Recently, we received news of fresh looting at Dehaila, and of pottery from the looted area seized by the Dhi Qar Archaeological Police.
We praise the work of the Archaeological Police and send our warm greetings to the officers who have shared with us both the joys and the hardships of fieldwork. May Allah give them strength in their work.
Everything found in the soil of an archaeological site belongs to the people of Iraq, represented by the Iraqi Government and by the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage. And naturally, it is the duty of the State to protect this heritage. At present, in Iraq, an archaeological site is truly secure only if there is a police station on it, with officers on duty day and night, as at Ur or Uruk, or if the site lies next to a village whose sheikh and people have taken responsibility for protecting it, as at Lagash. Otherwise, looters can come at night, and no single guard can watch every corner of a huge archaeological site all the time.
But Iraq has 20,000 archaeological sites, perhaps even more. It will never be possible to put police stations at every one of them.
There is another solution:
Don’t loot.
If you have friends, neighbours, fellow villagers, school pupils, or simply anyone willing to listen, tell them not to dig into archaeological tells looking for treasure. At Dehaila, the looters committed a crime before Allah and a crime before the law. And what did they find? What the police seized is shown in the photograph. Was it worth committing a crime for this? Was it even worth getting to the desert and digging there in the dark?
This is ordinary pottery from the Chaldean period.
For an archaeologist, such pottery is valuable when it is found in its proper place inside a house. When we put together all the finds from one house, piece by piece, like a puzzle, we can tell a story, sometimes many stories, about the everyday lives of the people who once lived there.
This is why we excavate: so that you can travel through time.
A looter cannot travel through time. He can only find old broken pots.
And he will not find gold.
There is no gold at Dehaila.
Why am I so sure? Because Dehaila was an ordinary city, not even the capital of the Chaldeans. Their capital was elsewhere. And when the city was abandoned, apparently because there was no longer enough water in the river, its inhabitants left peacefully and took their valuable belongings with them.
So it is useless to dig there looking for gold or treasure. The treasure of Dehaila is knowledge.
When looters destroy an archaeological context, they rob themselves, their children, and all Iraq of that knowledge. Explaining this to people, and telling them why looting destroys something that can never be restored, is one way of protecting archaeological sites.
The other way is to keep archaeological sites alive through scientific excavation. We count on our Iraqi colleagues and friends to allow us, and other Iraqi and foreign archaeological teams, to continue this work: to continue granting excavation permits, to help us in the field, so that the "book" of archaeological site is being read and not neglected and left to the looters.
We are deeply grateful for all the help we receive. And we are confident that, with patience, we will overcome looting and preserve knowledge.