Arrival at the University of Kufa

(The internet at my hotel in Nejef had an uncanny knack of dropping just when I wanted to use Blogger. So I've been writing offline and will catch up with myself over the coming day or so in Baghdad. )

Tuesday 2 April 2013

Coming into land at Nejef at first light this morning, the flat, flat landscape below looks strangely reminiscent of the fenlands I've just left: bright green strips of field separated by narrow watercourses glinting in the early sun. It's only once we get really low that the riverside trees resolve themselves into date-palms not willows. And then there's the fact that it's a balmy 20º C here already, not yesterday's subzero howling winds.

Hurrah for tiny Nejef airport's efficient immigration service (and hurrah for the kind man behind the visa desk at the Iraqi Embassy in London last Thursday). Hurrah too for Turkish airlines' delicious food but most of all hurrah for the besuited welcome party who met me at the baggage carousel at 6am. My host for the next few days is avuncular mathematician Dr Mansoor Habeeb (below), whom I met in Kerbala last October, most of whose family now live in snowy Bradford.

Managed a half-hour semi-doze before breakfast and the arrival of my new hijab consultant and translator, the delightful Dr Siham Al-Qawwaz. Magenta leopard-print is so last season but my new Accessorise butterflies pattern got vetoed too, and I was politely but firmly put into an elegant grey-and-pink check, which happens to match my suit absolutely perfectly. Siham herself (whom I haven't photographed yet) is in a black jilbab (floor-length gown) with seriously chic crystal trim. She's a comparative linguist, working on puns and figurative imagery in both Arabic and English, wanting to start publishing in international journals. Not my field, sadly, but maybe someone reading this can give her some practical advice?

The pretext for this visit, as for the last, is a conference, this time on Quality Assurance and Accreditation in Iraqi higher education. 600-odd attendees, including two jolly expats now teaching in Dublin and California respectively. Opening session was the usual mix of worthies' speeches, powercuts and techno-shambles, plus the U.Kufa choir who launched energetically into the national anthem and the university song. A plethora of glitzy jilbabs plus suave conductor and OTT portable keyboard (just visible to the right), quite overwhelming!

Dr Mansoor did a fabulous job of translating my talk sentence by sentence, and then (mostly) fending off the crowd of people wanting to talk one-to-one. Instead I was ushered in to the office of Dr Ebtisam Almadany, the Dean of Education, where we discussed the problems of supporting women into senior management roles in higher education here in Iraq (she is one of three female Deans at U.Kufa). With us too was Dr Ebtisam Alkhammary, head of IT, and the charming Dr Hassan Ali (but everyone's charming here!), head of the postgraduate office, also attached to the Dublin Institute of Technology and a fluent English-speaker, who is championing their cause. Again, this is too much for me on my own, but maybe someone reading this might like to help mentor or support in some other way?

We were then joined by (all-male) team of Kufa archaeologists, whose department I'll visit and talk to tomorrow morning, once I've toured Dr Mansoor's maths department and Dr Ebtisam's computer laboratory. Here you see Mr Ahmed Al-Imarah, head of QA (far left), me and the two Dr Ebtisams, silver-haired Dr Mansoor, and various archaeologists (who didn't have cards and whose names unfortunately came and went before I had a chance to write them down.) Dr Ali had slipped away by then.

After the obligatory plaque-presentation ceremony and a slap-up lunch at a fancy restaurant—delicious rice with dill and broad beans and fantastic baked aubergine; no-one minded that I didn't touch the lamb shank—finally a chance to rest for a bit back at the hotel. I've worked out how to remove my hijab without taking the pins out, so that I can preserve Siham's handiwork and not look a shambles when we go to Nejef city centre this evening!

At Imam Ali's shrine

In lieu of a proper post—coming soon—here is me last night at Imam Ali's shrine in Nejef, with my new friends Dr Ebtisam (manager of the IT centre at U.Kufa) to the left and Dr Siham (linguistics lecturer) to the right. The photo was taken by Dr Ali, archaeologist and civil engineer, who gave me a fascinating tour of the shrine.

So yes, I am really here, and really having an amazing time. Proper posts will follow soon!

