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

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------


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