I have watched archaeologists at work? It is a careful painstaking work - as we know from the enormous tourist industry built up around the great anitqities of the world, a major industry in some countries. Archaeologists can go on digging for years and years to bring out the history of the past from out of the ground. We enjoy seeing what emerges from whatever remains of the past. So we can only imagine what the dedicated archeologists must think when they read articles such as Wikipedia on ancient Babylon. There are some things I read that just make me wonder. There is a section in the Wikipedia article titled, ‘Effects of the US Military’. It says that, “US forces under the command of General James T. Conway of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force were criticized for building the military base “Camp Alpha”, comprising among other facilities a helipad, on Babylon’s ancient ruins following the 2003 invasion of Iraq.”Before his capture and demise Saddam Hussein had done enough damage carrying out a grand rebuilding scheme on the ancient mound of Babylon. It is said that he claimed to be the reincarnation of Nebuchadnezzar II and had his name put on building bricks just as Nebuchadnezzar’s name was stamped on building bricks of the great Babylon of his day. This is where archaeology can affirm the Bible as reliable history.
The finds at Babylon definitely puts Nebuchadnezzar as its architect and builder. So one can understand the concerns about the American led coalition camping out on Babylon’s ancient mound.
Dr. John Curtis of the British Museum’s Near East department, wrote that the occupation forces,
“caused substantial damage to the Ishtar Gate, one of the most famous monuments from antiquity [...] US military vehicles crushed 2,600-year-old brick pavements, archaeological fragments were scattered across the site, more than 12 trenches were driven into ancient deposits and military earth-moving projects contaminated the site for future generations of scientists [...] Add to all that the damage caused to nine of the moulded brick figures of dragons in the Ishtar Gate by soldiers trying to remove the bricks from the wall.”
The Washington Post commented on this destruction of ancient Babylon by US led forces last year, on the 29th of July (2009). “The ruins stretch over a rectangular area measuring 2,100 acres along the western banks of the Euphrates.” “Foreign troops and contractors bulldozed hilltops and then covered them with gravel to serve as parking lots for military vehicles and trailers. They drove heavy vehicles over the fragile paving of once-sacred pathways.”
“The report also says that forces built barriers and embankments to protect the base, pulverizing ancient pottery and bricks that were engraved with cuneiform characters. They dug trenches where they stored fuel tanks for their helicopters, which landed near an ancient theater. Among the structures that suffered the most damage, according to the report, were the Ishtar Gate and a processional thoroughfare. Experts also say troops filled their sandbags with soil from a site that was littered with archaeological fragments.”
The reconstruction of the ‘Ishtar Gate’ at the Berlin Museum is the smaller of the two gates - just to see the gate and walls one has to appreciate what grandeur Nebuchadnezzar’s building work at Babylon must have been. So one can only be amazed at such vandalism of a world heritage site by the leading nation of the civilised world, ploughing up the mound and scraping it flat to accommodate its helicopters and heavy transport! Where is the respect, not just for Iraq’s heritage but a heritage of interest to the whole world! I find the story just amazing! To see some more of Babylon’s antiquities click here.
