March 12, 2017 23 Culture

Saving Nineveh and Nimrud from ISIS

Harvey Morris Video of militants hacking at the remains of civilisations dating back thousands of years figured promi- London nently in ISIS’s online propaganda from the start of its expansion. This he wanton destruction scorched-earth policy has continued of ancient sites overrun as its forces retreat in the face of the by the Islamic State (ISIS) Iraqi counteroffensive. after it swept into Iraq in The sincerity of the militants’ de- 2014 is worse than first sire to purge their self-proclaimed Tfeared, according to Iraqi officials caliphate of its “polytheistic” herit- who are appealing for international age has to be set against the reality assistance to salvage the country’s of their thriving traffic in ancient ar- archaeological heritage. tefacts to fund their enterprise. Qais Rasheed, Iraq’s deputy Cul- At the same time as they were ture minister, said during a Paris filming each other dynamiting and conference hosted by the United bulldozing carvings, statues and Nations’ cultural agency UNESCO buildings that had survived for up that ISIS had destroyed up to 70% to 3,000 years, other members were of remains at Nineveh and 80% at hiding away movable treasures with More than just material damage. Destruction caused by ISIS at the archaeological site of Nimrud, Nimrud. a view to their eventual sale on the 30km south of Mosul in Nineveh province. (AFP) Nineveh, on the outskirts of mod- international black market. ern Mosul and the site of an ancient Iraqi Education Minister Muham- Among the institutions involved tray himself as the reincarnation of tion of the citadel that looms above Assyrian city, was recaptured by mad Iqbal Omar appealed in Paris for is the British Museum, which runs a ancient Mesopotamian rulers. That Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan, continu- Iraqi forces in mid-January. The an- international help to clamp down on government-funded programme for included the construction of a some- ously inhabited for 6,000 years, has cient Assyrian city of Nimrud, 32km the illicit trade and to abide by UN Iraq emergency heritage manage- what kitsch version of Babylon near been under way for a decade. south of Mosul, was liberated in No- Security Council Resolution 2199, ment training. the actual site outside Baghdad but In 2015, a British team uncovered vember. which bans cultural trade from Iraq In January, the museum hosted it wrought no permanent damage. the remains of the world’s oldest and Syria in an effort to dry up ISIS’s the latest batch of Iraqi archaeolo- The worst depredations came as trading centre among the still largely The fate of Iraq’s cash flow. gists who had travelled to London a result of the 2003 US invasion that unexplored ruins of Ur that date to archaeological The fate of Iraq’s archaeological for training in the latest digital and overthrew Saddam and unleashed the second millennium BC. Else- treasures is an issue above all for the excavation skills they will need to widespread looting of museums where other such discoveries are be- treasures is an issue Iraqi people. The ISIS destruction is salvage and repair sites that ISIS and historic sites in which priceless ing made. above all for the Iraqi seen in part as a strategy of demor- sought to destroy. treasures vanished. In a comforting irony that ISIS will people. alising the communities that fell un- In a way, it is payback time for Foreign archaeologists have been not have intended, the damage the der the terror group’s control. institutions such as the British Mu- engaged with local colleagues to jihadists caused to the Mosque of Given Iraq’s status as a birthplace seum. unveil the secrets still buried across Younis (Jonah) in Mosul has revealed In Iraq, as in Syria, ISIS used so- of civilisation, it is also an interna- From the 19th century, Western ar- Iraq, subject to the limitations im- an even older treasure. called settlement battalions to delib- tional issue. At the height of the chaeologists, some little better than posed by war and political unrest. Beneath the wrecked mosque, erately target religious buildings and destruction, UNESCO Director-Gen- treasure hunters, plundered Iraq in a Known sites may represent just which ISIS rigged with explosives shrines it deems un-Islamic, as well eral Irina Bokova described Iraq as spree that involved many of its most the tip of an iceberg of sites and arte- in mid-2014, Iraqi archaeologists as ancient remains that long predate “a vast museum that encompasses precious artefacts ending up on dis- facts yet to be uncovered. recently discovered carvings and Islam. some of humanity’s cultural herit- play in London, Berlin or Paris. Experts, for example, have an in- inscriptions linking the site to the “It’s not just one monument de- age and generously presents it to the What remained survived war and exact knowledge of the northern Assyrian empire and the seventh stroyed by one event,” UNESCO As- world despite all the prevailing chal- revolution under post-colonial gov- Iraq site of the Battle of Gaugamela century BC. sistant Director-General Francesco lenges”. ernments, and new discoveries con- where Alexander the Great’s forces Bandarin said at the conference in Hence the involvement of foreign tinue to be made. defeated Persia’s King Darius in Harvey Morris has written several Paris in February. “We’re talking experts and institutions in preserv- Until he was toppled by the US- 331BC. books on the Middle East, including about an entire region that has suf- ing what remains from what Bokova led invasion of 2003, Iraqi leader Outside the ISIS battle zone, work No Friends but the Mountains: fered for years a massive devasta- described as “cultural cleansing” by Saddam Hussein fostered a person- has continued at locations designat- The Tragic History of the Kurds tion.” ISIS. ality cult in which he sought to por- ed as world heritage sites. Restora- published in 1993. Iraqi Kurdistan then and now through photographs

