The Baghdad Museum
Centro Scavi di Torino’s contribution to the reconstruction of Iraq’s cultural heritage
As a response to the most urgent requests made by the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage after the war in March 2003, a series of projects aiming at restoring Iraq’s damaged and threatened cultural heritage were initiated and are still underway.
Since the summer of 2003, thanks to funding provided by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Centro Scavi di Torino, founder of the Italian-Iraqi Institute of Archaeological Sciences and the Italian-Iraqi Centre for the Restoration of Monuments in Baghdad, it was possible to implement the following projects:
B.R.I.L.A.
(Bureau for the Recovery of the Iraqi
Looted Antiquities)
This project consists in the creation of a dedicated database of objects looted from the Iraq Museum; it is actually the continuation of a similar project that began in 2000, conducted jointly with the Carabinieri’s Cultural Heritage Protection division and with Interpol, for recovering objects looted from Iraq’s regional museums after the first Gulf War in 1991.
Protection of archaeological sites
The protection of archaeological sites consists in the preparation of a GIS (Geographic Information System) in order to create a “risk map” of the sites in Babylon, Seleucia and Nimrud, where Turin’s Centre has worked in the past.
Reconstruction of the Iraq Museum’s restoration laboratories
The laboratories, looted and irreparably damaged in April 2003, have been reorganized in a different wing of the Iraq Museum. The new laboratories, completely furnished and equipped with equipment and basic materials sent from Italy, were inaugurated in March 2004, and training courses for 14 new Iraqi restorers have begun. The project was implemented jointly with the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities, acting through its Central Restoration Institute.
Under the supervision of Italian experts, who worked from April to June 2004, the objects most subject to decay were recovered from the various deposits of the Iraq Museum.
Due to the precarious security conditions in Iraq, these training courses were subsequently moved to Amman, at the local Department of Antiquities (Dec. 2004 – Feb. 2005). Availing themselves of the opportunity of working on archaeological materials originating from illegal excavations in Iraq, the 14 Iraqi trainees, in addition to continuing their theoretical training, had the chance to continue their actual restoration training. On this occasion it was also possible to catalogue these objects through the creation of another database (B.R.I.L.A. Jordan).
The purpose of the courses, which were held at the local Restoration Centre, was that of teaching the basic notions of archaeological restoration, both theoretical (technology and restoration of pottery, glass, metal, ivory) and practical (pottery, stone). The course was completed by lessons on the history of restoration and on Mesopotamian art history and archaeology from prehistoric times to the Ottoman period. Thirteen experts from Italy and one from Jordan trained 14 Iraqis; the course was also followed by six Jordanians who attended as auditors.
Thanks to additional funding provided by UNESCO, it was possible to integrate the activities in Jordan with a specific course on the emergency conservation (first-aid conservation) of objects in their journey from the excavation to the laboratory.
The Jordanian authorities in charge, and specifically Dr. Fawaz Khraisheh, General Director of the Department of Antiquities gave this project all of their moral and logistical support.
Restoration work in the Baghdad Museum
After the preparation of the new Laboratory, in cooperation with ICR, restoration activities have resumed thanks to the many Italian conservation experts who worked here. Upon indication of the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage of Iraq and with the cooperation of 14 Iraqi restoration trainees, materials chosen on the basis of their specific didactic significance and of the seriousness of their state of conservation were treated. Restoration was therefore performed on a group of limestone and alabaster statues from Hatra.
A specific treatment concerned some of the orthostats of the so-called Assyrian room, through the inspection and partial reconstruction of the old integrations with appropriate materials. The activities that concerned the stone artefacts culminated in the restoration of the head from Warka and with the cleaning and assembly, taking care not to damage the historically documented plaster relief integrations, of the numerous fragments of the Warka vase, which had been looted and subsequently returned. Unfortunately, the reconstruction of the valuable document could not be completed. Recovery works continued with the recomposition of the fragments of one of the terracotta lions from Tell Harmal. Several ivory artefacts from Nimrud, found in a store room that had been flooded several times, were also treated. Some of these items were cleaned and disinfested.
In addition to the restoration of heavily damaged artefacts, the treatments also enabled the trainees to learn the main restoration techniques and the use of the most recent conservation materials. All of the objects that were restored or that are undergoing restoration are currently stored in purpose-built cases that guarantee maximum security pending the treatments’ resumption.
Project for the partial reopening of the Iraq Museum
The project of reopening a part of the Iraq Museum galleries, where unmovable objects are still exhibited, has been envisaged, with the favour of the museum authorities and the support of the Italian government, since autumn 2003. The work for the new Assyrian and Islamic galleries – planned by arch. Roberto Parapetti for the Centro Scavi of Torino and entrusted to a local contractor (Consultant Engineering of Baghdad) – started in spring 2006. After long logistic interruption for security reasons, it was completed in November 2008.
In the Assyrian gallery, where samples of monumental sculpture from Khorsabad and Nimrud are exhibited, a new lighting system and a new architectural contextualization were installed. In the Islamic gallery new partition walls were planned to better organize the chronology and the geography of the architectural pieces exhibited. Samples of the statuary form Hatra and educational aids for the explanation of the entire archaeological panorama of Mesopotamian Iraq will be exhibited in the museum’s main courtyard. The project received financial support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Direction General for the Mediterranean and Middle East), the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities (Research, Innovation and Organization Area) and the Fondazione Banca Nazionale delle Comunicazioni.
