After a 12-year break, Polish archeologists are returning to Iraq

At the invitation of the Iraqi antiquities service, they will conduct archeological rescue, research and conservation work, and also help reopen museums. The Polish stabilization zone in Iraq encompasses areas forming the "Cradle of Civilization", where the ancient Sumerian, Akkad and Babylonian cultures of Mesopotamia developed. The most important archeological sights in Iraq are located in the Polish zone: one of the world's oldest cities-Ur, and also Nippur and Babylon. Many of these sights suffered as a result of the war, and are endangered by vandalism and treasure-hunters. Salvage, research and conservation work is necessary to protect the monuments from damage and theft. "The Polish archeology school, formed in the second half of the 20th century, is particularly well prepared for this kind of activity as it combines archeological research with simultaneous conservation work and reconstruction of the examined items. Our position is well established in the area of conserving mud-brick walls, the most popular ancient building material in the Middle East," says Prof. Michał Gawlikowski of the Mediterranean Archeology Center of Warsaw University. Since last November, a group of Polish archeologists have been in Iraq making a preliminary survey of the most valuable, and at the same time most endangered, sights for further research, including those in the area of the ancient city of Babylon. This will be Iraqi and Polish archeologists' joint work. In the past, several Iraqi archeologists and museum experts supplemented their education in Poland. Polish-Iraqi archeological cooperation dates back to the early 1970s, when, at the initiative of Prof. Kazimierz Michałowski, excavation work was conducted in Calah-today Nimrud-on the Tigris, in the ancient capital of Assyrian kings from the 12th-8th centuries B.C. The Polish archeologists later worked on the island of Bijan on the Euphrates, where they uncovered remnants of a 3rd-century Roman border fortress-the easternmost ever discovered.