Iraq Museum International

From Iraq Museum International

HIGH-RESOLUTION PHOTOS Iraqi cylinder seals recovered by the FBI With seal impressions, rolled by Penn Museum conservator Lynn Grant. Descriptions written by Dr. Richard Zettler, Associate Curator, Near East section, University of Pennsylvania Museum.

Presentation scene showing a human figure, probably the king, with a mace, facing a deity holding weapons. An interceding goddess with hands raised, stands behind the king. Smaller human figures, including a bow-legged dwarf, in the field. Black stone. Haematite (?). Old Babylonian, ca. 2000-1500 BCE Size: Diameter, 1.4 cm; height: 2.7 cm. Contest scene showing lion attacking bull on each side of an eagle(?). Human with kilt tucked into waist band attacks lion on the right. Human head in profile, below the bull on the left. Mottled gray stone. Early Dynastic, ca. 2500 BCE. Size: Diameter, 2 cm; height: 2.4 cm. Contest scene with five combatants. A human in the center grasps horned animals that are in turn attacked by lions. Shell. Akkadian, ca. 2350-2200 BCE Size: Diameter, 1.2 cm; height: 3 cm. Birds reversed above and below undulating line. Black stone. Early Dynastic. ca. 2500 BCE Size: Diameter, 1.8 cm; height: 2 cm. Segmented seal, with each section showing a pigtailed woman, hands raised, seated on a low dais. Black stone. Steatite (?). Late Uruk-Jemdet Nasr, ca. 3300-2900 BCE Size: Diameter, 1.4 cm; height: 1.4 cm. Repeating design featuring concentric ovals. Black stone. Steatite (?). Jemdet Nasr, ca. 3100-2900 BCE Size: Diameter, 1.1 cm; height: 1.5 cm. Design showing chevrons framed by horizontal lines. Stone or shell (?). Jemdet Nasr, ca. 3100-2900 BCE Size: Diameter: 1 cm; height: 1.5 cm. Repeating design featuring horned quadrupeds (?). Stone. Jemdet Nasr, ca. 3100-2900 BCE Size: Diameter: .4 cm (less than a centimeter); height: .6 cm

Photos courtesy University of Pennsylvania Museum.

Forum
Year Zero for the Archaeology of Iraq
Papers from the Institute of Archaeology

• Paper by Roger Matthews

• Responses by:
  • Lamia al-Gailani Werr
  • Harriet Crawford
  • Sophia Labadi
  • John Simmons
  • Marc Van De Mieroop

• Reply by Roger Matthews

PIA 14 (2003)

On View Now Through May 29, 2005
University of Pennsylvania Museum
Treasures from the Royal Tombs of Ur (http://www.museum.upenn.edu/new/exhibits/ur/index.shtml)
Front view of the bull-headed Great Lyre from the "King's Grave" at Ur. Gold, silver, lapis lazuli, shell, bitumen, and wood.
(35.6 cm height of head, 33 cm height of plaque) ca. 2650-2550 B.C.
Photo: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

This is the new Iraq Museum International site, created by the Baghdad Museum Project to help save Iraq's cultural heritage. It allows you to freely communicate, coordinate and collaborate with all other members of the site. It contains news, announcements, new writings, reference articles, exhibition catalogs, directories, images, and open discussions.

Worldwide Network

The purposes of Iraq Museum International are to:

• rekindle archaeological discovery in Iraq
• recover cultural property stolen from Iraq
• address the economic plight of Iraqi families and tribes recruited to pillage archaeological sites
• restore and help protect archaeological and historical sites throughout Iraq
• facilitate community cultural development among Iraqis
• harmonize cultural preservation with reconstruction efforts
• promote around the world greater understanding of Iraq's rich history and culture
• reduce senseless hostility and stimulate cross-cultural dialogue
• enable Iraqis to use their culture to more fully participate in the international community

By joining Iraq Museum International, you are agreeing to support these purposes. And we are very grateful for your support.

Open Collaboration

This site is free for all members to edit, revise, expand, annotate and discuss.

Any member can create an article about anything related to Iraqi culture and heritage. Any article may be edited by any other member, until the article is "protected" by an administrator. This way, teams of writers and editors can freely collaborate on articles and see them published immediately on this site.

Every version of every article is saved, and can be retrieved, and even be reinstated as the "current version." Contributors are welcome to monitor revisions to their articles. If the author of an article does not want it to be edited, he or she may request that the article be "protected" -- preventing any edits by other members. However, administrators will continue to add to the article links to other articles, site directories, images, etc., for cross-reference purposes.

Also, every article will automatically have a discussion page attached. This discussion page will be open to all members, and will rarely be "protected."

How the Site Works

This site is self-organizing. A table of contents can be automatically generated for any article. As more and more links are made among articles, you will be able to see "What links here" for each article. Articles can be associated with one or more categories, including categories which do not yet exist on the site. A directory of categories and sub-categories is automatically generated, with listings of articles under each. The system will also list all contributions from a particular member. Members can be associated with one or more groups, and these groups can be categorized for browsing.

Iraq Museum International will have a large collection of images from contributors everywhere. Unless otherwise noted on the image source page, any image may be used within any article on this site. Each image source page will automatically show which articles are using that image.

Site Plans

This completely new version of Iraq Museum International was launched on Sunday, January 30, 2005. The building of the site will be an open, transparent process. You can easily view and comment on new articles, recently uploaded pictures, and changes to any page. You can also explore the technology for the site, even as new features are developed, tested and implemented.

The technology will be used at other sites focusing on specific Iraqi governorates or on other collections and cultures, and these sites will be able to link seamlessly to one another. In other words, Iraq Museum International will demonstrate a framework for interoperability among museums and cultural institutions around the world.

In addition, the entire system can be readily translated into any language, including Iraqi Arabic, Kurmanji, Sorani and Special English (an easy-to-understand version of English). From any translated article, visitors will be able to jump directly to versions of that article in other languages.

Getting Started

• To join Iraq Museum International, click "Create an account" at the top of the page. Then log in.

• To post something about yourself, click your user name at the top of the page. A "user page" will appear. Edit the page and, if you are interested, include a line about your wanting to volunteer some of your time to help build this site. This will be noted by an administrator.

• To create a new article, enter a short title for your article in the "search" box in the left margin of the page. Press "Go." If the title is already taken for an existing article, try another title in the search box. If the title is not taken, you will be instructed to "click here" to create an article with the title. (Check your spelling. Use upper and lower case as you would for a published title.)

• To edit an existing article, click "edit" at the top of the article. Preview your work as you go along. Include in the "Summary" box a few words about the nature of your edit. Then click "Save page."

• To upload an image, click "Upload file" in the "toolbox" in the left margin of the page, and follow the instructions. Make sure to include information about the source of the image, and any rights and permissions.

Tips

• General titles for articles (for example, "Assyria" or "cylinder seals") should not be used for long original contributions. General topic articles invite editing from the entire community.

• If you have a very long paper you want to contribute (over 5,000 words), please break it down into parts and submit each part separately. You may add words such as (Part 1), (Part 2), etc., as part of the titles. The separate parts can easily be linked to one another.