[Marxism] Guardian Leader: Cultural Vandalism in Babylon

["Charlie Parks" <jcparks5550@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

"The job of the archaeologists has been made immeasurably more difficult by
the avoidable and philistinian actions of the coalition forces who at the
very least ought to pay for the damage they have inflicted."

Babylon
Cultural vandalism

Leader
Saturday January 15, 2005
The Guardian

The damage wrought by the construction of an American military base in the
ruins of the ancient city of Babylon must rank as one of the most reckless
acts of cultural vandalism in recent memory. And all the more so because it
was unnecessary and avoidable.

The camp did not have to be established in the city - where the Hanging
Gardens, one of the seven wonders of the world, once stood - but given that
it was, the US authorities were very aware of the warnings of archaeologists
of the historic importance of the site. Yet, as a report by Dr John Curtis
of the British Museum makes clear, they seem to have ignored the warnings.

Dr Curtis claimed that in the early days after the war a military presence
served a valuable purpose in preventing the site from being looted. But
that, he said, did not stop "substantial" damage being done to the site
afterwards not just to individual buildings such as the Ishtar Gate, "one of
the most fam
ous monuments from antiquity", but also on an estimated 300,000 square
metres which had been flattened and covered in gravel, mostly imported from
elsewhere.
full:http://www.guardian.co.uk/leaders/story/0,3604,1390973,00.html



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