Invisible Roads

This is the start of the introduction to a prototype of a postgraduate investigative study that was ultimately changed, and so never went beyond the following stage.

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The Invisible Roads: fighting today’s artefact smuggling trade

Introduction - the spoils of war

A ceremony was held in Washington, D.C. on July 25^th, 2006 in which the United States returned the Statue of Entemena to the new government of Iraq. It was three years after the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom and the capture of Baghdad by the international coalition forces. Journalist Jon Lee Anderson was on site when the invasion occurred, and described the swarming of people in the streets as the occupying force took control, and the perhaps inevitable looting that followed. While visiting Ala Bashir, an Iraqi doctor and artist, he expressed his sorrow at the pillaging of the National Museum of Iraq, which had been the headlining news of the past few days, and his hope that the Americans would soon get things under control in order to prevent the further looting of the country’s heritage. Dr Bashir responded by asking “What do these things matter? They’ve already stolen the whole country.” (Anderson, 2004: 285) 
    This was a political message, of course, but these words also apply strongly to the loss of Iraqi artefacts after the fall of Baghdad, as the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) estimates that 7,000 - 10,000 objects was stolen from the National Museum between April and March of 2003, of which the Statue of Entemena was among the most significant (FBI, 2006). 

Figure 1. Statue of Entemena

(FBI, 2006)

Entemena himself was a bronze age ruler of Lagash, a city found between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, deep inside the cultural borders of Sumer and near to the Persian Gulf. The political entity of Lagash may have covered 3000 square kilometres of irrigated land in 2400 BCE (Diakonoff, 1956: 174), and though this may be an upper estimate (Westenholz, 2002: 26), it gives us some idea of the importance of this city state that at one time ruled all of Sumer (Price, 1930: 152-153). This period, c.2400 BCE, was also the era in which Entemena reigned as the ensi, or ruler, of Lagash. Many millennia later, during the chaos of the Second Gulf War, a statue of this famed ruler would be stolen away from its home in the National Museum of Iraq, with the intention of selling it on the global market (knowing or unknowing) for illicit artefacts. 

Figure 2. Lagash and Sumer

(Diana Buja, 2011)

It is understandable why the statue of Entemena would be tempting to steal and desirable to purchase. Though heavily damaged - the missing head was broken off in antiquity, and it has been suggested that this was after the yoke of Lagash was thrown off by Sumer and the jagged edges contemptuously rubbed by passers by until they became polished (Woolley, 2006: 114)- Entemena  is a figure of historical importance and the diorite statue of significant value. The loss of it to looters was understandably upsetting to the museum and politically problematic for the United States. 

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List of References

Diakonoff, I.I. (1956) The Rise of the Despotic State in Ancient Mesopotamia. In: Diakonoff, I.M. ed. Ancient Mesopotamia, Socio-Economic History, A Collection of Studies by Soviet Scholars. Moscow, , pp.173-203

Westenholz, A (2002) The Sumerian City-State. In Hansen, M.H. ed. A Comparative Study of Six City-State Cultures. Copenhagen, Kgl. Danske Videnskabernes Selskab, pp.23-42

Diana, Buja Climate change and the origins of agriculture and complex societies [Online image] Available from: <http://dianabuja.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/tore-map-of-genesis-eden.jpg> [Accessed 2013-03-05]

Price, I.M. (1930) Some Light from Ur Touching Lagash. Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol.50, pp.150-159

Federal Bureau of Investigation (2006) Iraqi Looted and Stolen Artifacts [Internet] Available from: <http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/vc_majorthefts/arttheft/iraqi-stolen-and-looted-artifacts> [Accessed 2013-03-05]

Anderson, J.L. (2004) The Fall of Baghdad. USA, The Penguin Press

Woolley, L. (2006) Excavations At Ur: A Record of Twelve Year’s [sic] Work. London, Kegan Paul Limited

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It is still a very interesting subject, about which you can read more here: Artefact Looting, Theft and Smuggling.