December 23, 2003

Iraq Bibliographies compiled in response to the cultural heritage crisis in Iraq during and after the war in Spring 2003, at: http://oi.uchicago.edu/OI/DEPT/RA/IraqBibs.html, has been updated.

December 15, 2003

A profile of Oriental Institute Assistant Professor Steven Harvey's fieldwork at Abydos from the University of Chicago Chronicle magazine, is available from a University of Chicago website.

December 2, 2003

The Library of Congress Mission To Baghdad. Report on the National Library and the House of Manuscripts, October 27-November 3, 2003 is now available.

November 20, 2003

A profile of Oriental Institute Research Associate Abbas Alizadeh from the journal "Science", highlighting his fieldwork and collaborations in Iran, is available from a University of Chicago website.

October 24, 2003

WESTERN TEAM ALLOWED IN IRAN FOR EXPEDITION. For the first time since 1979, a University of Chicago archaeological expedition has begun digging in southwest Iran, an area known as Khuzestan. The new research will provide additional information on a region where some of antiquity's most dramatic hydro-engineering projects were once located. This work also renews important research connections between Iran and the University that began with the work of an Oriental Institute team-the first Western team permitted to do work there-between World War I and World War II.

October 21, 2003

Recent reports on the losses sustained by the Iraq Museum collections indicate that a large proportion of objects known to be missing are seals. See, for example, the Bogdanos report of 10 September, 2003. As a consequence, we have focused some recent activity on the Oriental Instituite's Iraq Museum Database project and bibliographies on the issue of seals.

The first set of seal illustrations in the database is now available, the first component of the seals excavated by the Oriental Institute's Diyala Expedition. Eighty-nine of the 611 Diyala seals in Iraq Museum collections are now on-line. We hope to have the rest of them available on-line soon.

Also available is a Preliminary Bibliography Of Publications Documenting The Cylinder And Stamp Seals And Seal Impressions In The Collections Of The Iraq Museum Baghdad, and an Index by Museum Number of of objects published in the Preliminary Bibliography.

The purpose of both the database and the set of bibliographies is to help provide wide access to documentation on objects potentially missing from the Iraq Museum.

We appreciate the support of this project by the Oriental Institute and many colleagues and friends. We also appreciate and gratefully acknowledge the support and endorsement of Dr. Donny George Youkhanna, the new acting Director General of the Museums Department of the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage.

We also appreciate any effort you make to publicize this further.
-The OI Iraq Working Group.

October 18, 2003

The Edgar and Deborah Jannotta Mesopotamian Gallery of the Oriental Institute Museum opened to the public on October 18, 2003 following a seven year renovation project.

October 13, 2003

Chicago's Public Television station, WTTW (Channel 11), on its weekly arts magazine program Artbeat Chicago, will have a segment profiling the newly-reinstalled Edgar and Deborah Jannotta Mesopotamian Gallery at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.

This Artbeat Chicago program will air on Friday, October 17 at 9:30 PM, with a repeat on Sunday at 11:30 PM. The segment will also be aired during prime time sometime during the week of October 20 on Chicago Tonight; an exact date will be announced soon. WTTW is available over the air on Channel 11, and is Channel 11 on most Chicago-area cable systems.

August 21, 2003

The 2001-2002 Oriental Institute Annual Report is now available. Links to its respective entries have been added to homepages of numerous Institute archaeological and philogical projects and departments.

July 25, 2003

As part of its ELECTRONIC PUBLICATIONS ON-LINE, the Oriental Institute Publications Office announces an additional letter, Ayin, for the Chicago Demotic Dictionary, edited by Janet H. Johnson. This document is available as an Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF) file.

