Jun 18 2007
Archeology Playing Cards
Those of you who follow this blog regularly know that I limit this site to things related to the Hebrew Bible and attempt to refrain from engaging in personal assertion and opinionated propaganda (i.e. politics). However, this post requires a comment on the intersection of these two conversations.
A recent AP report, concerning archeological playing cards being issued to US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, reads:
Some 40,000 new decks of playing cards will be sent to troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan — as part of an awareness program so troops can help preserve the heritage of those countries…It's aimed at making troops aware they shouldn't pick up and bring home artifacts and also to avoid causing damage to sites — such as an incident after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, when U.S. troops built a helicopter pad on the ruins of Babylon and filled their sandbags with archaeological fragments from the ancient city
Setting aside the pedestrian messages on the cards (see the image on the right), one must admit that the protection of the said artifacts and archeological sites is an admirable goal.
This brings to mind a comment made in one of my archeology classes by Mac Gibson, one of the foremost Mesopotamian archeologists of the last century, in which he said that when a country assumes the responsibility of regime change it takes on the duty to protect not only the country’s economic but also its cultural assets. Regardless of what you think about the merits of the Iraq situation, whether good or ill, we all must agree that the protection of Iraq’s archeological heritage is absolutely essential. The question should not be, as the seven of clubs queries, “This site has survived 17 centuries. Will it and others survive you?” but ‘Why have these cards not been issued earlier?’