By Spc. Jazz Burney & Brett Bruen, 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team Public Affairs, 25th Infantry
Division, Multi-National Division - North PAO
Aug 10, 2009 - 6:51:36 PM

CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE SPEICHER, TIKRIT, Iraq - The ancient Assyrian City of Ashur faces imminent threats.  Recent construction of a dam on the Tigris River is causing large sections of the City to be swept away, while other precious artifacts are being looted from one of three World Heritage sites in Iraq.  The United States Embassy, with the assistance of the American military, and officials from Iraq’s Board of Antiquities organized the first international assessment of the site since 2003.  The Embassy’s most senior diplomat in the region said time is of the essence.

“We saw how the City is literally being washed away,” remarked David Stewart, the Provincial Reconstruction Team Leader in Salah ad Din.  ”We hope that by conducting this assessment, we can help to bring needed attention and funds to preserve one of the most important historical sites in Iraq.”

The city of Ashur was the first capital of the once-prosperous, 5,000-year-old Assyrian empire. It was the religious center of the Assyrian empire because the temple of their national god Ashur was built within the city. Ashur also served as the place for the crowning and burial of Assyrian kings. The city was later conquered by the Babylonians.   Yet, many of its most impressive buildings were left intact, including the imposing ziggurat that stands on a cliff above the nearby town of Sharqat.  The team found that the plateau is now being rapidly eroded by the river and artifacts are being swept away in the current.

Diane Siebrandt, the Embassy’s Cultural Heritage Officer and an experienced archeologist, documented the deteriorated condition of the ruins.  She said that these findings would help to form the basis for future American and international support for the endangered edifices.  These initiatives could include building a barrier to divert the river and erecting a more secure fence around the site.

Seibrandt explained that preserving Iraq’s heritage is not only about the past.

“I am always curious and want to know the reason why we have paper, why we have pens, why do we write and why do we have a compelling need to do certain things,” said Seibrandt. “To answer these questions we have to look back at history. It’s through history that we see our beginnings and influences that contributed to our civilization. If that history is destroyed, however, it leaves a giant question mark. We need to be able to reference our history to find out how far we have come and possibly learn and avoid repeating mistakes,” she explained.

Protecting these historical treasures can help to redefine the United States’ legacy in Iraq, according to an Embassy spokesman, “As the U.S. forces look toward our draw down out of the country, this is a great potential legacy that we can leave behind; showing that we took proper care of the ancient sites and history of the Iraqi people,” said Brett Bruen,  Public Diplomacy Officer for the PRT in Salah ad Din..

“When the security situation arrives at the point when there is an opportunity for wide-spread tourism, our good stewardship of these sites will pay off because we will have met the immediate needs to preserve these sites now,” he added.

Go here for the article with illustrations:
http://www.blackanthem.com/News/Military_News_1/Americans-and-Iraqis-work-to-urgently-preserve-the-ancient-Assyrian-capital20642.shtml

On Monday 3rd August an international Blue Shield team will go to Cologne to support the rescue work on the valuable collection of the collapsed City Archive of Cologne. Throughout week about 60 heritage professionals from France, The Netherlands, Belgium, Great-Britain and Sweden will try to save as much of the collection as possible.

The Blue Shield is the cultural equivalent of the Red Cross or Doctors without Borders, with a network of experts working for the protection of the world’s cultural heritage (museums, monuments and sites, libraries and archives). This body of expertise wants to make its knowledge available to advise and assist in responding to damage to cultural heritage caused by armed conflict or natural disasters. The Blue Shield is still young; every year new national Blue Shield committees are founded. Worldwide twenty committees already exist and more than twenty new committees are being currently set up.

Since 2008 the Blue Shield organization has a coordination centre in The Hague. Thanks to cooperation with several partner associations like Blue Shield France, the International Council on Archives, Archivists without Borders (French Section), the SNCF Archives (French rail company), the Association of French Archivists, the graduated students in archives from Saint- Quentin-en-Yvelines and others, the call for participants for this mission was distributed and recommended all over the world. Within a few weeks more than 60 highly motivated professionals, who were deeply touched by the tragedy, applied. The team is limited to 60 persons, because the facilities in Cologne cannot accommodate more rescue workers than this at any one time. However, there were more applicants, and they may be called upon in the near future.

A first Blue Shield mission was deployed there at the end of April 2009. This mission was successful : with 80 volunteers, we succeeded to treat around 2 linear kilometers of documents. It was a very great experience for all the volunteers.

On Wednesday 5th August, the volunteers will meet some archivists and curators from the city of Köln and have some fruitful exchanges about their organization and their capacity to manage such a disaster.

More information:

Christophe Jacobs, Boardmember ANCBS, team leader from the mission : 00 33 (0)6 83 60 28 38

Association of National Committees of the Blue Shield (ANCBS)

ANCBS office: Laan van Meerdervoort 70, 2517 AN Den Haag,

E mail: contact@ancbs.org

Website: http://www.ancbs.org

Factsheet International Blue Shield mission

Date: Monday 3rd August till 7th August.

Organization: The Association of National Committees of the Blue Shield (ANCBS), The French Committee of the Blue Shield, Archivists without Borders (French section), SNCF Archives, Association of French Archivists, Association ADEDA78.

Composition of the Blue Shield team: 55 heritage professionals from Blue Shield France (25), The Netherlands (22), Belgium (6), Great-Britain (1) and Sweden (1).

Tasks: Sorting material (rubble/collection), select dry and wet materials, clean, register, dry partly wet material and prepare other material for freeze-drying on other locations.

Accommodation: The city of Cologne offers all Blue Shield volunteers free sleeping places, and free food and beverages.

Insurance: The city of Cologne provided the Archive with insurance for all volunteers.

Blue Shield:

The Blue Shield is the cultural equivalent of the Red Cross or Doctors without Borders, with a network of experts working voluntarily for the protection of the world’s cultural heritage (museums, monuments and sites, libraries and archives). This body of expertise wants to make its knowledge available to advise and assist in responding to damage to cultural heritage caused by armed conflict or natural disasters.