Shawkat, Hadhihi ahdafuna (Baghdad: n.p., 1939), p. 81. 14. See for example, Philip L. Kohl and Clare Fawcett, eds., Nationalism, Politics and the Practice of Archaeology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995) and Margarita Diaz-Andreu and Timothy Champion, eds., Nationalism and Archaeology in Europe (London: University College of London Press, 1996). For the Middle East, see...