2nd
March 2001, turned out to be the blackest day for all history and
archeology lovers of the world, because on this day, Afghanistan's
Taliban rogue forces began their most criticized task; that of
destroying the Bamiyan Buddhas. In spite of repeated requests from
all over the world not to destroy Bamiyan Buddhas and make the world
loose one of its historic monuments, they went ahead and completed
the task after several weeks. They could not destroy the massive
Buddha idols with gun shots and had to use missiles and tank mines to
complete the job.
No one
knows exactly when the Buddha statues were carved out of the rock,
but they were there in full glory when Xuan Zang visited Bamiyan in
632 CE. It is generally assumed that the statues were carved out
during first two centuries of the first millennium, when Kushan kings
ruled Afghanistan. In spite of the statues having such important
historical heritage status for Afghanistan, Taliban not only
destroyed them completely but even boasted about that to the world.
Within
8 months from destruction of Bamiyan Buddhas, the Taliban rule in
Afghanistan ended with US and NATO forces intervening along with
forces of Northern alliance and world heaved a sigh of relief. It was
hoped that such wanton destruction of heritage artifacts of
tremendous historical values would not be repeated anywhere else in
the world. Unfortunately, these hopes are dashed as the world is
finding to its horror that a new force has started destroying signs
of heritage even on a much greater scale.
Ancient
Mesopotamia is often considered as the cradle of western
civilization. It is the name given to the area of the
Tigris–Euphrates river system in the middle east. The present
boundaries of modern-day Iraq, Kuwait, the northeastern section of
Syria and to a much lesser extent southeastern Turkey and smaller
parts of southwestern Iran, were all parts of this land. In Bronze
Age, Mesopotamia included Sumer and the Akkadian, Babylonian, and
Assyrian empires, all native to the territory of modern-day Iraq.
Around
900 BCE, the ancient kingdom of Assyria, had become a powerful
regional power in Mesopotamia. It existed as an independent state
for a period of approximately nineteen centuries from c. 2500 BCE to
605 BCE, with 'Assur' as its first capital. The capital was moved to
Nimrud in the Ninth century BCE and was continued for next 180 years,
before getting finally destroyed in 612 BCE. This city was located
on the Tigris River just south of Iraq’s second largest city,
Mosul.
Nimrud
was first described by the British traveler Claudius James Rich in
1820. Archaeologists have been excavating sites from the city from
1849 right up to 1989. Excavations have revealed remarkable
bas-reliefs, ivories, and sculptures. Statues of kings, colossal
winged man-headed lions weighing around 9 tonnes, large number of
inscriptions have been discovered here. Temples, palaces and a
monument commemorating the king's victorious campaigns of 859–824,
also have been discovered.
Another
remarkable discovery at Nimrud was The "Treasure of Nimrud."
It is a collection of 613 pieces of gold jewelry and precious
stones. It has survived the confusions and looting after the invasion
of Iraq in 2003.Archaeologists were relieved, when the treasures were
found hidden in the country’s central Bank in a secret
vault-inside-a-vault submerged in sewage water. It was put away for
12 years and was "rediscovered" on June 5, 2003. Readers
must have by now got a fair idea about archaeological importance and
heritage value of ruins found in Nimrud.
In
June 2011, a new development took place that has now shaken the
world. This was the rise of ISIS, (sometimes known as ISIL and later
renamed simply Islamic State), which is a Jihadist militant group in
Iraq and Syria influenced by the Wahhabi movement. It aims to
establish a caliphate, or Islamic state in Sunni majority regions of
Iraq and Syria. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was named its Caliph. As a
caliphate, it claims religious, political and military authority over
all Muslims worldwide and that "the legality of all emirates,
groups, states, and organizations, becomes null by the expansion of
the khilāfah's (caliphate's) authority and arrival of its troops to
their areas.
In
early 2014, ISIS forces drove the Iraqi government forces out of key
western cities in Iraq while in Syria it conquered and conducted
ground attacks against both the government forces and rebel factions
in the Syrian Civil War. Iraq’s second largest city, Mosul, was
captured by the ISIS in June 2014 and are still holding it.
ISIS
has been following a policy of the deliberate destruction of a
heritage and its images that are found in captured territories. The
intention is clear; to erase history and the identity of the people
of Iraq, whether in the past or the present.
In
2014, ISIS zealots destroyed the Mosque of the Prophet Younis or
Jonah and the Mosque of the Prophet Jirjis, two revered ancient
shrines in Mosul. Last week, they released a video that showed
militants with sledgehammers destroying ancient artifacts at the
Mosul museum. ISIS is belived to be following a policy that art
pieces that can be carried away are sold to fund the IS group, while
the larger artifacts and sculptures are simply destroyed.
Last
week, ISIS has taken the ultimate step to destroy Iraq's history.
Militants have actually “bulldozed” the renowned archaeological
site of the ancient city of Nimrud in northern Iraq using heavy
military vehicles. Iraq’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities says
that ISIS continues to defy the will of the world and the feelings
of humanity. Iraq's prime minister Prime Minister, Haider al-Abadi
has described the acts as efforts to destroy the heritage of mankind
and Iraq’s civilisation.
There
has been a world wide outrage against these acts of vandalism by ISIS
zealots. But there is precise little that the world can do except
watch helplessly its heritage getting lost. In this respect, I am
well reminded of a new policy that is being followed in Afghanistan.
A joint Japanese-Afghanistan group has been working since 2004 in
Afghanistan. In September 2008 they made significant discoveries near
Bamiyan like traces of a Buddhist Vihara, a palace and dozen or more
statues. In a surprise move, no more excavations were done by this
group. On the contrary, all artifacts, dug out were buried again and
all excavated area was covered up so that no clues to buried
treasures can be seen. Chief of the UNESCO mission in Afghanistan
agrees with this policy. According to him the safest place for these
archeological heritage treasures is underground. He says that there
are thousands of prehistoric, Buddhist and Islamic sites dotted
around the country and policing all of them is an impossible task.
Deep below the ground, the relics are protected from endemic looting
and illegal smuggling.
The
archeologists world over are always very keen to dig and unearth
objects and artifacts that can lead us to new traces of history. If
any such new find is ever made, anywhere in the world, more resources
and manpower is employed to unearth as many objects as possible.
These are subsequently studied, new inferences drawn and then the
objects and artifacts are carefully preserved in some museum or
other. The time has come to change this policy, at least in the
middle east and west Asia. After any new archaeological discoveries
are made, the artifacts should be studied, documented and then
re-buried to protect them from religious hotheads and zealots.
7th
March 2015
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