I pass this posting from the museum security list serv on to the AAO list
for your information and possible interest.
Iona McCraith
AAO Preservation Consultant
----- Original Message -----
From: "Malcolm Bell III" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, March 20, 2003 11:06 AM
Subject: Open Declaration on Cultural Heritage at Risk in Iraq
To All Concerned Institutions and Individuals:
The Archaeological Institute of America is profoundly concerned about the
possible disastrous effects of military conflict on the sites, monuments,
and museums of Iraq. We intend to publicize as widely as possible the
attached Declaration, which is aimed both at protecting cultural heritage
from damage and supporting existing legal and administrative structures in
Iraq. It will be sent to heads of governments as well as leading journals
and newspapers.
We invite all scholarly and scientific institutions with an interest in
Iraq, as well as individual scholars, to become signatories of the
declaration. To do so, please respond to this email address, providing the
names of institutions in full; and for individuals, titles and
affiliations. We welcome dissemination of the document to scholars in the
field and institutions.
The situation is clearly very urgent; please respond as soon as possible,
to [log in to unmask]
Malcolm Bell
Professor of Classical Archaeology
University of Virginia
Vice President for Professional Responsibilities
Archaeological Institute of America
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Open Declaration on Cultural Heritage at Risk in Iraq
The extraordinary global significance of the monuments, museums, and
archaeological sites of Iraq (ancient Mesopotamia) imposes an obligation on
all peoples and governments to protect them. In any military conflict that
heritage is put at risk, and it appears now to be in grave danger.
Should war take place, we call upon all governments to respect the terms of
the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the
Event of Armed Conflict, and its First Protocol. We urge all governments,
institutions, and individuals in a position to act to recognize and uphold
the validity of Iraqs existing, strong Antiquities Law. To secure the
long-term safety of the archaeological and cultural heritage of Iraq of all
historical periods, and to stop the illicit digging and smuggling of
antiquities that have occurred during the period of the Embargo and that
may follow a period of conflict, the staff of the Department of Antiquities
must be returned to pre-Embargo numbers in academic and technical fields.
Most important, the number of guards for individual sites, monuments, and
museums must be returned to pre-Embargo strength.
As represented by the signatories of this letter, the international
scholarly community is prepared, at the conclusion of the present crisis,
to support the Iraqi Department of Antiquities in strengthening and
retraining its staff, in assessing the conservation needs of artifacts and
buildings, and in refitting laboratories. If asked, international
archaeologists are also willing to play a role in any needed assessment of
damage done by illicit digging or warfare, in salvage operations directed
by the Department of Antiquities, and in repatriating stolen antiquities.
The signatories of this letter urge all governments to recognize that
fragile cultural heritage is inevitably damaged by warfare, that
irreparable losses both to local communities and to all humanity are caused
by the destruction of cultural sites, monuments, and works of art, and that
it is our common duty to take all possible steps to protect them.
Signatories
American Association for Research in Baghdad
Archaeological Institute of America
Archaeological Institute of America - Canada
Belgian Archaeological Expedition to Iraq
British School of Archaeology in Iraq
Carsten Niebuhr Institute of Near Eastern Studies, Copenhagen
College Art Association
German Archaeological Institute/Deutsches Archäologisches Institut,
Oriental Department/Orient Abteilung
Institute for Cultural Studies of Ancient Iraq, Kokushikan University, Tokyo
McDonald Institute, Illicit Antiquities Research Centre, University of
Cambridge
State Archives of Assyria Project, University of Helsinki
Béatrice André-Salvini, Conservateur en chef au Département des Antiquités
Orientales, Musée du Louvre
Michael Aurbach, President, College Art Association
Zainab Bahrani, Associate Professor of Art History and Archaeology,
Columbia University
John Baines, University of Oxford
Heather D. Baker, START-Projekt, Institut für Orientalistik, University of
Vienna
Gary Beckman, Professor of Hittite and Mesopotamian Studies, University of
Michigan
Leigh-Ann Bedel, Pennsylvania State University
Lis Brack-Bernsen, Institut für Philosophie, University of Regensburg
