Good news, if true, about the Baghdad Museum

From: Michael Everson (everson@evertype.com)
Date: Sat May 10 2003 - 10:49:41 EDT

  • Next message: Mark Davis: "Re: Proposed Update of UTS #10: Unicode Collation Algorithm"

     From the New Scientist:

    =====
    Baghdad museum treasures recovered

    By Will Knight

    Thousands of items looted from the National Museum in Baghdad last
    month have been recovered, US officials announced on Wednesday.

    But independent archaeological experts say it remains unclear if
    these items were actually stolen from the museum, or whether they
    were deliberately hidden from looters by museum staff.

    On Wednesday officials from the Bureau of Immigration and Customs
    Enforcement, part of the US Department of Homeland Security, said
    40,000 manuscripts and around 700 artefacts had been recovered. The
    recovered items reportedly include clay pottery dating from 5000 BC
    and a cornerstone from the Babylon palace of King Nebuchadnezzar,
    dating from 7000 BC.

    Christopher Walker, deputy keeper of the Department of the Ancient
    Near East at the British Museum says it is possible that many of the
    recovered items have simply now been returned by museum staff who
    moved them before the looting began.

    "40,000 manuscripts sounds like an astonishing amount to return and
    an astonishing amount to take in the first place," he told New
    Scientist .

    =====
    More of the story at
    http://uk.news.yahoo.com/030509/12/dzm8v.html

    -- 
    Michael Everson * * Everson Typography *  * http://www.evertype.com
    


    This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sun May 11 2003 - 14:30:45 EDT