Iraq Antiquities Find Sparks Controversy
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. (...) 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"...
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Iraq Antiquities Find Sparks Controversy
Sue Biggin and Andrew Lawler, ScienceNOW Daily News
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Giovanni Pettinato
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date from 2600 to 2100 B.C.E. and hold inscriptions featuring an unusually wide variety of literary, lexical, and historical content.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 [below]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.
Dear Prof. Pettinato,
Referring to the subject of your visits to the sites of Ur and Eridu, in
Thi Qar province, southern Mesopotamia, now Iraq, that weve exchanged some
e-mails, and after I came back from Japan last week. I had sent two
investigating teams to both sites, I have now solid information about what
had happened there, it is as follows:
1. The that went to the ancient city of Ur, reported that there were
no left stones in the city , but foundation stones and door sockets that
we, the guards, and the inspectors of Thi Qar (Naseriya) province knew
about, and you and only with the help of the Italian force in the province
had extracted these stones from there situ and dug them out and took them
to museum of Naseriya.
2. As for the site of Eridu, both teams, from Naseriya and from
Baghdad assured, hundred per cent, that there were no tablets on the
surface of the site, but only fragments of stamped bricks from the site of
Eridu itself and from the sites surrounding Eridu, such as Ur, and not a
single tablet was found, they also made digital photos for the site and
video footage too, and I have them all.
I need you to explain to me, as the chairman of the State Board of
Antiquities and Heritage of the Republic of Iraq, how all that happened,
and why all this media propaganda was made for something that is not real,
even in London, there were official Italian Talks in the Italian Cultural
Center, about the same matter, the great find of the Italian
Archaeologists!!! but if it is real for the part of Eridu, WHERE ARE THE
TABLETS ? ? ? did you take them? did the Italian forces take them? I need
to know as the main Iraqi authority responsible for the archaeological
sites, and antiquities in Iraq, I need a full and official explanation from
you about this subject.
As for the act of extracting the stones, especially the door sockets, from
the city of Ur, this is a complete unaccepted act and subject, because you
where in Ur just for taking photos for the virtual museum project that
we'veagreed on in our meetings in Italy last February, you were not there
to dig things up, this is a clear violation of the Iraqi Antiquities Law,
this means that you may be taken to an Iraqi court !
Dear Prof,
I need a good and reasonable explanation to all this, otherwise this will
effect so much our future relations even for the project of the virtual
museum that we have already agreed on.
With my best regards.
Dr. Donny George
Chairman
State Board of Antiquities and Heritage
Baghdad - Iraq
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:: Article nr. 22815 sent on 25-apr-2006 02:20 ECT
www.uruknet.info?p=22815
Link: sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2006/410/1
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