The country's antiquities are spread around the world because of smuggling
Treasures of Sumer and Babylon .. From Iraq to selling on the Internet
Experts: Countless items have been smuggled from thousands of under-protected archaeological sites in a country that has suffered from decades of siege and war.
Reuters
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Hundreds of dollars on the “Life Auctions” website are enough to buy a Sumerian clay tablet dating back 3000 BC, which found its way to Britain, to reach collectors’ homes quite simply. The smuggling and trade in Iraqi antiquities is already flourishing due to the lack of protection of archaeological sites and corruption.
The director at Timetable Auctions, where the piece is being auctioned starting at about $600, asserts that it was "the property of a master from West Sussex in the UK" and was "part of another set of cuneiform tablets owned by a master of London before 1992", that his foundation "You realize that the problem of smuggled parts is a reality, but we are making a lot of money and effort to rule out these possibilities."
Iraq is working to restore the antiquities of countries scattered around the world, as is the case with 17,000 pieces that were recently returned from the United States, but that effort is not enough, according to a source close to the government who believes that “the state is already weak and antiquities are not a priority for it.”
But the matter is difficult, as countless pieces of artifacts were smuggled from thousands of insufficiently protected archaeological sites in a country that has suffered decades of siege and war and faces challenges of corruption and the dominance of armed groups, while “there is no statistics on the number of smuggled antiquities” from Iraq, according to the director of the Iraqi Antiquities and Heritage Authority, Laith. Majid, because “smuggling does not only include pieces that were stolen from museums, but also from random excavations of archaeological sites.”
A guard of an archaeological site in southern Iraq, where the Sumerian and Babylonian civilizations flourished, and who has been working in this profession for 20 years, tells how he more than once found himself in the crossfire of smugglers who did not care about his presence in the place, and they are undoubtedly part of “large and organized networks for smuggling antiquities in Iraq.” As explained by an Iraqi expert following the case, he preferred to remain anonymous, as do most of the sources that AFP spoke to due to the sensitivity of the issue.
He tells the fifty-year-old guard, who also wanted to keep his identity a secret, “One time, while I was guarding the site, I saw a truck with three armed men on board. They stormed the site and started excavating. ?».
The man found himself helpless in front of these people alone, and he says, “The number of guards is not enough to protect the archaeological sites, and such people may come again and shoot us, and we do not have the means to stop them, and our salaries are already very low” in a country where 40% of the 40 million people suffer from poverty, According to the World Bank.
The Iraqi antiquities expert, in turn, frequently visits archaeological sites to find modern excavations, and tells AFP, "As we speak now, I am sure that smugglers or those who work with them from among the residents are excavating an archaeological mound and stealing its contents."
"Workers of foreign missions countless times" also encountered "smugglers who came to excavate the sites where they work," according to a Western security expert who follows the file of antiquities smuggling and wants his identity to be kept secret.
8000 years
Excavation operations are concentrated in Kut, Samawah, and Nasiriyah in the south, where there are countless sites that lack adequate security. From there, the pieces go to Amarah in the west, the “antiquities smuggling center,” according to the Iraqi expert, or in areas to the south of Amarah in the marshes.
These lost sites in the desert, some of which are known, but neglected, such as the site of Tel al-Ubaid in Dhi Qar, which experts say was the first place of human settlement in southern Iraq, 8000 years ago, and paved the way for the emergence of the first Sumerian cities, and others unexcavated that are difficult to count but the main source smuggling for decades, according to the Western expert.
"We suffer in Dhi Qar, which contains thousands of unexcavated sites, the lack of guards... and their poor wages," said Sajjad Abdul Hassan, director of the Nasiriyah Civilization Museum in southern Iraq, which opens the way for the theft of artifacts in a country where security has been the priority for years.
Gilgamesh's dream for sale
The prominent smuggling line is located across the vast desert on the border with Jordan, according to an Iraqi expert, as well as the borders with Turkey and Syria, but to a lesser extent and “this is how our antiquities end up on sites such as eBay, web auctions, museums, or among collectors and wealthy people” or in universities and research institutes.
The remote archaeological sites contain small artifacts, but perhaps also valuable treasures such as the "Dream of Gilgamesh" tablet that will soon return to Iraq.
“The dream” was the victim of random digging in the eighties of the last century, as the director of the Antiquities Authority explains, but it “flew out of Iraq after 2003.”
Perhaps he ended up with a herd of camels or a cargo of drugs. “The same gangs that smuggle drugs and camels work in smuggling antiquities,” according to the Iraqi expert.
• Director of the Antiquities Authority: "Smuggling does not only include pieces that were stolen from museums, but rather from random excavations of sites."
• A Sumerian clay tablet dating back to 3000 BC is being offered at a public auction for $600 in Britain.
• 17 thousand pieces were returned from the United States recently.
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