Ten Years On at Chatham House: from Collis to Hollis

While I'm whiling away the hours until my connection to Nejef, I thought I'd make the most of Istanbul airport's cheapo wifi—€1 flat rate!—and mains power to write a quick report of a brilliant but sobering conference organised by BISI's near neighbour Chatham House held on 19 March, called Iraq: Ten Years On.

There are copious videos, audio recordings and transcripts on the Chatham House website so I'll limit myself to reviewing a few personal highlights. The first, most obviously, is that CH kindly gave BISI co-sponsor status in exchange for some advice on the programme. Our logo was bottom centre on all the big screens, much to our administrator Joan MacIver's delight.

Simon Collis, HM Ambassador to Iraq (and formerly to Syria) gave an excellent opening keynote, reminding us that the decade's retrospective should not be about hand-wringing or reliving old grudges against the UK/US politicians then in power: Iraq has moved on and so should we.

Indeed, common threads running through the day were optimism about Iraq's basic economic indicators and potential for future growth, intertwined with frustration at political intransigence, corruption and the endemic victimhood that fuels continued sectarianism. This last idea from the excellent Fanar Haddad in the best panel of day, on Iraq's political systems, chaired by recent BISI grantee Nussaibah Younis. Zaid Al-Ali on the Iraqi constitution and Haydar al-Khoei on Shia religious authority (confirming my positive impressions in Kerbala last October) were also very impressive.

The final panel of the day featured the incomparable Rosemary Hollis (far left), reflecting on the extent to which the Iraq war ten years ago should inform western government's responses to the current Syria crisis. Hollis also gave an impressively robust response to another panellist, Jeff Macris (far right—how apposite), who characterised the Gulf region as "endemically anarchic". Much to the audience's surprise, he blamed the region's current problems on the UK's withdrawal from the Trucial States in 1971, hinted that democracy was not a good fit for "the world's oldest societies" (as if they were still all Early Bronze Age city states) and urged the necessity of a (western) superpower to maintain order. Sadly I had to leave before the end of the question session but I sensed that Macris's neo-neoconservatism was not the majority view, thank goodness. CH's Jane Kinninmont (centre left) was chairing with an admirably tactful neutrality.

Last but not least, heartfelt thanks to Claire Spencer, head of CH's Middle East and North Africa Programme, and all her staff for putting on such a thought-provoking day and for making BISI a part of it.

Nimrud and Nimrud

(I'm reading China Miéville's The City and the City at the moment; can you tell?)

So, a post about two intertwined Nimruds, the ancient Assyrian city of the early first millennium BC and the modern archaeological site in northern Iraq, and about a couple of imminent BISI-sponsored events concerning the two.

(Photos are from my trip to Iraq in March 2001, and show the Tigris river at nearby Assur on a rainy day; and the Nimrud ziggurat being climbed by a particularly vigorous group of assorted Assyriologists. I stayed at the bottom.)

Northern Iraq in the 1950s

First up, at 6pm on Thursday 28 February the redoubtable Dr Joan Oates, FBA will be recalling dig life at and around Nimrud in the 1950s with, amongst others, Sir Max Mallowan (at that time Director of the British School of Archaeology, as was) and his wife Agatha Christie.

The lecture is called "An Archaeologist's View of Northern Iraq in the 1950s" and will be held at The British Academy in central London. Free places can be reserved on the BISI website. Be warned: if you don't book ahead, you may not be able to get in, as there are a limited number of seats available. Jolly reception afterwards too!

Making Archaeological Knowledge, from Mound to Museum

Second, on Saturday 27 April my new AHRC-funded research project on Nimrud will be hosting a BISI study day at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. "Nimrud, from Mound to Museum: Making Knowledge from Archaeological Objects" will seek some answers to the questions, How do archaeological artefacts find their way into gallery cases and museum websites? How do objects found in the ground get transformed into specimens for scientific and historical study? We'll be bringing together a range of academic experts who have been involved in this process, to give their personal stories of making knowledge from objects excavated from the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud.

Speakers confirmed so far include Joan Oates on excavating Nimrud, back in the day; Dr Julian Reade (University of Copenhagen) on re-interpreting old excavations; British Museum conservators Denise Ling and Kathleen Swales on how artefacts from the site are managed in the museum; and Dr Paul Collins of the Ashmolean on how objects are displayed and interpreted for the public.

