Looters May Have Destroyed Priceless Cuneiform Archive

The Washington Post ^ | April 18th, 2003 | Guy Gugliotta

[wideminded]

Looters at Iraq's National Museum of Antiquities pillaged and, perhaps, destroyed an archive of more than 100,000 cuneiform clay tablets -- a unique and priceless trove of ancient Mesopotamian writings that included the "Sippar Library," the oldest library ever found intact on its original shelves.

Experts described the archive as the world's least-studied large collection of cuneiform -- the oldest known writing on Earth -- a record that covers every aspect of Mesopotamian life over more than 3,000 years. The texts resided in numbered boxes each containing as many as 400 3-inch-by-2-inch tablets.

The Sippar Library, discovered in 1986 at a well-known neo-Babylonian site near Baghdad, was one of the archive's crown jewels. Dating from the sixth century B.C., it comprised only about 800 tablets, but it included hymns, prayers, lamentations, bits of epics, glossaries, astronomical and scientific texts, missing pieces of a flood legend that closely parallels the biblical story of Noah, and the prologue to the Code of Hammurabi, the ancient Babylonian lawgiver. ...

... Iraqi archaeologists found the library in a previously unexcavated section of temple ruins at Sippar, 20 miles southwest of Baghdad. "The room is approximately 4.5 meters [15 feet] by three meters [91/2 feet], lined with sets of pigeon holes" along the floor, said Jeremy Black of Oxford University's Oriental Institute. "The tablets were still in the pigeonholes, intact and in place. We'd never found such a thing before."

[Physicist]

Hmmmm....cuniform archives that are thousands of years old or Freedom of Millions upon Millions of innocent people?

False choice. I haven't yet heard one person suggest that Iraq should not have been liberated because of the risk to the antiquities, just that the antiquities should have been protected in the process.

The cuneiform texts are valuable because people are valuable. They represent the last remaining testament of three or four great, lost civilizations: the last voice of millions upon millions of people. Is that not worth a small amount of effort and risk?

[RadioAstronomer]

I read on another post that these articles may have been purposely stolen instead of looted. I sure hope so. We may have a chance of recovery. However, the records that would have been used to collate the information from all of the tablets and help put the rest of the museum pieces in context may be lost for good.

[Physicist]

That's what cd burners are for. Scan em in, burn em, and if you lose the originals you still have memorex.

That's what should have happened, yes, and I still hold out some hope that some of this was done. There are several barriers to that, though. First, they probably didn't have the trained manpower to tackle what would have been a huge and delicate undertaking. Second, they probably would have stored the results on-site, in which case they may be lost, too. They didn't want copies of these texts floating around, because they wanted to reserve the right at first translation and publication.

Unfortunately, they had made very little progress towards that end, because translating Sumerian is an extraordinarily difficult task. One reason is because there was no Sumerian dictionary until very recently. At the end of 2002, the University of Pennsylvania announced the completion of the first such dictionary.

[Jimmy Valentine]

I hope they find them. These tablets give details about life in Sumer and Akkad which hit their peak culturally about 4-5 thousand years ago.

Interestingly a very good collection of artifacts and also the staff who actually successfully began the translation of "Cuneiform B" are located at the Philadelphia Museum. Neat stuff; saw it on tour.

Regards,

[Fifth Business]

A couple points of clarification regarding the article.

First, we don't know how much of their 100,000+ cuneiform texts collection was looted or destroyed. The article makes it sound like the whole collection was pillaged. It is clear that there was some loss through destruction and pilfering, but it's unclear how much.

Second, the article makes it sound like cuneiform tablets were routinely baked after being inscribed. In fact, only a small percentage of cuneiform tablets were baked. Important texts were commonly baked, and many tablets have been baked unintentionally by ancient palaces being burned down. But the vast majority of tablets remain unbaked and are in very fragile condition. If not handled with great care, they will be destroyed.

Now I have a question for you all. Did the US military intend to or attempt to secure this museum upon entering Baghdad? A statement by the in-field commanding general on Thursday made it sound like they attempted to but couldn't because the enemy was literally entrenched on the museum property. But other information I've heard seems to contradict that. I'd like to hear the official story, instead of getting dismissive answers like Rumsfeld gave.

