Iraqi archaeologists to salvage threatened mounds in southern marshes
The Antiquities Department has dispatched five excavation teams to the southern marshes, where several ancient sites are threatened with inundation, the department’s spokesman said.
Abdulzahara al-Talaqani said the teams will concentrate their activities in the southern provinces of Basra, Missan and Dhiqar.
Iraq says it is suffering from reduced water flows from its twin rivers, the Euphrates and the Tigris. The spokesman did not explain the reason behind the surge in water levels.
The rivers are the main water source feeding the Iraqi marshes.
Talaqani said the teams were expected to start work next week and that five more excavation groups will join them by end of year.
The sites are reputed for their Parthian and Sasanian (Persian) finds, he said.
The sites are also known for their archaeological riches as a few of them were already partially dug in the past.
They are Tel Akar in Missan, Tel Abushaib in Basra, and Tel althabab, Tel Aburabab and Thamer palace in Dhiqar.
Talaqani said it was the first time Iraqi Antiquities Department has been involved in salvage excavation in nearly 20 years.
U.N. sanctions imposed on Iraq for its 1990-invasion of Kuwait had almost brought excavation work in the country to a standstill.
But prior to sanctions, scores of foreign excavation teams joined their Iraqi counterparts to salvage ancient sites at basins where Iraq constructed gigantic dams.
“The dispatch of these excavation teams is of paramount importance because they will be involved in salvage digs in order to save antiquities in mounds threatened with flooding,” Talaqani said.
He added that Iraqi scientists believe that beneath the Persian levels “lie occupations that belong to the Sumerian and Babylonian civilizations.”
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