Organization

The Italian-Iraqi Institute of Archaeological Sciences
and the Italian-Iraqi Centre for the Restoration of Monuments

The scientific programme that since 1963 led the Centro Scavi di Torino in Iraq, focused on the relations between Graeco-Roman and Eastern civilizations, was soon complemented by other research on many issues concerning ancient Mesopotamian civilizations. In this context, the methodological approach of all of the Centre’s field activities took shape from the outset: cooperation with local authorities for the optimal management of the cultural heritage on a technical and social level. This approach officially took shape in 1969 with the formal creation, through a protocol between the two countries, of the Italian-Iraqi Institute of Archaeological Sciences and of the Italian-Iraqi Centre for the Restoration of Monuments. The fundamental role of the two Institutes is that of providing full cooperation on all issues raised by the Iraqi side, but especially to contribute to the increasingly far-reaching safeguard of the cultural heritage seen as the product of an interdisciplinary integration in which specialists from different disciplines must meet the increasing demands of historical studies in the knowledge and diffusion of the cultural heritage.

The two joint Institutes are thus an example of joint international scientific cooperation that has seen a tangible commitment in the fields of archaeology, conservation and restoration. The field activities of Italian archaeologists concerned the sites of Seleucia and Choche, Tell Yelkhi, Tell Hassan, Nimrud, Hatra, Kifrin and Babylon. Campaigns of study, architectural and photogrammetric survey, as well as of planning, restoration and conservation, were conducted in Seleucia, 'Aqarquf, Ctesiphon, Hatra, Ukhaidir, 'Anah, Mossul and in some of the most important mosques in Iraq.

At present, the Institute is undergoing renovation as a consequence of the difficult situation ensuing after the end of the war in the spring of 2003. The Centro Ricerche Archeologiche e Scavi di Torino is making numerous efforts, with the support of its Founding Members and of Italy’s Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in order to restore the functionality of the headquarters and premises and to thus maintain an adequate technical/logistical support to the measures that will be implemented for safeguarding Iraq’s cultural heritage.