There's a small charge for this event, to cover catering costs: £5 for BISI members; £10 for the rest of the world. Bookings open any day now on the BISI website.

Embassy meeting: old friends, new collaborations

On Wednesday I ventured into the freezing fog for a visit to the Iraqi Embassy in London, to discuss co-operation with a group of official visitors from Baghdad. The meeting had been arranged by the Embassy rather hastily last week, and we weren't quite sure what to expect, or what would be expected of us. But miraculously I had the day free, and Lauren was also able to persuade Edward Chaplin and John Curtis to attend, so at least I knew we'd got a crack team assembled who could deal with whatever came our way.

Edward and I emerged from the tube at South Ken into glorious icy sunshine, which picked out the slate blue stripes of the Natural History Museum to gorgeous effect. After the zero-visibility white-out train journey from Cambridge this was an auspicious start to the morning, and my confidence grew further when I realised that we would be perfectly on time, despite the inevitable weather-induced travel delays (and the potential effect of the helicopter crash that morning).

Even better, the Baghdad delegation turned out to be led by the delightful and indomitable Dr Saad Eskander, Director of the Iraq National Library and Archive (INLA) and a long-standing friend to BISI. I had seen his name on the delegates list, of course, but it soon became clear that he was the driving force behind our meeting (as behind so many good ventures). He is now also attached to the Prime Minister's Office, which gives him a great deal of authority and scope for initiative.

l-r: Lauren, Dr Saad, Edward, Dr Ibtisad, me, Mr Mohammed, John, and Chargé d'Affaires Dr Muhieddin. Note the chic gold sofas. No Ferrero Rocher this time though, just tea and very nice biscuits which we were too polite to eat.

Accompanying him were Mr Mohammed Jabber of the Ministry of Justice and Dr Ibtisam Ali of the General Secretariat for the Council of Ministers. I had not met her before but she had clearly done her homework on us and, we discovered, had already been working to help BISI-sponsored Ur Region Archaeology Project (URAP) get their excavation permit to start digging next month. So naturally I was predisposed to like her too, and indeed she turned out to be highly engaged and helpful. As far as I can tell, she and Saad seem to have roles rather like ministerial special advisors, which enables them to subvert the often slow and obstructive civil service bureaucracy.

As the public relations officer made the formal introductions—Miss Lauren Mulvee, one of BISI's administrators; Mr Edward Chaplin, BISI Council Member and former ambassador to Iraq; Dr John Curtis, President of BISI and former Keeper of Middle East collections at the British Museum—it was very disconcerting to hear, "And Dr Eleanor, of course, who needs no introduction at all!" Apparently I am particularly famous for donning an abaya to go to Kerbala last autumn, as well as for my Babylonian school activities in the Iraqi Cultural Centre!

I had prepared a short briefing on BISI's work, highlighting current and planned activities in Iraq that we (have) sponsor(ed)—URAP; Sound of Iraq, which has trained sound technicians for INLA to create a national sound archive, the Al-Kafeel Holy Shrines museum project, etc.—but I'm not sure I told them anything they didn't know already. Saad and Ibtisad were particularly keen to know if there was anything in particular they could help us with in Baghdad. As it happens, there are a few new initiatives we're trying to get off the ground at the moment, so I could give some very concrete responses. (I won't say more here just yet... you'll have to wait and see!) I'm also hoping to be back in Iraq for a week or so in early April, so there will also be good opportunities to follow up these discussions in Baghdad.

Saad's current projects are many, various, and impressive. Apart from Sound of Iraq, he has initiated an Iraqi national film archive; plans to open European-language sections of INLA; is systematically acquiring originals or copies of Iraq-related archives from other countries, especially the UK and US; has got government funding for a permanent archive and exhibition commemorating the atrocities of the dictatorship, so that victims' voices can be heard as well as the victimisers'; and is writing a book on the history of censorship in Iraq. All that and he's coming back to London in September to speak at our Gertrude Bell conference.

So now I need to get a move on and finalise my April travel arrangements. The pretext is another conference—this time on quality assurance in higher education, oh the excitement!—but it will be in beautiful Najaf and this time—out of term-time—I'll be able to stay on for a little longer than my last visit.

