Kaylan’s main source comes from an article by Martin Bailey of The Art Newspaper which states, “Not a single recent dig hole was found” during an early-June British military mission to eight sites in northern Basra led by Dr. John Curtis of the British Museum. While the Art Newspaper report is somewhat accurate (see the full report by the British Museum [pdf]), claims made by Kaylan and others leave the reader with the impression that very little (or no) looting has taken place throughout the country. This based on the brief inspections of eight sites. One problem is the British Museum’s own report which states “[t]here were clear indications of looting holes” at five of the eight areas inspected, others were damaged due to neglect or military activities.

Kaylan denigrates warnings made by specialists as unscientific and prone to politically motivated fear mongering:

Considering the political impact of such data, one would expect the experts to approach the subject with scientific circumspection, using numbers sparingly and conservatively. Too often they seem to have done the reverse. So now, as a matter of course, their method, their probity in sifting the evidence — do they have a political agenda? — has come into question.

So the anti-American tendency runs deep indeed, forget the actual concerns of trained scientists. But yet again the scientific evidence proves who actually has the political agenda here. In a more detailed discussion of the known evidence, Hugh Eakin, writing in The New York Review of Books, covers Elizabeth Stone’s research (among others) of thousands of satellite images taken between 2003 and today. Eakin cites Stone as writing that the total amount lost as a result of recent looting is “many times greater than all archaeological investigations ever conducted in southern Iraq – and must have yielded tablets, coins, cylinder seals, statues, terracottas, bronzes and other objects in the hundreds of thousands.” Of course, how much has been taken can’t be known for sure, but the pace and rapidity of the retrieval is clear.

Laying the blame is less important than knowing the truth. But as Kaylan knows the truth sometimes hurts. Considering something that makes perfect since if we examine, according to the most detailed scientific data covering thousands of archaeological sites, the most extensive looting – though by no means not all – took place immediately prior to the invasion when the Baathist regime in Iraq had more pressing worries than protecting (as it had done) Iraq’s cultural heritage. And of course in war the conflicting parties always have greater concerns than whether some ancient artifact is stolen, therefore such an environment provides a perfect opportunity for some to profit on the black market. And items turn up day after day. So much for Kaylan’s conspiracy.

Technorati Tags: Iraq antiquities, media, Wall Street Journal

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