Abstract
IT would appear that the way is being paved in Iraq for a drastic revision of the regulations affecting archaeological exploration. That at least is the obvious conclusion to be drawn from the campaign of propaganda to which Dr. C. Leonard Woolley refers in his letter to the Times of December 12. It has been known for some time that a new Antiquities Law was contemplated. It was indeed this fact, combined with the difficulties arising from the division of the antiquities from Arpachiyah as between the Bagdad Museum and the organisers of the expedition, which led to the closing down of that important excavation at the end of the season of 1933. The character of the agitation against archaeological expeditions from outside may be gauged from the statement made to Dr. Woolley personally by the curator of the Bagdad Museum that the archaeological finds assigned to that Museum in the division with foreign missions had amounted only to one half of one per cent. Dr. Woolley, by quoting the actual percentage allotted to the Museum year by year, was able to show that the statement was without foundation so far as concerns the division of antiquities from Ur; while his explanation of the principles which had been followed in making the allocation was sufficient to exonerate the Director of Antiquities from any charge of unfair discrimination, due to his being a foreigner, if indeed any defence were needed.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Archæology in Iraq. Nature 134, 999–1000 (1934). https://doi.org/10.1038/134999b0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/134999b0