Exhibition exposes modern tragedy of Babylon

6th century BC glazed brick relief depicting a dragon from Babylon's Ishtar Gate

British Museum leads calls to preserve Iraq's heritage ·

Coalition troops accused of destroying historic sites

Robert Booth

Monday April 14, 2008

The Guardian

For more than 2,000 years the city of Babylon has been a byword for depravity and hubris. The Old Testament depicts it as an evil city and the legend of the Tower of Babel, a symbol of human arrogance, began there.

Now, the British Museum is to give new currency to Babylon's legends with a major exhibition including details of how American and coalition troops have wrecked priceless archaeological remains in the ancient city during the occupation of Iraq.

As part of a survey of Babylon from the reign of Nebuchadnezzar in the 6th century BC to the present day, the museum plans to use film and photographs to show how coalition tank tracks, helipads and fuel spills have ruined unexplored archaeological remains on one of the world's most important historic sites.

The museum's curators have discovered how souvenir hunters have damaged the remains of the famous Ishtar Gate by stealing brick reliefs of dragons, and how military vehicles have ripped through parts of a 2,600-year-old Processional Way leading to Nebuchadnezzar's palace.

Although the exhibition represents a wide survey of the myths and realities surrounding the city famed for its tower and hanging gardens, the decision to analyse the impact of the war in Iraq is likely to make uncomfortable viewing.

Neil MacGregor, the director of the British Museum, prompted the decision to bring the survey up to date. Hannah Bolton, spokeswoman for the museum, said the curators are determined to highlight "the desperate need to preserve Iraq's cultural heritage". She said the exhibition, which will open in November, will chart Babylon's "tragic recent history through video and photography".

John Curtis, keeper of the museum's Middle East department, has described Babylon as "one of the most important archaeological sites in the world". Babylonian civilisation included the first known legal code and written language, as well as early examples of the use of dictionaries, astrology and weights and measures.

Curtis's report into the destruction caused by coalition troops will form the backbone of the final part of the show, which considers the impact of Saddam Hussein's regime. In the 1980s, Saddam rebuilt Nebuchadnezzar's palace by placing a concrete ziggurat on a mound over the city's archaeological remains.

Dan Cruickshank, an architectural historian, said he was "appalled at how bad it was" when he first visited Saddam's version of the palace. "A military camp should never have been established at Babylon, and to have done so may be compared to building a camp next to Stonehenge or in the shadow of the Great Pyramid," Curtis wrote in a magazine article last weekend.

His report shows how archaeologically important deposits were used to fill sandbags and how gravel and fuel were poured over swathes of the site, damaging remains beneath.

"It's a tragedy of the highest cultural consequence unfolding before us and nobody is caring," said Cruickshank. "

The British Museum is absolutely right to raise this issue. We need to debate what is happening to this place and the 10,000 other archaeological sites across Iraq that have not been fully documented and recorded."

The exhibition will be staged in collaboration with the national museum in Berlin, which has Babylon's Ishtar Gate, and the Louvre in Paris. The prize exhibit is likely to be enamelled wall panels showing three lions and a dragon on a glazed blue background, which comprised part of the Processional Way. Tablets inscribed with cuneiform writing will also be on show - many of which are still to yield their secrets through translation.