Iraq Antiquities Find Sparks Controversy

Science Now ^ | 4-10-2006 | Sue Biggin - Andrew Lawler

[blam]

Iraq Antiquities Find Sparks Controversy

By Sue Biggin and Andrew Lawler
ScienceNOW Daily News
10 April 2006

TRIESTE, ITALY--Italian researchers in Iraq claim to have stumbled upon an important cache of ancient clay tablets in one of the world's oldest cities. But others dispute the claim, and Iraqi authorities say the scientists have been acting illegally.

No archaeologist has been given permission to do excavations since the U.S. invasion in March 2003 toppled Saddam Hussein. But last month, Italy's National Research Council announced that it had discovered some 500 rare tablets on the surface of Eridu, a desert site in southern Iraq. The team was reconnoitering artifacts and architecture for an online virtual museum project.

According to team member Giovanni Pettinato, an assyriologist at Rome's La Sapienza University, the tablets date from 2600 to 2100 B.C.E. and hold inscriptions featuring an unusually wide variety of literary, lexical, and historical content. He thinks they may have been part of a library.

But the find, which was widely publicized in recent weeks, has puzzled and outraged archaeologists in Iraq and abroad. Eridu was largely abandoned during the period in question, and Elizabeth Stone, an anthropologist at Stony Brook University in New York, says most real libraries were created much later than the dates the Italian team suggests. Stone was part of a U.S. team that inspected the site a month after the war began. The group did spot ancient bricks stamped with kings' names, she says, but such bricks are common and offer little historical information.

Donny George, chair of Iraq's State Board of Antiquities and Heritage, sent an irate e-mail to the Pettinato team on 6 April in search of an explanation. An Iraqi group sent recently to Eridu to investigate found no evidence of tablets, he wrote: "Why all this media propaganda ... for something that is not real?" George also scolded the Italians for unauthorized work at nearby Ur, another ancient Sumerian city, where he says they have dug out "foundation stones and door sockets" and taken them to a nearby museum. As at Eridu, he wrote, they only had permission to take photos, so their actions are "a clear violation of the Iraqi antiquities law. ... This means that you may be taken to an Iraqi court."

In a statement to Science today, Pettinato confirmed that an inscribed foundation stone was taken to Nassiriya's museum following a judge's authorization. As for the Eridu find, he said the bricks and tablets have not been removed by the researchers.

[blam]

GGG Ping.

Sounds like there is two controversies.

[militant2]

"Donny George, chair of Iraq's State Board of Antiquities and Heritage....."

Is that Donny Mouhammed George? Militant

[CondorFlight]

No, Donny George is actually part of the Christian minority in Iraq.

However, with the chaos in Iraq, looters have been going at antiquities with bulldozers, hoping to find something to sell.

In this case, at least the Italians' finding the stuff will mean it will be properly recorded and saved, instead of destroyed.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Blam.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.

Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
"Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list or GGG weekly digest
-- Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

[SunkenCiv]

I thought this sounded familiar...

Italians Find Ancient Ur Tablets (Iraq)
ANSA | 3-28-2006
Posted on 03/28/2006 1:53:21 PM EST by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1604795/posts

[SunkenCiv]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1606650/posts?page=15#15

[madtier1]

Italian researchers in Iraq claim to have stumbled...in one of the world's oldest cities. But others dispute the claim, and Iraqi authorities say the scientists have been acting illegally.

What were the Italians smoking?

[Androcles]

As long as it is returned to Iraq once they're stable again.

[Highest Authority]

For those of us in the CIVILIZED world, the tablets date back to 2100 B.C., NOT bce!!!!!

[Cold Heart]

B.C.E. is used when you are trying to be dramatic as in "it was Before Christ Even."

[gleeaikin]

Perhaps Iraqis who have been looting their own sites like crazy are upset that the artifacts are being recorded before they can be stollen and sold on the black market. There was an interesting Nightline tonight on the theft of Iraq antiquities, in which it was reported that terrorists are using stolen artifacts as a source of funding. I guess the administration didn't think of that when they did their invasion planning, even though they were warned by archeologists that theft of artifacts had flourished since 1991 and needed our attention upon invasion. So now stolen antiquities are helping kill our troops.

[Albennet]

ACTUALLY, B.C.E. stands for "Before the Common Era" and is the standard academic term these days. As archeology often deals with cultural remains that were not associated with the "Christian Calendar", this term is thought to be more politically correct. Ironically however, we still use the Christian calendar to establish these dates.

[HereInTheHeartland]

"ACTUALLY, B.C.E. stands for "Before the Common Era" and is the standard academic term these days"

I am under the impression that this is a deliberate attempt to deemphasize Christianity done by academics.

[Cold Heart]

I knew that. I was being facetious.
I recognized BCE as deemphasizing Christ as soon as they came out with it. I came up with "Before Christ Even" the first time I saw the change. There was no scientific or clarifying reason for them to change it.

I use B.C. or Before Christ Even when B.C.E. is used. Feel free to use it & poke back at em.

[tarheelswamprat]

Please add me to the GGG ping list. Thanks.

[blam]

Okay.

SunkenCiv please see post #16. Thanks.