2008 Global Candlelight Vigil

The 2008 SAFE Global Candlelight Vigil was officially launched last week.

Last year 20 different groups from around the world took part in the vigil, commemorating the tragedy in a variety of ways and places. You can read about it here or look at photos from some of the vigils here.

This year marks the fifth anniversary of the looting of the Iraq Museum and there will be even more opportunities to take part: host a vigil, attend a vigil or light a virtual candle to show your support. Visit the SAFE website for details.

Where we forgot our history

The following article is published at the request of its author, Mehiyar Kathem, who has recently completed a MSc in Development Management at the London School of Economics (LSE) and is currently fundraising for the Cultural Heritage Awareness Initiative (CHAI) - a project of the Baghdad based education focused NGO, the Culture For All (CFA) - www.cultureforall.org

One of the greatest tragedies of history has been the systematic looting of most of the 10,000 registered archaeological sites and monuments in Iraq. Our knowledge of Iraq is largely punctuated by events of the past twenty five years - that of the first Gulf War, the sanctions, and now nearly five years into the West's disastrous escapade, the US led invasion of 2003. But what we do not get to see on the news is a tragedy much larger than the war. Armed and organised gangs, many of them contracted by wealthy Western clients, are systematically looting Iraq's cultural and archaeological heritage. In the past five years, we forgot that the war has ransacked the house of the first civilisations known to exist - Sumaria, Assyria and Babylon.

Billions of dollars have poured into making Iraq secure and democratic but only a small portion of funds has gone to preserving and protecting its archaeological heritage. Democracy is necessarily about rights - and the rights of civilisations past and present have to be respected, including our human right to understand the past. It is ironic that while human rights promotion has been high on the agenda of so many international NGOs focusing on Iraq so little focus has been on asserting Iraqi's right to their country's cultural heritage. Unfortunately for history much is at loss. While the past 100 years has uncovered only a small fraction of the country's archaeological riches, some of which looted at the Baghdad museum in the ensuing chaos of 2003, much remains to be discovered and understood of a history spanning 8,000 years. We may never know how many Gilgamesh like epics have been lost. As March 2008 marks the five-year anniversary of the war, we are forgetting that it also marks five years of one of the greatest catastrophes to befall humanity. In another five years, we will be marking the ten-year anniversary, and yet again our arrogance for understanding the meaning of life through past civilisations that gave us the wheel and the written word, will continue to blind us from the actions we need to take to protect the cultural heritage of what rightfully belongs to all civilisations and peoples of the world.

Protecting Iraq's archaeological heritage is essentially about civic engagement and public education rather than only the capacity building workshops in four-star hotels. For protection is not only equipping Iraqi academics with best practices, but about implementing public education programmes and engaging communities within the country. Any action necessarily requires over the next few years support to the credible, legitimate and sufficiently grounded community based organisations to spur people into building local protection schemes. Local strategic communication is essential in this process but so is creating the incentives so that tribal and community leaders understand that safeguarding the sites is a tool by which to rebuild Iraq and preserve its rich history. While this may need the help of a government Ministry, relying on the Iraqi Ministry of Culture to help may actually end up delaying what is urgently needed - Iraq would be left with just broken fragments of looted artefacts before any assistance or national protection programme is tabled. Since it is quite obvious that the Ministry's priorities lie elsewhere grass-root campaigning is the surest way to pressure the government into devising a national protection strategy, educating and raising awareness amongst the general public.

Iraq is said to be a dangerous country to work in. But one should not forget that it is still home to more than twenty six million Iraqis and to effective grass-root NGOs, academics and functioning universities. In a new initiative to be announced in May, the British Army in the South of the country in co-operation with the British Museum will focus on what Western experts can do to help reduce the systematic looting in the sector. All good, but again the same mistakes are being repeated. It is just another effort concentrated within academic circles between the West and Iraq. Unless efforts address the deficiency of civic engagement initiatives with the general public, we should not be surprised to see the continuation of the monumental looting taking place in the country.

Archaeology and Cultural Heritage Management Engage the Final Frontier

The current and last issues of Archaeology, a publication of the AIA, discussed the future prospects of space tourism and the need to protect historical objects orbiting our planet and left behind on the moon. Objects from the earliest days of the American and Russian space programs, these relics testify to humanity's first efforts to travel beyond the confines of the Earth and to reach out to worlds far beyond us.

Over the next few decades, as space tourism becomes commercialized, average people may be able to take trips to the moon. Some archaeologists caution that plans need to be in place to protect artifacts in orbit and on the lunar surface. Something as iconic as Neil Armstrong's footprints on the moon's surface could easily be destroyed by the mere brush of a hand.

An interview regarding these concerns can be found on the Archaeology magazine website. For the articles see Archaeology 60:5 (Sept./Oct. 2007) and 60:6 (Nov./Dec. 2007).

Diolkos Petition

An ancient monument in Greece called the Diolkos is being worn away by erosion, industry and neglect. The Diolkos was the ancient pathway used by ships to travel overland on the Isthmus of Corinth, thus reaching Athens more quickly and avoiding the dangerous Peloponnese peninsula. The route was in use for hundreds of years and represents a unique engineering feat.

The Diolkos was excavated in the late 1950s but has been largely neglected since that time. In June the local government agreed to clean up the monument and continue some archaeological work but no further rescue efforts have been planned.

A number of concerned citizens are asking for petition signatures to convince the Greek government to protect and excavate this unique ancient monument.

Click here to sign the petition.

Photo by Rich Pianka

Heritage Watch Petition

Heritage Watch is an organization committed to preserving Cambodia's cultural heritage in the face of wide scale looting and damage to archaeological sites and monuments. Founded in 2003, the organization has a number of projects ranging from education, responsible tourism and advocacy.

They are currently seeking signatures for an online petition to convince the governments of Singapore and Thailand to become signatories to the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. Both Singapore and Thailand are hubs for the trade in illicit antiquities from throughout Asia. They play a role similar to that of Switzerland in the past (The Swiss government signed the UNESCO 1970 Convention in 2003): a port of exchange where antiquities may be freely traded without laws and regulations to protect against illicitly acquired objects.

Click here to sign the petition.