Karen Dabrowska Islamic State (ISIS). “I have photo- canals is marked by reliefs of Assyr- maniyah is considered to be Kurdis- of these Christian communities are graphed the Yazidi shrines at Lalish ian kings carved into the rock. I also tan’s cultural capital, home to many displaced, the residents living in near Mosul, including the entrance recently travelled further down this artists and writers. Wilding believes camps across Iraqi Kurdistan. London to the shrine of Sheikh Adi, which canal towards Nineveh to Jerwan Kersting knew of these places but In Mosul, Kersting photographed was also shot by Kersting.” where the canal was carried over a was limited by the time restraint Nebi Yunis, one of the twin mounds eturn to Kurdistan is a mix “We have both photographed the valley by an aqueduct.” imposed by his leave from RAF du- of ancient Nineveh reputed to be the of contemporary photo- Assyrian canals built by King Sen- Both Kersting and Wilding pho- ties in Cairo. burial place of the Prophet Jonah. It graphs by London-based nacherib to take water to Nineveh, tographed the region north of Erbil, “Additionally, much of my pho- was destroyed by ISIS in 2014. Other Richard Wilding and which many archaeologists now be- though Wilding also photographed tography south of Erbil has been places Kersting photographed in historical images taken lieve was the location of the famed locations not found in Kersting’s to record the more recent legacy Mosul have also been confirmed as Rin the 1940s by Anthony Kerst- hanging gardens of Babylon,” Wild- photographs such as the Rawan- of Saddam Hussein’s brutal sup- destroyed or damaged. ing, a photographer with the Royal ing said. duz gorge – the ‘Grand Canyon’ of pression of the Kurds, including Air Force (RAF) during the second “Kersting visited Khinnis, where the Middle East, north-east of Erbil. the chemical weapons attack on Kersting world war. The old black-and-white the starting point of one of these Further south, the city of Sulay- Halabja, part of the Anfal campaign, photographed the prints are displayed on one wall in which resulted in the death of up to Christian the gallery in London’s Courtauld 180,000 Kurds,” Wilding said. communities in and Institute of Art opposite to Wild- Reflecting on similarities and around Mosul. ing’s recent photographs. differences between Iraqi Kurdis- The historic images from the ar- tan now and in the 1940s, Wilding chive of Kersting’s work held in pointed out that in Kersting’s time Return to Kurdistan is organised the institute’s Conway Library are the streets of the Erbil citadel were by Gulan, a charity set up in 2008 to shown with the photographer’s bustling with people and market promote Kurdish culture, with the brief but informative notes, writ- stalls but today the citadel is empty, Courtauld Institute of Art. In May ten on the back of each image and its residents resettled while it un- 2016, Gulan took the Return to Kurd- reproduced alongside it. dergoes extensive restoration. Just istan exhibition to Iraqi Kurdistan, Kersting (1916-2008) was posted one family has been left living in where it was shown in the cultural to a photographic unit in Egypt in the citadel to hold on to its claim to centre inside the Erbil citadel and 1941, developing and enhancing re- be the world’s oldest continuously at the Talary Saray Sulimani, once a connaissance photographs. While inhabited city. police station built by the British in there he travelled in the Middle East During Kersting’s time in Iraq Sulaymaniyah. taking photographs. Those he took there were sizeable Jewish commu- The Courtauld Institute of Art is in Iraq are of immense historical nities in many towns and villages. a centre for the study of art history value, as many record buildings and The majority of Kurdish Jews left and home to the Courtauld Gallery. sites, including the mosque of Nebi Iraqi Kurdistan in the early 1950s. It is digitalising the entire collection Yunis, which have been destroyed. The tomb of the Jewish prophet of Kersting’s work starting with his Kersting visited Kurdistan in north- Nahum in Alqosh, which Kersting images from Iraq, Syria, Essex and ern Iraq in 1944 and 1946. photographed in 1944, has been Coventry. “Kersting and I have both pho- damaged and is in a vulnerable po- Return to Kurdistan at the Cour- tographed the Erbil citadel dating sition close to the front line in the tauld Institute of Art, Somer- back at least 6,000 years. He took war against ISIS. set House, Strand, London runs many photographs of the Yazidis, Kersting photographed the Chris- through April 29th. a group that follows an ancient re- tian communities in and around Mo- ligion with many unique rituals and sul, including some of the world’s Karen Dabrowska customs and who were specifically oldest monasteries. The fourth- is a London-based contributor persecuted by Daesh,” Wilding said Erbil Citadel Then and Now by Richard Wilding at the Return to century monastery of Mar Behnam to the Culture and Society sections using an Arabic acronym for the Kurdistan exhibition in London. (Richard Wilding) was destroyed by ISIS in 2015. Many of The Arab Weekly.