[PISANO]

As Colonel Hunt said, all of the priceless artifacts together are NOT worth ONE of our TROOPS life. Without a bit of hesitation I TOTALLY AGREE with him.

[Physicist]

As Colonel Hunt said, all of the priceless artifacts together are NOT worth ONE of our TROOPS life. Without a bit of hesitation I TOTALLY AGREE with him.

Considering that in past wars we have assigned troops to protect cultural treasures, and that in this war we sent troops under fire to protect far less value in oil resources, I disagree with him.

[vannrox]

the key word here is MAY HAVE.
There is no evidence that they are missing or that they have been destroyed, or that their pictures and descriptions have not been recorded.

[ASA Vet]

all of the priceless artifacts together are NOT worth ONE of our TROOPS life

Agreement here too.

Why weren't those "human shields" present to protect the "priceless" artifacts?

[bmwcyle]

All memories of FAILED Culture

[Physicist]

All memories of FAILED Culture

I hope you're not talking about Mesopotamian culture. Here are a few things to consider over dinner tonight.

That restaurant menu? Thank the Sumerians. They invented writing, and apparently ALL other writing systems in use today took their lead from the Sumerian example and its derivatives. (Even Chinese: Mesopotamian domesticates appeared in China before the advent of writing.)

That cheeseburger you ordered? The meat and the cheese came from cows that descend from the ones domesticated in Mesopotamia. The same goes for the wheat in the bun, and the sesame seeds on top.

That glass of beer? Mesopotamia again: barley was domesticated there, and beer was invented there. The oldest recipe known is a Sumerian recipe for beer.

If Mesopotamian culture was a failure, then our culture is a failure, because our culture could not have existed without it; our agriculture and our writing came ultimately from there. Any cultural heritage that has been lost in Iraq is OUR cultural heritage.

[dinodino]

You're kidding, right?

[bmwcyle]

It does not matter what you invent if you culture is dead and you no longer progress through time. If you have not learned how to endure, you have failed. This goes for the United States if we fail over time. All cultures cycle and failure has been the history for most of them. The rubble of their cities is all over the planet. It is either earthquake, small bugs, or ego of leadership that takes them down. The piles of cities litter the earth and the failure is displayed in those piles. Some get a second chance but in the movement of time they are still young cultures. There is a reason for the continued fall of man's cultures but Libertarians will never understand why. They think science is the center of the universe. They think if the material items and their information endures so does the culture. These old cultures have some success but their cultures are dead and have failed to endure. Their cities are in rubble and their science will never save them.

[dinodino]

Wacko. How you went from cuneiform to Libertarians is beyond me.

[jimbo123]

Why no outrage from the left when Sink Squirter Bill and Hitlery Rotten looted the White House of antique furniture and other historical items?

[bmwcyle]

Libertarians is one example of the lack of understanding what I am saying. That is not to say they are the only people who just don't get why cultures fail. It seems you are also one them. Wacko, no just I have the light of understand you have not seen in your life. Keep is mind their failed cultures fall due to govermental leadership and the lazyness of its people. Liberals are dead wrong. Libertarians are about half right. Their moral values weight heavy on a culture. Many times shattering it to the rubble of time. Man builds but he never seems to keep it together. Do you know why?

[woofie]

At least these things are priceless...what if they were worth real money?

[Physicist]

The United States is not permanent (long, long may it last). The fact that NO culture lasts forever doesn't make them failures, any more than our personal mortality makes us failures as human beings.

Here's another figure of merit for you: the Sumerian empire lasted for 1600 years. The Babylonian empire lasted for 1400. Our nation has lasted for 228. I'd say we have some catching up to do.

The fact that we are here and the Sumerians are not does not make our culture superior; it just means that our culture came later. North Korea is still around; does that make it our equal?

I'll further point out that the culture of Greece and Rome was manifestly better than what came after; there is no reasonable standard by which a European in 1000 AD could have called his culture "more successful".

[Physicist]

what if they were worth real money?

They are (or rather, were). Here's my analysis of what those things were worth in raw dollars, compared to Iraqi oil.

[Physicist]

Our nation has lasted for 228.

D'oh! 227. A typo. Really. Next year it will be correct.