Imagine the outcry that would ensue, if in 2005, hundreds of years later, Hampton Court Palace were to be demolished on the grounds that King Henry eighth had broken away from Rome to create the Church of England and his own two daughters Mary and Elizabeth, had both Catholics and Protestants murdered on the grounds of heresy.

Imagine being told that this act was being committed to bring another countries freedom and democracy to the people of Britain but to bring that freedom to the shores of the UK, all places and items of historical importance have to be destroyed and looted.

On January 15th 2005, Rory McCarthy wrote a report for the British newspaper: The Guardian, on the destruction by the US occupation on one of the most historical places in Iraq, Babylon, “a city renowned for its beauty and its splendour 1,000 years before Europe built anything comparable, (Babylon) was chosen as the site for a US military base in April 2003, just after the invasion of Iraq”.

The report includes an account from an expert on Iraqi sites for the British Museum, who was invited to Babylon, by Iraqi antiquity experts and on his arrival, according to the report had found: “a 2,600-year-old brick pavement crushed by military vehicles” and “archaeological fragments scattered across the site.”

Other damage to the site includes: “large” areas being covered in “gravel brought in from outside (the area), compacted and sometimes chemically treated to provide helipads, car parks, accommodation and storage areas.” According to the head of the British all-party parliamentary archaeological group Lord Redesdale, “What the American forces are doing is not only damaging the archaeology of Iraq, it’s actually damaging the cultural heritage of the whole world.”

The destruction by the occupying powers has also been seen in the worldwide sale of ancient Iraqi artefacts, which have been disappeared illegally from Iraq and have been found on Western antiquities markets.

According to Colin Powell, in 2003 anyone whom was either possessing or dealing in stolen artefacts: “may be prosecuted under Iraqi law and under the United States National Stolen Property Act”.

On August 1st 2005, an online auction ended, which had for sale a Sumerian stone statue of a seated male, which dated back to 2450 BC. The statue, which according the website was located in the USA and it sold for $3,726.00 to a buyer also in America. The seller informed potential customers that such; “rare and extraordinary” items have sold for as much as $12, 000 in auction.

Other Iraqi artefacts that are still for sale, on the same auction site as the Sumerian statue include: a 1762 coloured engraved map of Babylonia and Palestine, a 1800 BC old Babylonian clay tablet, a 1800 BC Babylonian Plaque, Sumerian coins dated back to 3000 BC, a 3000 BC Babylonian Turquoise Gem pendant and an Old Babylonian Cuneiform Tablet which has been dated back to 2100-2000 BC.

It was once said by an archaeologist at the State University in New York that “What fuels this destruction are those in the West who buy illegally exported antiquities. The aim of history is to humanize the past, but each object ripped from its context losses its connection with its makers and users, loses its voice and becomes mute, a mere pretty thing.”

“In this part of the world, many of the objects indeed speak. Mesopotamia’s written tradition survived the vagaries of time because it was inscribed on sturdy clay tablets. Private letters, contracts, works of literature, and records of institutions can be found in the buildings where they were created. But the tablets in the antiquities markets? They can’t tell a story.”

By
Hussein Al-alak
Chairman.
The Iraq Solidarity Campaign (UK)