July 24, 2003

The web presence of The Middle East Librarians Association: Committee on Iraqi Libraries, developed in partnership with The Oriental Institute Research Archives, has had a number of additions in recent weeks. Note in particular the following:

  • Iraqi Library Stamps. The aim of this project is to collect images (scanned photographs or photocopies) of library stamps and other ownership marks used by various libraries and manuscript collections in Iraq and make these images available on the Internet.
  • Pictures of Damaged Libraries in Iraq. The photographs presented here document damage to libraries in Iraq during and after the war in April 2003. Most of them are provided by Nabil al-Tikriti, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago. They were taken during his trip to Baghdad on 25-31 May 2003. They accompany his report: Iraq Manuscript Collections, Archives, & Libraries: Situation Report, dated 8 June 2003. The remaining photographs were taken by McGuire Gibson, Professor of Mesopotamian Archaeology, The Oriental Institute, University of Chicago. He was a member of the UNESCO team which visited Baghdad in May 2003.

June 17, 2003

An image of the damaged Warka Vase, one of the most important and unique items originally looted but now returned to the Iraq Museum is now part of our "Lost Treasures From Iraq" website. The picture was taken June 12, 2003, with the vase used as background in a photo of Donny George, the Museum's Director of Research, and another person. The photograph shows a close-up of the vase, turned upwards; for comparison we have inserted an image of the vase that was taken around 1960 to indicate the damage to the object.

June 11, 2003

An additional 100 objects (199 additional photographs), all of them ivories from Nimrud and dating to the Neo-Assyrian period, are now available on the Oriental Institute's "Lost Treasures From Iraq" website.

June 6, 2003

Preliminary bibliography of books documenting the contents of the Iraq Museum, the National Library and Archives, and the MS collection of the Ministry of Religious Endowments - all in Baghdad - as well as of other damaged or destroyed collections in Baghdad or elsewhere in Iraq including Mosul, Basrah, Suleimaniyeh, etc. Version 23: June 5, 2003 - 202 titles, now available at:
http://oi.uchicago.edu/OI/IRAQ/iraq_bibliography.html

The Oriental Institute is now host to the web-presence of : The Middle East Librarians Association: Committee on Iraqi Libraries at
http://oi.uchicago.edu/OI/IRAQ/mela/melairaq.html

June 3, 2003

An additional 129 objects (192 additional photographs), all of them ivories from Nimrud and dating to the Neo-Assyrian period, are now available on the Oriental Institute's "Lost Treasures From Iraq" website.

May 28, 2003

A "Statement Of Concern" regarding the looting of Iraq's archaeological museums, the destruction of its libraries, and the damage done to its archeological and historical monuments and sites during and after the invasion of Iraq in March and April, 2003, is now accessible on the Oriental Institute's "Lost Treasures From Iraq" website.

May 22, 2003

The Oriental Institute Publications Office announces the publication of OIP 118. Scarabs, Scaraboids, Seals, and Seal Impressions from Medinet Habu. Emily Teeter, with a contribution by T. G. Wilfong; and OIP 121. Cuneiform Texts from the Ur III Period in the Oriental Institute, Volume 2: Drehem Administrative Documents from the Reign of Amar-Suena Markus Hilgert, with contribution by Clemens D. Reichel.

May 20, 2003

Recent on-site impressions of the Iraq Museum damage and looting by Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Professor McGuire Gibson, with additional comments by John Russell of the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston:

May 16, 2003

Recent on-site impressions of the Iraq Museum damage and looting by Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Professor McGuire Gibson, with additional comments by Donny George, Head of Research for the Iraq Department of Antiquities:

May 15, 2003

An expanded selection of images of objects from the collections of the Iraq Museum, Baghdad, are now on the Oriental Institute's website at: http://oi.uchicago.edu/OI/IRAQ/Iraqdatabasehome.htm

Most of the images were taken from Eva Strommenger, Fünf Jahrtausende Mesopotamien. (München: Hirmer Verlag. 1962). We want to thank Hirmer Verlag for generously allowing us to use these images on our site. Pages and text shown here were compiled, written, and edited by Clemens Reichel.

