The British army will assist a British Museum initiative to assess damage to archaeological sites in southern Iraq, the Art Newspaper reports. “The British Army’s role in the cultural project will be to facilitate specialists coming out from the UK to south-east Iraq, to liaise with Iraqi civil contacts, and to assist where possible with contracts for work required, underwritten with a degree of funding,” said Major Tom Holloway.
There’s some commentary in The Guardian by Maev Kennedy, who calls Major Holloway’s stated aim to leave a positive cultural legacy in southern Iraq “ambitious.” That’s an understatement. Since September 2007, British soldiers have been garrisoned in Basra airport. Their complete withdrawal from the country can’t be too far off. Supposedly they are able to chaperone people carrying out basic heritage assessments, but whether they could facilitate long term protection and restoration policies is another thing.
Much effort has gone into chronicling and to some degree trying to rectify the colossal damage that the US invasion of 2003 caused to Iraq’s cultural heritage. But, unsurprisingly, initiaves overseen by occupying armies that caused such damage and destruction in the first place, are viewed with some scepticism. There is a danger that the ”legacy” of British archaeology in Iraq will again be associated with imperialist appropriation, rather than more positive achievements (of which there were many).
How can archaeologists operate ethically in times of war and occupation? It was the subject of a conference in 2006, and will be a theme at this year’s World Archaeology Congress, where the ‘Archaeologists at War taskforce’ will report back on its aim to ”investigate the role of archaeologists in situations of armed conflict around the world, and explore the ethical dilemmas and the social and political consequences and effects arising from that involvement.”
It is vital that recent heritage destruction in Iraq is documented and assessed as soon as possible. And in practical terms, this requires the involvement of occupying troops. It must be painful for archaeologists, all too aware of the imperialist exploits and cultural indiscressions of the past, to be perceived as perpetuating this tradition. But such perceptions are insignificant compared with the urgent need to accurately gauge the damage and start to restore Iraq’s shattered culture and cultural institutions.
Tags: archaeology in times of war, British army, British Museum, Iraq
