[My2Cents]

You mean it wasn't looted?

[Trust but Verify]

What a fascinating story.

[nevergore]

"One man was killed when he fired his rocket-propelled grenade at the vault while standing less than 10 feet away."

What can you say?....

NeverGore

[FairOpinion]

This is wonderful. Now that Iraq will become a democratic, decent country, they could build up a great tourist industry.

I am sure a lot of people, myself included would want to visit their many historic sites and treasures.

[Billthedrill]

While initial reports talked of some 170,000 pieces stolen, it is now clear that perhaps only a few thousand artifacts were taken, experts say.

Heck, they didn't have a "few thousand" on display! That is, after all, rather a large number of artifacts as a quick trip to any local art museum will reveal.

Nevertheless, I can feel real archaeologists cringing at this article. Gold is known as the "G-word" in the field, and for good reason - recent experience shows that it attracts looters who despoil artifacts of more historical value in trying to steal it.

This isn't to minimize the value of the stuff in the crates, but while it may be more pleasing to view a golden crown instead of a clay tablet written in cuneiform, it is the latter that is of more historical value. Once found and catalogued, all of these objects become objects of art, not necessarily of scholarship.

Hmm...a Marine Colonel who's a homicide prosecutor and has a Master's in classical antiquities...that reminds me...I haven't heard the left bleating about illiterate military robots lately...

[PBRSTREETGANG]

"They're real, and they're SPECTACULAR!"

(Teri Hatcher on Seinfeld.)

[Thud]

ping

[RightWhale]

With bemused U.S. soldiers looking on, the man lifted every manhole cover in the area until he found a valve that stopped fresh water from flowing to the building.

Iraq is upgrading its GIS right now. Experts from all over the world and Redlands are in the region with recommendations for new hardware, the appropriate software, and legions of tech support. Data acquisition is expensive, the most expensive part of the system, but necessary, and is underway using remote resource sensing, GPS, and SAR.

[bruin66]

...when U.S. forces failed to prevent looters from hauling away thousands of artifacts from ancient civilizations that sprang up in the Tigris-Euphrates valley.

Nope, no bias here. Move on...

[Fifth Business]

ping

[Jimmy Valentine]

The University of Pennsylvania has a collection from the Royal Tombs of Ur in ancient Sumer (pre-Assyria), dating back 5,000 years. Fantastic stuff.

[Publius6961]

a great boost for the museum, which gained the world's attention in the days after the war when U.S. forces failed to prevent looters from hauling away thousands of artifacts from ancient civilizations that sprang up in the Tigris-Euphrates valley.

Hmmmmmmmmm.

Looks like even the Wall Street Journal has succumbed to the mindless political invention of the American "Progressives": that armies are tasked to "prevent looters" in the midst of the shooting phase of a war; any war!

Americans are still dying daily in Iraq.
The war is not yet over dammit!

Can we expect a correction any time soon?

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

How very interesting: In what remains a chaotic and essentially lawless country the size of California, barely passified by less than one coalition soldier per square mile on average, the "recovery" of these valuable items was *not made public* for fear that they'd be snatched up by bad folks.

Is it unreasonable to conjecture that the same policy might be advisable in the case of "recovery" of assembled WMDs and their chemical, biological and nuclear components and precursors?

Hm?

[nutmeg]

ping!

Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent ‘general interest’ ping list.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

Pacified. Gadzoox.

[ALS]

"Nimrud, near the biblical city of Nineveh"

wooooooa!
so the bible was right!

tres cool!

(LL i thought you might find this interesting)

[SunkenCiv]

Just adding this to the GGG catalog, not sending a general distribution. Please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.

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