Walter Bodine, Near Eastern Languages, Yale University
Marco Bonechi, Istituto di Studi sulle Civiltà dell'Egeo e del Vicino
Oriente, Rome
Klara Brenova, Oriental Institute, Prague
Geoffrey Cantor, Professor of the History of Science, University of Leeds
Elizabeth Carter, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures,
University of California, Los Angeles
Jorge Silva Castillo, Profesor Investigador, Centro de Estudios de Asia y
Africa, El Colegio de México
Antoine Cavigneaux, Professeur de langues et civilisation mesopotamienne,
University of Geneva
Soraya de Chadarevian, Department of History and Philosophy of Science,
Unviersity of Cambridge
John T. Chalcraft, Lecturer, Modern Middle Eastern History, University of
Edinburgh
Petr Charvat, Oriental Institute and Charles University, Prague
Nandini Chatterjee, Faculty of History, University of Cambridge
Meredith Chesson, Department of Anthropology, University of Notre Dame
Cristina Chimisso, Department of Philosophy, Open University
Sophie Cluzan, Conservateur, Département des antiquités orientales, Musée
du Louvre
Gudrun Colbow, University of Ghent
Elizabeth J. Cole, Department of History, University of Cambridge
Jean-Paul Descoeudres, Professor of Classical Archaeology, Vice Dean,
Faculty of Arts, University of Geneva
Lynn Swartz Dodd, University of Southern California
Lucy Donkin, Courtauld Institute of Art, London
Fred M. Donner, Professor, Oriental Institute, University of Chicago
Jennifer Downes, Department of History and Philosophy of Science,
University of Cambridge
Renée Dreyfus, Curator of Ancient Art, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Christopher Edens, Resident Director, American Institute for Yemeni Studies
Christine Ehlers, Department of Archaeology, Boston University
Richard S. Ellis, Professor Near Eastern Archaeology, Bryn Mawr College
Geoff Emberling, University of Michigan
Margarete van Ess, Director of the Baghdad Branch, German Archaeological
Institute
Patricia Fara, Clare College, University of Cambridge
Gertrude Farber, Research Associate, Oriental Institute, University of
Chicago
Walter Farber, Professor of Assyriology, Oriental Institute, University of
Chicago
Marian Feldman, Department of Near Eastern Studies, University of
California, Berkeley
Robert Fernea, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and Middle Eastern
Studies, University of Texas at Austin
J. V. Field, Birkbeck College, University of London
Marina Frasca-Spada, Lecturer, Department of History and Philosophy of
Science, University of Cambridge
Steven Garfinkle, History Department, Western Washington University
McGuire Gibson, Professor, Oriental Institute, University of Chicago;
President, American Association for Research in Baghdad
David Nelson Gimbel, Archaeos, New York
Gene Gragg, Professor, Oriental Institute, Departments of Linguistics and
Near Eastern Languages, University of Chicago
Donald P. Hansen, Craig Hugh Smyth Professor of Fine Arts, Institute of
Fine Arts, New York University
Arnulf Hausleiter, Carsten Niebuhr Institute of Near Eastern Studies,
Copenhagen
Jill Heberden, Courtauld Institute of Art, London
Georgina Hermann, Honorary Professor, Institute of Archaeology, University
College London
Jens Høyrup, Roskilde University, Denmark
Blahoslav Hruska, Oriental Institute and Charles University, Prague
Hermann Hunger, Institut für Orientalistik, University of Vienna
Askold Ivantchik, Ausonius: Institut de Recherche sur l'Antiquité et le
Moyen-Age, Unversité de Bordeaux
Anja Skaar Jacobsen, History of Science Department, Aarhus University
Arthur Jeffes, graduate in Archaeology, Trinity College, Cambridge
Richard Jennings, Department of History and Philosophy of Science,
University of Cambridge
Charles Ellwood Jones, Oriental Institute, University of Chicago
Martha Sharp Joukowsky, Director of the Petra Great Temple Excavations,
Brown University
Harmke Kamminga, Department of History and Philsophy of Science, University
of Cambridge
Ole Knudsen, Professor of the History of Science, University of Aarhus
Peter Kornicki, Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Cambridge
Stephan E. Kroll, Vorderasiatische Archaeologie,
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich
Curtis E. Larsen, U.S. Geological Survey
Mogens Trolle Larsen, Professor Assyriology, Copenhagen University
Paul Larsen, independent scholar
Peter Machinist, Hancock Professor of Hebrew and Other Oriental Languages,
Harvard University
Joy McCorriston, Department of Anthropology, Ohio State University
David W. McCreery, Department of Religious Studies, Willamette University
Augusta McMahon, Faculty of Oriental Studies and Department of Archaeology,
University of Cambridge
Ken Matsumoto, Professor, Institute for Cultural Studies of Ancient Iraq,
