On AR editorial
The Editorial by Catherine Slessor (AR March 2013) exposes the destruction of unique ancient Timbuktu’s manuscrits and sacred sites (remarkable mud mosques and shrines of Timbuktu and Djenné in Mali) by the islamist fanatics militans. Those groups destroyed what has been endured for centuries, a priceless legacy that reminds us of our common humanity.
The editorial goes further stating that whether is the Taliban using giant Buddhas for target practice or Napoleon´s troops allegendly shooting off the Sphinx´s nose, cultural vandalism is nothing new itself. And I tend to agree with Catherine when she says, yet cultural vandalism is not just confined to the developing world and picked the defacing of Eugène Delacroix´s famous painting Liberty Leading the People, by a visitor at Louvre’s new SANAA-designed outspots in Lens.
Nevertherless, after 9/11, the fight against terrorism has been used as an excuse not only to violate private freedom but also to bomb or shoot to kill then ask practice.
Back to the destruction of history of the memory of the human kind the list is long, but the invasion of Iraq as post 9/11, as exposed Mesopotamia, a place generally credited of being the first place where civilized societies truly began to take shape. Mesopotania is situated in a vast expanse of delta between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers, the place were the wellspring from which modern societies emerged.
Some can argue that the archaeological sites between Tigritis and Euphrates rivers are located were oil companies are pumping oil and is beneath the ancient soil. But the since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, archaeological looting has become a global problem.
In a number of occasions authorities have recovered shipments of items, most stolen from the National Museum of Iraq, were captured by Iraqi paramilitary units in May 2003, by June of the same year, customs inspectors and other authorities in the United States had seized over six hundred of the museum's artifacts. The Jordanian authorities recovered over one thousand artifacts in those few months,
If the mesopothanias did not go through hard, tasks organizing oral traditions into written collections of pages and producing the Gilgamesh, the first book in recorded history, is our duty to find and protect such legacy.
Indeed, cultural vandalism is not just confined to the developing world as frontline (developed world) is responsible of exposing Iraq museums and Mesopotania archaelogical sites like Adab, Babylon, Isin, Nirumd, Nineveh, Nippur, Umma, places were Mesopotamians refined, added to and formalized systems, combining them to form current civilization.
For the sake of human legacy, the protection of historical sites is a must, keeping in mind that if Mesopotamians were not blazed the trails as they did, the choices they made, the risks they took, the energy they invested into their ideas maybe the world should be different from the what we know today.
Maputo-Moçambique, Viriato Tamele
The Editorial by Catherine Slessor (AR March 2013) exposes the destruction of unique ancient Timbuktu’s manuscrits and sacred sites (remarkable mud mosques and shrines of Timbuktu and Djenné in Mali) by the islamist fanatics militans. Those groups destroyed what has been endured for centuries, a priceless legacy that reminds us of our common humanity.
The editorial goes further stating that whether is the Taliban using giant Buddhas for target practice or Napoleon´s troops allegendly shooting off the Sphinx´s nose, cultural vandalism is nothing new itself. And I tend to agree with Catherine when she says, yet cultural vandalism is not just confined to the developing world and picked the defacing of Eugène Delacroix´s famous painting Liberty Leading the People, by a visitor at Louvre’s new SANAA-designed outspots in Lens.
Nevertherless, after 9/11, the fight against terrorism has been used as an excuse not only to violate private freedom but also to bomb or shoot to kill then ask practice.
Back to the destruction of history of the memory of the human kind the list is long, but the invasion of Iraq as post 9/11, as exposed Mesopotamia, a place generally credited of being the first place where civilized societies truly began to take shape. Mesopotania is situated in a vast expanse of delta between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers, the place were the wellspring from which modern societies emerged.
Some can argue that the archaeological sites between Tigritis and Euphrates rivers are located were oil companies are pumping oil and is beneath the ancient soil. But the since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, archaeological looting has become a global problem.
In a number of occasions authorities have recovered shipments of items, most stolen from the National Museum of Iraq, were captured by Iraqi paramilitary units in May 2003, by June of the same year, customs inspectors and other authorities in the United States had seized over six hundred of the museum's artifacts. The Jordanian authorities recovered over one thousand artifacts in those few months,
If the mesopothanias did not go through hard, tasks organizing oral traditions into written collections of pages and producing the Gilgamesh, the first book in recorded history, is our duty to find and protect such legacy.
Indeed, cultural vandalism is not just confined to the developing world as frontline (developed world) is responsible of exposing Iraq museums and Mesopotania archaelogical sites like Adab, Babylon, Isin, Nirumd, Nineveh, Nippur, Umma, places were Mesopotamians refined, added to and formalized systems, combining them to form current civilization.
For the sake of human legacy, the protection of historical sites is a must, keeping in mind that if Mesopotamians were not blazed the trails as they did, the choices they made, the risks they took, the energy they invested into their ideas maybe the world should be different from the what we know today.
Maputo-Moçambique, Viriato Tamele
