More than 20 years have passed since Iraq was invaded in an illegal war, justified on the basis of falsified evidence. Operation Iraqi Freedom led to untold human suffering and massive destruction, the ruinous consequences of which persist to this very day. The war and occupation also had a devastating impact on the history and heritage of Iraq, a land ironically seen as the cradle of civilisation. The scale of theft and destruction of heritage sent shockwaves around the world that had radical consequences for the trade in antiquities and museum practices across the globe, and contributed to a paradigm shift in the discipline of archaeology.
In War Essays Zainab Bahrani charts the devastation, cultural cleansing and targeted erasure of Iraq’s past, and argues that the topics of archaeology, history and memory must be analysed within the larger geopolitical issues of the contemporary Middle East. The essays present a counter-narrative of events that historicize the position of the historian and illustrate the enduring colonial practices of archaeology. Set within a narrative that reflects at once upon the violence of war and the processes of writing, an archaeologist’s personal journey unfolds. War Essays intertwines the autobiographical with the historical and analytical aspects of scholarship, weaving an eye-witness account of war with theoretical discussions around writing, the relationship of monuments, historical landscapes and memory, and how one’s sense of place in the world is disrupted by war.
DOI: 10.14324/111.9781800087538
Number of illustrations: 35
Publication date: 27 January 2025
PDF ISBN: 9781800087538
EPUB ISBN: 9781800087606
Hardback ISBN: 9781800087521
Paperback ISBN: 9781800087545
List of figures
Acknowledgements
Cover illustration: artist’s noteIntroduction: Twenty years after Operation Iraqi Freedom
Part I: War in Iraq
Preface
1 Looting and conquest
2 The scholar as activist
3 The Iraq War
4 In the fray: British and Swiss get tough about smuggling
5 Days of plunder
6 Iraq’s cultural heritage: monuments, history and loss
7 The destruction of cultural heritage in Iraq
Plate section 1: Figures 1-17Part II: Military occupation and archaeological discourse
Preface
8 Babylon: a case study in the military occupation of an archaeological site
9 The battle for Babylon (2006)
10 The battle for Babylon (2008)
11 Desecrating history
12 October questionnaire
13 Archaeology and the strategies of warPart III: Aftermath: erasing/writing
Preface
14 Archaeology, global cultural heritage and Iraq
15 Tabula rasa
16 Amnesia in Mesopotamia
Plate section 2: Figures 18-34Part IV: ISIS/Daesh
Preface
17 The absent past: heritage destruction and historical erasure today
18 Destruction and preservation as aspects of just war
19 Blood antiquities and the global art market
20 Decolonising the museum
21 Technologies of power in archaeology
22 Historical destruction in a forgotten war
23 Mosul and Niniveh
24 Conclusion: Warfare, creative destruction, and the politics of preservationIndex
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