Iraq Cultural Heritage Initiatives
The Department of State is committed to working with the people of Iraq to protect and preserve the rich heritage of their ancient legacy. The Department has engaged many U.S. cultural institutions as partners to collaborate with the Iraqi Ministry of Culture and the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage in preserving Babylon and other national sites of world importance. Efforts also entail improving professional capacity at the Iraq National Museum and establishing a new conservation and preservation training institute in Erbil. These collaborations make manifest the deep respect of the American people for the people of Iraq, who are heirs to a cultural and artistic legacy that is revered throughout the world.
Iraq Cultural Heritage Project for Professional Development
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The project activities are overseen jointly by the Iraq State Board of Antiquities and Heritage (SBAH), the Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA), and the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. One activity is the establishment of a new institute, the National Training Institute for the Preservation of Iraqi Cultural Heritage, in Erbil, undertaken as a collaboration among the Walters Art Museum, the Winterthur Museum & Country Estate, the University of Delaware Art Conservation Department, the U.S. National Park Service, and the SBAH.
Second, improvements are being carried out at the Iraq National Museum in Baghdad to advance its core mission, including the design and installation of conservation and collection storage facilities and exhibition spaces.
The third element of the project aims to advance professional capacity in Iraq’s heritage and museum communities through:
- the development of a training program for Iraqi professionals engaged in preservation of buildings and sites, collections management, objects conservation, education, and museum management, in consultation with the Field Museum of Natural History and the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago;
- the bilingual publication of reports on past excavations by Iraqi archaeologists, in collaboration with The American Academic Research Institute in Iraq; and,
- the provision of publications to museum libraries in Baghdad and Mosul, a collaboration between Stony Brook University and the Iraq National Museum.
The Future of Babylon
Babylon, the ancient site of the “Tower of Babel’” and Nebuchadnezzar’s wondrous “Hanging Gardens,” has been exposed through archaeological excavations beginning in the 19th century. The site includes open-air ruins and is overlaid with a few reconstructed ancient buildings, extensive areas of modern construction dating to Saddam Hussein, and several villages.
In 2004, concerns surfaced about damage done to the ancient site of Babylon as a result of the use of parts of the site for military installations. Several reports on the condition of the archaeological remains were issued, and recommendations for ameliorative actions were broadly vetted. Recognizing that any actions at such an important site would be best undertaken within the structure of a good management plan, the Department of State has provided $700K to World Monuments Fund (WMF) to work in partnership with the SBAH on the development of a plan for the management and preservation of Babylon.
The SBAH has dedicated a group of professional staff to collaborate on the planning and fieldwork tasks for the Babylon project. The management plan, which is expected to be completed within two years, will derive from a process driven by the significance of the site and the interests of the Iraqi stakeholders. Through site visits, focused work groups, and research, team members will identify the purposes for which the site will be conserved and managed, and specify goals and policies to direct, guide, and regulate future uses and interventions at the site. This process will produce and implement plans for site management to benefit heritage sites throughout Iraq.
Among the goals of the Babylon project is the development of technologically and culturally appropriate conservation solutions that also meet international standards; incorporation of holistic preservation approaches embracing environmental, social and economic factors; and economic self-sufficiency.
WMF has worked for over 40 years with communities and countries around the world to support the conservation and preservation of endangered cultural heritage sites. Their collaboration on the Babylon site management plan is part of a larger ongoing project, the Getty Conservation Institute / World Monuments Fund joint “Initiative to Conserve Iraqi Cultural Heritage.”
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