Mesopotamia 5 years on

As the fifth anniversary of the Second Gulf War approaches, there’s new evidence of the scale of damage done to ancient archaeological sites by the looting of antiquities that followed.

Using satellite images, Dr Elizabeth Stone has documented the damage done to thousands of sites, many of them barely known to archaeologists.

McGuire Gibson, who warned of the danger before the war started, says these sites hold the key to the origins of civilisation.

BBC World Service: Science in Action* (mp3 file of the episode)

Damn it, don’t destroy everything before I’ve had a chance to go there you bastards.

Why do people loot archaeological sites? Are they trying to grab some of their heritage and save it from invading forces, or do they just want to sell it to collectors? Or some of both? It’s irritating, in any case. It frustrates me to no end, all the information we might have gathered if they’d left all those sites well alone. All that lost data.

I wish I had a chance to go see this.

Whenever I hear about the Middle East/Mesopotamia, especially in the Neolithic and Bronze Age, I realise that it really is my favourite area and time period. How this translated to me doing my dissertation on Mediterranean trade… well, yes, I do, because of feasibility and availability of materials and possibly a little bit because I’m still finding out exactly where my interests lay, and the terms to describe them with, thanks to the lectures and talks I attend.

I went to the Durham Archaeology department’s Postgraduate Open Day last week (there were hardly any 2nd years there – everyone was a bit surprised to see me), and while there’s a taught MA strand on Egypt, India, and the Middle East, none of the research MA foci they have really grab me. But I’m starting to think it might be a good idea to do a taught MA in any case, maybe I still need a bit more guidance before I go off on my own ways. :)

*(Yeah, I listen to the World Service. This is because I am a big dork and have no life.)

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Tags:Academia; Archaeology; current events; Near East