UK archaeologists help Iraqis restore their Isis-ravaged heritage
The world’s oldest-known bridge, an ancient Sumerian structure in Iraq, is to be used by the British Museum as a training site to teach two groups of female archaeologists the skills to restore the country’s Islamic State-ravaged heritage. After a conflict that saw Isis jihadists destroy large parts of Iraq’s archaeological heritage – including the historic sites […]Peter Beaumont writes for The Guardian:
The world’s oldest-known bridge, an ancient Sumerian structure in Iraq, is to be used by the British Museum as a training site to teach two groups of female archaeologists the skills to restore the country’s Islamic State-ravaged heritage.
After a conflict that saw Isis jihadists destroy large parts of Iraq’s archaeological heritage – including the historic sites at Nimrud and Nineveh – the museum will in April begin a training programme for eight women from the Mosul area, most of whom have been living as refugees.
The training will be split between London and the Tello site in southern Iraq, near the city of Naseriyah and home to one of the world’s oldest civil engineering projects, the Sumerian bridge at the entrance to the 4,000-year-old city of Girsu, which is the focus of the project.