New volume of Iraq!

More happy news! Jon Taylor, co-editor (with Michael Seymour) of BISI's journal Iraq, tells me that Volume 74 (2012) is now being shipped from the printers. Congratulations, Jon and Michael, on your first joint volume!

The bumper table of contents is as follows:

Obituaries:

Prof. W.G. Lambert, Dr. Anthony Green

Mark Altaweel, Anke Marsh, Simone Mühl, Olivier Nieuwenheyse, Karen Radner, Kamal Rasheed and Saber Ahmed Saber:

New Investigations in the Environment, History, and Archaeology of the Iraqi Hilly Flanks: Shahrizor Survey Project 2009–2011

Carrie Hritz, Jennifer Pournelle and Jennifer Smith:

Revisiting the Sealands: Report of Preliminary Ground Reconnaissance in the Hammar District, Dhi Qar and Basra Governorates, Iraq

Mary Shepperson:

The Rays of Šamaš: Light in Mesopotamian Architecture and Legal Practice

Elizabeth C. Stone:

Mashkan-shapir Redux

Jack Cheng:

The Horizontal Forearm Harp: Assyria’s National Instrument

J. H. Crouwel:

Metal Wheel Tyres from the Ancient Near East and Central Asia

Mikko Luukko:

On Standardisation and Variation in the Introductory Formulae of Neo-Assyrian Letters

Radosław Tarasewicz:

New Data on the Sidru-Offering in Neo-Babylonian Sippar

Jon Taylor:

Cuneiform Tablets from the Wiseman Collection

Yoram Cohen:

“Where is Bazi? Where is Zizi?” The List of Early Rulers in the Ballad from Emar and Ugarit, and the Mari Rulers in the Sumerian King List and Other Sources

M. Sulaiman and S. Dalley:

Seven Naptanum-Texts from the Reign of Rim-Sin I of Larsa

Unfortunately BISI does not yet have an online publication deal for Iraq (though we're working on it! news soon, I hope). Fortunately, though, it's now easier than ever to join BISI online and to get a copy of the journal that way.

Back issues are available online through JSTOR (with a five year moving wall).

If you're interested in submitting an article to be considered for publication in Iraq, please read the instructions for authors on how to prepare your manuscript and how the peer-review process works. If your work is (part-)funded by a UK research council, rest assured that Iraq is committed to complying with Research Councils UK's new Policy on Open Access to Research Outputs--again, more news soon.

From Kurdistan to Cambridge

In Kurdistan for BISI last May, I met local archaeologist Saber Ahmed Saber, who was helping colleagues from UCL choose a new site or two for excavation. Here he is with Rob Carter of UCL Qatar, identifying potsherds near a site called Gurga Chiya.

We encouraged him to apply for a BISI Visiting Scholarship to the UK, and I'm delighted to report that he arrived at Heathrow just over a week ago. Saber will be spending most of his two-month stay working with Mark Altaweel at UCL, writing up his excavations in the Sulaimaniyah region of southern Kurdistan.

But the first weekend after his arrival happened to be the date of this year's BANEA conference, which also happened to be here in Cambridge. So Mark and Lamia brought him to Friday's session: here we all are on the river after lunch (l-r: me, Mark, Harriet Crawford, Saber, Lamia Al-Gailani).

It was a delight to welcome him here, and I hope he and Mark have a very productive few months together. It's also my pleasure to thank everyone who's made the visit happen: BISI people Lauren Mulvee and Joan MacIver; Lamia Al-Gailani, Edward Chaplin, and Harriet Crawford; Barbara Porter and her staff at ACOR who hosted Saber in Amman while waiting for his visa; the staff of the British Embassies in Baghdad and Amman; Kate Carter, Saber's host in London; all at UCL; Augusta MacMahon and Nicholas Postgate at BANEA Cambridge; and, just as importantly, Kamal Rashid of the Sulaimaniyah Antiquities Directorate for granting Saber leave to take up the fellowship.

The next application deadline for BISI Visiting Scholarships is on 1 February: details are on the super-gorgeous new BISI website. If you know of an Iraqi cultural heritage professional or academic who would benefit from a period of collaborative research leave in the UK, with the option of a further month in Germany funded by the Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft, do encourage them to apply.