Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T01:03:30.079Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

11 - Time not on my Side: Cultural Resource Management in Kirkuk, Iraq

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2023

Get access

Summary

EDITOR's NOTE

Airman First Sergeant Darrell Pinckney, a professional archaeologist, was mobilised for deployment to Iraq and assigned to the US Regional Airbase at Kirkuk (KRAB). Kirkuk is an installation that was first established by Saddam Hussein and is not the only Iraqi military installation to have been constructed in an archaeologically sensitive property during the Hussein regime. When First Sergeant Pinckney arrived, archaeological challenges at Kirkuk had been outlined in Archaeology Magazine (April/May 2006) and additional infrastructure projects were continuing to unearth pottery, raising concerns about archaeological features. At this point in time Central Command had organised a Historical/Cultural Advisory Group, the members of which had added the challenges at Kirkuk to their agenda. Airman Pinckney graciously agreed to serve as a forward advisory group member. Not only did he add cultural resources management activities to his assigned duties as First Sergeant, but he also agreed to correspond regularly with the advisory group members in order to help them develop an appreciation of the challenges of attempting to implement US cultural resources ethics and methods in a war zone. Airman Pinckney's careful documentation of the sites he found at Kirkuk Regional Air Base provided the baseline map for later State Department evaluation of the installation's heritage assets prior to US draw down and transition to Iraqi control.

Until First Sergeant Pinckney's deployment, even though some of the advisory group members had experience in war zones, no one on the advisory group had any experience of attempting to work on archaeological issues in the combat or contingency operation setting. First Sergeant Pinckney's willingness to work with us was invaluable in terms of moving the In-Theater project forward. Lessons learned ranged from the logistical challenges of sending equipment to a war zone to the diplomacy required to establish collegial relationships between serving military members in stressful situations and academic subject matter experts who were providing reach-back expertise from home. Most importantly, First Sergeant Pinckney provided the advisory group members with the perspective from the front line. His correspondence and recommendations have helped the advisory group focus in a realistic way on projects that can genuinely make a difference in the forward setting.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×