Sign against cultural destruction: SPK hands over clay brick fragment to Iraq
Press release from 10/28/2015
Foundation President Hermann Parzinger and Markus Hilgert, Director of the Museum of the Museum of the Ancient Near East, hand over 2600 year old inscription to the Iraqi ambassador
Photo opportunity: 2 November 2015, 10 a.m., at the Archaeological Centre
In view of the systematic destruction of cultural heritage sites in many countries in the Near and Middle East, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation is sending a very special signal. Hermann Parzinger, President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, and Markus Hilgert, Director of the Museum of the Ancient Near East, will present an inscription of the Babylonian ruler Nebuchadnezzar II (605-562 BC) to the Ambassador of the Republic of Iraq, Dr Hussain M. Fadhlalla Alkhateeb, at the Archaeological Centre next Monday. Dr Andreas Görgen, Head of the Department of Culture and
Communication at the Federal Foreign Office, will be present at the event.
The dedication inscription of the legendary Babylonian ruler, stamped on a fragmentary clay tile, was recently sent to the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation in a small parcel. According to the anonymous sender, the piece was found in Babylon in the 1970s and taken to Germany.
"By handing over this archaeological object, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation is underlining its respect for Iraq's unique cultural heritage. The partnership-based dialogue with the countries from which the objects in our collections originate is of central importance to me," said Hermann Parzinger.
The brick fragment was probably originally used in a monumental building by Nebuchadnezzar II in the ancient city of Babylon. Ancient Oriental rulers usually provided such bricks with cuneiform inscriptions that provided information about the builder and his political achievements. They were mass-produced.
"At a time when the Near and Middle East is being ravaged by unprecedented looting of archaeological sites, we are sending a visible signal of solidarity and determination with this handover," says Markus Hilgert.
The most important market for looted archaeological objects is the illegal trade in cultural artefacts. Documents recently published by the US State Department prove that the terrorist militia "Islamic State" is making money from this lucrative business. The joint project ILLICID, which is based at the Museum of the Ancient Near East, is investigating how the illegal trade in cultural artefacts works in Germany and what tools investigating authorities can use to gather relevant information. The project, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research with a total of 1.2 million euros, is being carried out by the SPK in cooperation with the Fraunhofer Institute for
Secure Information Technology and GESIS - The Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences.
Notes to editors regarding the photo shoot
We cordially invite you to a photo session on the occasion of the handover
of the clay brick fragment on Monday, 2 November 2015, 10 a.m., at the
Archaeological Centre, Geschwister-Scholl-Straße 6. We will accept registrations by e-mail until Friday, 30 October 2015, 12 noon.