A more general page where this resource can be found is at:
http://oi.uchicago.edu/OI/IRAQ/iraq.html

May 13, 2003

An additional thirty-one objects from the collections of the Iraq Museum, Baghdad, are now accessible on the Oriental Institute's "Lost Treasures From Iraq" website:
http://oi.uchicago.edu/OI/IRAQ/iraq.html

April 29, 2003

Norman Golb's article, Further Evidence Concerning Judah b. Solomon And The "Tower Of Las Metamis" Mentioned In Ms de Rossi 1105, is now available. This document is in the Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF).

April 18, 2003

A very preliminary website featuring examples of objects from the collections of the Iraq Museum, Baghdad, is now accessible on the Oriental Institute's "Lost Treasures From Iraq" website:
http://oi.uchicago.edu/OI/IRAQ/iraq.html

April 15, 2003

Robert Fisk's April 15, 2003 article from the British newspaper, Independent, regarding the burning of the The National Library and Archives in Baghdad

April 14, 2003

Dutch, British, and American broadcasts of the destruction inside the Iraq Museum in Baghdad (in Real Audio format):

P. Michalowski's article, "The Ransacking of the Baghdad Museum Is a Disgrace," in History News Network.

Francis Deblauwe's website, The 2003 Iraq War & Archaeology, contains links to several articles pertaining to the looting of the Iraq Museum.

April 10, 2003

The Center for International Studies at the University of Chicago is conducting a continuing lecture series

April 1, 2003

Settlement and Landscape in Northern Mesopotamia: The Tell Hamoukar Survey 2000-2001, by University of Chicago PhD candidate Jason Ur, summarizes the preliminary results of the 2000-2001 Tell Hamoukar Survey; discussed at length are the history of settlement in the region, the articulation of settlements via ancient roads (hollow ways), and the intensification of agriculture at the end of the 3rd millennium.

March 24, 2003

Recent interviews with Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Professor McGuire Gibson, describing the possible effect of the Iraq war on the antiquities of Mesopotamia:

March 20, 2003

Recent interview with Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Professor McGuire Gibson, describing the possible effect of the Iraq war on the antiquities of Mesopotamia:

March 14, 2003

In a effort to get the word out regarding Nicholas Postgate's important and timely website, The Threat To World Heritage In Iraq, the site has added links to the 414 Archaeological Site Photographs from Mesopotamia on the Oriental Institute website, as well as photographs from the Metropolitan Museum in New York and the Northern Virginia Community College.

February 21, 2003

Two new Oriental Institute Research Archives Acquisitions Lists are now available online: Number 15.Acquisitions - November-December 2001; and Number 16.Acquisitions - January-February 2002.

February 19, 2003

The MESOPOTAMIAN DIRECTORY - 2003 is now available as an Adobe Acrobat file. It lists the names and addresses of persons domiciled in North America who are engaged in research on the pre-Islamic archaeology, history, and languages of greater Mesopotamia (including Syria east of the Upper Euphrates, the Elamite plains, and regions using a standard cuneiform script). It includes academics, museum personnel, library staff, and senior graduate students with a formally approved dissertation topic.

February 17, 2003

Recent news coverage describing on-going research projects at the Oriental Institute and current Middle Eastern events:

February 14, 2003

Recent news coverage describing on-going research projects at the Oriental Institute and current Middle Eastern events:

February 11, 2003

Recent news coverage describing on-going research projects at the Oriental Institute and current Middle Eastern events:

January 31, 2003

Recent news coverage describing on-going research projects at the Oriental Institute and current Middle Eastern events:

January 14, 2003

Recent issues of the University of Chicago magazine, The Chronicle, have highlighted two events at the Oriental Institute Museum: An exhibit of four American photographers in Egypt; and Hip-hop like an Egyptian: High school students translate O. I. cultural studies into urban art; and Use of computer simulation in reconstructing ancient Mesopotamian settlements by Institute faculty, staff, and students in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, working in conjunction with research staff at Argonne National Laboratories.