Natural History, March 1st, 2004
Iraq's antiquities were looted mostly by professional thieves, not by random hooligans. Archaeological sites are still imperiled by looters, as well as by hastily planned reconstruction. Standing in the storerooms of the Iraq National Museum one morning last summer, I found myself surrounded by the appalling chaos left by looters. Everywhere manuscripts were strewn about, mixed with modern catalogue cards and broken bits of 6,000-year-old pottery. Smashed ancient glass lay where looters had dropped objects in their haste. Scanning the scattered shards, as an art historian and specialist in th...
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