Mesopotamia’s treasures looted from Iraq Museum

Museum officials harshly criticized the United States for failing to protect the irreplaceable vestiges of Mesopotamia, known as the cradle of civilization. Nabhal Amin, deputy director of the museum, said the looting would have been prevented if the United States had positioned a tank in front of the building.

Sumerian statues from the historical cities of Babel and Nineveh and Assyrian reliefs dating back 5,000 years that constitute first known written tablets were among the artifacts that disappeared. Gold and silver coins unearthed at the historical city of Ur were stolen as well.

The museum, closed after the 1991 Gulf War, was reopened to the public six months ago. The historical cities of Nineveh, Nimrod and Babel, home to Nebuchadnezzar’s famous hanging gardens of Babylon, were located in present-day Iraq. The heavily cultivated area fostered the invention of cuneiform script even before writing was developed in ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome.