Early in the Iraq War, media coverage sporadically informed the general public about the looting of the Iraq National Museum in Baghdad, yet the continuing issue of cultural property protection (CPP) during wartime has been largely ignored by the media and, as a result, the general public. Protection of museums and archaeological sites in Iraq, as in previous armed conflicts, has been typically seen as a small problem that concerns only overwrought academics. Compared to the more urgent problems during wartime, such as the preservation of human lives, protection of some dusty old trinkets should rightly take a back seat, but it is also important to keep in mind that the widespread and ongoing looting of archaeological sites in Iraq has contributed to the undermining of the security in the country. When archaeological sites are looted the artefacts ripped from the ground become commodities travelling the same black market networks as illegal weapons and drugs, and, like those commodities, funds from the sale of these stolen artefacts help to finance groups linked with violence (Bogdanos 2008). Although as cultural heritage experts we may be aware of the military’s moral and legal obligations to protect cultural property, possibly the biggest incentive for preventing looting at archaeological sites simply involves the issue of civilian and military safety.

This chapter presents two interconnected areas of my research: first, the ongoing looting of archaeological sites in Iraq as seen through satellite imagery; and, second, the trade in artefacts from Iraq, specifically the online market in seals, a type of small ancient Mesopotamian object. Awareness and acknowledgement of the looting of archaeological sites in Iraq and a better understanding of the market in stolen artefacts will improve our ability to prevent this type of destruction in the future. The looting of Iraq’s archaeological sites can serve as an example and raise awareness about the importance of planning for protecting cultural property.

THE LOOTING OF IRAQ’S ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES

During the spring of 2003 media coverage of the plundered Iraq National Museum in Baghdad brought Iraq’s threatened cultural property to the public’s attention. Unfortunately, the theft and destruction at the Museum in Baghdad is only one part of a much larger problem: the looting of Iraq’s archaeological sites (Stone and Farchakh Bajjaly 2008; Rothfield 2008; Emberling and Hanson 2008).