Cultural Heritage of Iraq: Site Overview

An Introduction to this Site

"The looting of the Iraq National Museum and other art and archaeology museums in Iraq is a tragedy of vast proportions to the Iraqi people, and to all those who care about understanding our shared human heritage. In the days, weeks and months ahead, museums and governments alike must do everything possible to assess the damage and stop the flow of stolen artifacts out of Iraq. This Museum has joined with others in a growing international effort to salvage and re-establish the collection."
Dr. Jeremy A. Sabloff, The Williams Director

The land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, ancient Mesopotamia, modern-day Iraq, is often called "the cradle of civilization." Much of the long and impressive archaeological record of this region's rich cultural and artistic history resided in the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad--until the tragic looting that took place in mid-April. It will be a long time before the full extent of the loss is known.

In response to the looting of Iraq's antiquities, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (UPM) has launched this web feature, in order to educate the public about Iraq's ancient past and to offer the latest updates on a tragic situation that continues to develop. This site features a wide variety of resources, including the latest online news stories, official responses to the situation, and an online exhibition of photographs from the Museum's Photographic Archives, highlighting the Museum's rich history of archaeological research in Iraq. These photographs are available as prints to the public for personal and/or scholarly use. (*Note: the photographs on the right of artifacts known to have been in Iraq's National Museum are not available as prints.)

Starting with its very first excavation, at the Iraqi site of Nippur in the late 1800s, the UPM has had a long and ongoing history of excavation and research into Mesopotamian cultures of the region.

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, UPM and the British Museum sponsored a joint expedition, led by Sir Leonard Wooley, to the site of Ur, in southern Iraq. The archaeological team made history, discovering the rich and complex Sumerian culture at the height of its power, circa 2550 B.C. Beautiful artifacts, including jewelry and musical instruments of gold, lapis lazuli and carnelian, were found in astonishing royal tombs, and the material was shared, with one quarter coming the UPM, one quarter going to the British Museum in London, and one half sent to the National Museum in Iraq. Back in the 1930s, Sir Leonard Wooley had electrotype replicas made of several of the pieces that went to the National Museum of Iraq--some of these replicas, of original pieces that may have been looted, will soon be on display at UPM.

UPM's world famous "Royal Tombs of Ur" material has been traveling nationally since 1998. Objects from that collection, including the "Ram in the Thicket" sculpture and a bull-headed lyre, are part of a Metropolitan Museum of Art show, "Art of the First Cities: The Third Millenium B.C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus," that opens May 8. A full reinstallation of UPM's "Royal Tombs of Ur" is planned for later in this decade.

Today, UPM scholars are spearheading an international effort, made possible with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities, to develop an online Sumerian dictionary, the first dictionary of the first written language. The many cuneiform clay tablets excavated at Nippur, and other sites in modern-day Iraq, form the basis of material used to develop that dictionary. Many cuneiform tablets--including some yet to be translated--were in the National Museum of Iraq at the time of the looting.

The University of Pennsylvania Museum has joined forces in an international effort with other museums, archaeologists, scholars and others committed to minimizing the loss of Iraq's cultural treasures, and assisting with the return of stolen artifacts.