Kokushikan University; Director, Kokushikan ArchaeologicalExpedition to Kish
Léon de Meyer, Director, Belgian Archaeological Expedition to Iraq,
Honorary Rector University of Ghent
Peter A. Miglus, Institut für Ur-und Frühgeschichte, University of
Heidelberg
Wolfram Nagel, formerly Professor of Near Eastern Archaeology, University
of Köln
Karen Nicely, Professor of Medieval Art History, University of British
Columbia
Hans J. Nissen, Professor Emeritus, Institute for Near Eastern Archaeology,
Free University of Berlin
Zoe Opacic, Courtauld Institute of Art, London; University of Cambridge
Asli Osyar, Department of History, Bogazici University, Istanbul
Geri Parlby, Courtauld Institute of Art, London
Simo Parpola, Director, State Archives of Assyria Project, University of
Helsinki
Lukas Pecha, Oriental Institute, Prague, and West Bohemian University,
Pilsen
Jana Pecirkova, Oriental Institute, Prague and West Bohemian University,
Pilsen
Constance Piesinger, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Richard Plant, Queen Mary, University of London
Jiri Prosecky, Oriental Institute, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic
Wendy Pullan, Head of the Graduate School, Department of Architecture,
University of Cambridge
Andreas Puth, Courtauld Institute of Art, London
Christelle Rabier, Alumna, École Normale Supérieure
Selma al-Radi, independent scholar
Furat Rahman, West Bohemian University, Pilsen
Marcelo Rede, Professor of Ancient History, Federal University, Rio de
Janeiro
Colin Renfrew, Disney Professor of Archaeology, University of Cambridge
Francis Reynolds, Academic Assistant, School of Oriental and African
Studies, University of London
Lauren Ristvet, King's College, University of Cambridge
Michael Roaf, Institut für Vorderasiatische Archaeologie,
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich
Eleanor Robson, Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford; Council Member of the
British School of Archaeology in Iraq
Gary O. Rollefson, Department of Anthropology, Whitman College
Elena Rova, Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Antichità e del Vicino Oriente,
Università Ca'Foscari, Venice
Karen S. Rubinson, Archaeological Institute of America
John Russell, Professor of Art History and Archaeology, Massachusetts
College of Art
Agnieszka Sadraei, Courtauld Institute of Art, London
Walther Sallaberger, Institut für Assyriologie und Hethitologie,
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich
Mirjo Salvini, Director, Institute for the Study of Aegean and Near Eastern
Civilizations, National Research Council, Rome
Ivo Schneider, Professor of the History of Science, University of the
German Armed Forces
James Andrew Secord, Professor of History and Philosophy of Science,
University of Cambridge
Joe D. Seger, Director, Cobb Institute of Archaeology, Mississippi State
University
Gebhard J. Selz, Chair, Ancient Semitic Languages and Oriental Archaeology,
Orientalisches Institut, University of Vienna
Nancy Serwint, School of Art, Arizona State University
Payson Sheets, Department of Anthropology, Universtiy of Colorado
Ana Simoes, History of Science, University of Lisbon
Kathryn E. Slanski, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations,
Yale University
Michael E. Smith, Professor of Anthropology, SUNY Albany
Jana Souskova, Oriental Section, National Museum, Prague
John Steele, University of Toronto
Josephine Anne Stein, School of Cultural and Innovation Studies, University
of East London
Piotr Steinkeller, Professor of Assyriology, Harvard University
Elizabeth C. Stone, Department of Anthropology, SUNY, Stony Brook
Eva Strommenger, formerly Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte, Berlin
David Stronach, University of California, Berkeley
Ingolf Thuesen, Director, Carsten Niebuhr Institute of Near Eastern
Studies, Copenhagen
Helga Trenkwalder, Professor of Cuneiform Studies, University of Innsbruck,
Head, Austrian Archaeological Expedition to Iraq
Karin Tybjerg, Finley Research Fellow in Ancient History, Darwin College,
University of Cambridge
Jane C. Waldbaum, President, Archaeological Institute of America
Patricia Wattenmaker, Department of Anthropology, University of Virginia
Nili Wasana, Department of Bible Studies, Hebrew University, Jerusalem
Michael Weigl, Professor of Old Testament Studies and Syro-Palestinian
Archaeology, University of Vienna
Manfred Weippert, Professor Emeritus, University of Heidelberg
Donald Whitcomb, Oriental Institute, University of Chicago
T. J. Wilkinson, Oriental Institute, University of Chicago
Frances Willmoth, University of Cambridge
Rita P. Wright, Department of Anthropology, New York University
T. Cuyler Young, Jr., Director Emeritus, Royal Ontario Museum
Paul Zimansky, Department of Archaeology, Boston University
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