Over the past five volumes, IRAQ has been ably edited by Jonathan Taylor, Michael Seymour and, latterly, Paul Collins. Between them they consolidated a very effective Editorial Board and oversaw the move to the current successful partnership with Cambridge University Press. I have been lucky to inherit from them a highly functional operation, in no small part thanks also to Jamie McIntyre, until recently the Commissioning Editor, Classics and Archaeology Journals at CUP. On behalf of the Editorial Board and all at BISI I record our warmest gratitude and very best wishes for future endeavours.
It is also a real pleasure to thank the current CUP team, Jamie's successor Olivia Hassall and Production Editor Craig Baxter, who have ensured the smooth transition from one editorial team to the next. Mr Saadi Al-Tamimi and Dr Muhamad Tawfiq Ali have kindly provided their expert services to translate the abstracts of each article into Arabic. And, like all peer-reviewed journals, IRAQ depends on the good will and free labour of our anonymous expert reviewers. I'm hugely grateful to each and every colleague who has shared their time and knowledge to assess and develop the contributions we receive.
BISI has recently expanded the Editorial Board to better represent the full extent of IRAQ's remit. I am delighted to welcome new members Claudia Glatz, Erica Hunter, Dan Lawrence and Sarah Savant, and to show my appreciation for the experience and insight of continuing members Mark Altaweel, Augusta McMahon and Mark Weeden. We continue to welcome submissions on all aspects of the archaeology, history and culture of ancient, medieval and pre-modern Iraq, as described in more detail at https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/iraq. Individual subscribers to the journal will also find instructions there on how to access the full back-catalogue online, as well as previews of the articles to appear in the next issue, through CUP's FirstView service.
This past year has been a dramatic one for Iraq. Richard McClary's article on the mashhad (mausoleum) of Imam Yahya ibn Al-Qasim, and Ali Al-Juboori's edition of the Neo-Assyrian inscriptions from the looters’ tunnels at Nebi Yunus salvage what they can from the horrendous cultural and human destruction wrought by ISIS/Da'esh during their terrible years of occupation in Mosul. On a more positive note, the archaeological reports by Stuart Campbell and colleagues at Tell Khaiber, Jesse Casana and Claudia Glatz in the Diyala Valley, and Glenn Schwartz and team at Kurd Qaburistan, along with Mark Altaweel's survey, capture the range of exciting and productive fieldwork now being conducted across Iraq. Meanwhile, the rest of the journal showcases some of the excellent research produced in other contexts across the world. I hope you will find it as enjoyable and as stimulating to read as I have.
