Maltai, Dohuk, KRG, Iraq: Peshmerga have not used ancient Assyrian art for target practice

[Evidently, it is necessary for me to explain: yes, I do object to nationalists who vandalise cultural property; and yes, I am concerned with the suffering of the Assyrian community, as I am with the suffering of other civilian communities. In my work on state crime, I have highlighted how plunder of cultural property was a constituent element of the genocide of Assyrians.]

Based on multiple media reports and social media comments, I tweeted that Peshmerga had ‘practiced shooting and painted [a] flag on [the] ancient Assyrian city of Khenis (Dohuk, KRG, Iraq)’. Thankfully, Simone Muehl quickly pointed out that this was wrong.

I am not there. I have not said that. I could not say that. I do not know that.

I appreciate that this information is being circulated by someone who is trying to secure funding for research and analysis in which I would be involved. And I appreciate that this information might be characterised as a derivation of things that I have said. However, I cannot accept its circulation, especially as it affiliates me with a different university and it claims that I am performing work outside my current contract, for which I would need a visa that I do not have. I do not know amongst whom it is being circulated.

If Americans are scared of refugees in Europe, there is a very simple solution for them – to not come to Europe

While this post is somewhat off-topic for this blog, the material is too offensive not to comment. foreign(?) Assadist propagandists, pathologically anti-Obama Islamophobic American propagandists, even seeming Serbian nationalists are appropriating evidence of illicit arms trafficking between Turkey and Libya in order to incite hatred of refugees from Syria and Iraq.

it cannot be much more correct(ed): Sunni PMU recovered antiquities from Islamic State in Iraq

Fortunately, I’m running out of ways to get this wrong. I initially saw the list of participants in the Popular Mobilisation Units (PMUs) in Iraq – Shia, Sunni, Christian and Yezidi – and assumed that they were Kurdish, as Yezidis are Kurdish.

photo of nine Babylonian-era antiquities that were recovered from Islamic State in Iraq by Ummaya Al Jabbara

When Steven Ishak Nabil (Ummaya Al Jabbara@stevoiraq) shared the news of the raid on the Islamic State by the Sunni Popular Mobilisation Unit (PMU) of Ummaya Al Jabbara, he published a photograph of all nine of the antiquities that had been recovered.

Correction: Sunni Popular Mobilisation Unit raided Islamic State in Iraq, found Babylonian-era antiquities

Yesterday, I relayed Al Sumaria TV news that a Popular Mobilisation Unit (PMU) in Iraq had raided the Islamic State and recovered Babylonian-era antiquities.

Sunni Popular Mobilisation Unit raided Islamic State in Iraq, found Babylonian-era antiquities

Haidar Sumeri (@IraqiSecurity) shared photos of ancient ‘artefacts found by #Iraq’s Hashd (PMUs) in a Da’ish HQ near Al-‘Alam (northeast of Tikrit)’ city, Salahuddin province, which had been published by Al Sumaria TV; I was shown by @CTstudies.

destruction of tombs in Yemen by Ansar al-Sharia

In the last post on the destruction of a supposedly “polytheistic” shrine in Hadhramaut, Yemen, by Ansar al-Sharia (which I was sent by @oivej), I noted a video of the ‘targeting and clearing of sites where Houthi rebels were stationed’. I’ve updated the last post with another two images of that act of destruction. Here, I’ve clipped some frames from the video of the “targeting” and “clearing” of Houthi rebel sites in Yemen [استهداف وتطهير مواقع يتمركز فيها الحوثيين ولاية تع].

destruction of a ‘polytheistic’ shrine in Hadhramaut, Yemen, by Ansar al-Sharia, by 30th January 2016

Although he continues to refuse my pleas to blog or otherwise publicly record these finds, @oivej has shared three [and I’ve added another two] images of destruction, of [a] domes of [a] supposedly “polytheistic” shrines in Hadhramaut (Hadhramout, Hadramawt, Hadramout or Ḥaḍramūt (حضرموت‎)) in Yemen, apparently by Ansar al-Sharia(?), by the end of January 2016. But this really is beyond the limits of Google Translate.

I should also note, again, that I am working full-time on trafficking. I did not have the time or the capacity to cover the destruction in Syria and Iraq as well. I certainly do not have the time or the capacity to cover the destruction in Yemen on top of that (or indeed instead).

A grand challenge for archaeology (and criminology): systematic review of trafficking evidence

Doug Rocks-Macqueen is (or has been) running a #blogarch blogging carnival on the grand challenges for (your) archaeology. This may or may not have been the deadline that I thought I had for the 31st of January (as it was technically for the 1st of February). Happily for everyone, this isn’t going to be one of my tl;dr posts.