[bannie]

Aren't these the guys who are smashing and obliterating all local artifacts that aren't muslem-ish?

[Constitutions Grandchild]

I can't honestly say. I remember something about the Talliban smashing vast antiquities, but Saddam was trying to dig them up to prove what a wonderful history Iraq had and how he was going to make a come-back as the "King of the World". There isn't a country over there (with the possible exception of Jordan which is trying to restore Petra) that appears to value anything other than Muslim historical sites. Like we say at home, if Mohamed pee-d on a rock -- it's time to build a Mosque.

[SunkenCiv]

The Spanish just bulldozed a major ruin to make way for a parking facility. It goes on all over. The Moslems *may* be the only ones since Pol Pot who make a point of using active techniques to seek and destroy antiquities.

The dig at Jiroft (which is where the Iranians claim these pieces originated, but couldn't substantiate this) has been under intense study lately, part of Iran's drive to look for pre-Persian antiquity on its own soil to improve its national self-image.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=Jiroft