Iraq: Foreign excavation missions work in details

INA - BAGHDAD 

Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Antiquities revealed the work details of foreign excavation missions, while confirming its documentation with aerial and ground photography.

"The work of the excavation missions is carried out by two options; search and excavation; in areas that are historically expected to include traces of important ancient cities and civilizations," said the ministry’s spokesman, Ahmed Al-Alaywi, to the Iraqi News Agency -  INA.

He explained, "The foreign excavation teams investigate the areas, then explore and prepare all the requirements in order to enter the second phase, which is the excavation stage as it goes through many stages after specifying and defining the place covered, then preparing the teams to start the process."
"Excavations are applied with specialized, well-studied processes that enable archaeologists to extract and memorize the traces of previous civilizations, as they work to discover all the remains of those civilizations in terms of artifacts, blogs, and assets that they find. Then, they are handed over to the General Authority for Antiquities and Heritage with official fundamental records," he noted. 

Al-Alaywi highlighted, saying "All investigation and excavation operations are documented via special ground and aerial photography, as it is recorded and officially documented."

He stated, "Specialized foreign missions are shared by a specialized Iraqi team, in addition to a group of trainees who attend the work of these teams. Therefore, there is a group of gains achieved by the work of foreign missions," adding, "The work of the foreign missions focuses on exploring the Iraqi land, knowing the archaeological sites, and extracting the antiquities in the ground that indicate many details of the absent civilizations," indicating that "all these procedures are serial and organized by these teams under the supervision of the Department of Investigations and Excavations in the General Authority for Antiquities and Heritage."

"The investigation and excavation operations led to the discovery of a large group of artifacts that went to the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Antiquities, then they were added to the Iraqi Museum, and enlisted within the chronology of each era, whether this civilization was Islamic, Assyrian or Sumerian," he stressed, explaining "The presence of foreign missions coming from multiple countries and universities, in addition to the presence of a group of internationally important archaeologists, is in itself a gain for Iraqi culture and for the General Authority for Antiquities and Heritage."