IW&A Blog: Garen & Carleton

October 23, 2006

Garen & Carleton

An article in the New York Daily News updates us on Micah Garen and Marie-Hélène Carleton. Micah, former hostage in Iraq in 2004, and his fiancée Marie-Hélène—when's the wedding, guys?—have been busy with promoting and talking about their book American Hostage and the plight of the archaeological heritage of Iraq. As a consequence, finishing the documentary on the looting of sites in southern Iraq (during the shooting of which Micah was taken hostage in the first place!) is taking longer than originally planned. "The last two years also have been a bittersweet time for the couple, with the violence in Iraq showing no signs of abating. 'We have no plans to go back,' Garen said. 'The country is far too dangerous for us to go back and do the kind of work we were doing. Maybe at some point in the very distant future.' By spring, the couple hopes to complete their feature-length film for theatrical release. 'It's been put off for a year because of all the work around the book and the book tour,' Garen said. 'We have about 300 hours of footage that we're working through,' Carleton said. When completed, the couple's film may become the only record of some the region's priceless historical artifacts."

By the way, a month ago, the Adnkronos International agency released an article that seems to confirm Micah's version of events of what happened 11 days before he got kidnapped. At the time, he made public that Italian soldiers in Nasiriyyah had without justification shot at an ambulance, killing people in it (see Yahoo! News). This was vehemently denied by the Italian commander at the time.

References
• "Italian military deny having turned back US reporter kidnapped in Iraq," in Yahoo! News, online, August 16, 2004
• "Italy: 3 Soldiers Charged With Iraq Ambulance Shooting," in Adnkronos International (Italy), online, September 14, 2006
• P.H.B. Shin, "Heady days for Iraq captive," in Daily News (New York), October 22, 2006

# posted by Francis Deblauwe @ 9:51 PM

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Site links

A few web links

• Lost Treasures from Iraq (Oriental Institute, University of Chicago)
• Iraqcrisis (Oriental Institute, University of Chicago)
• The Threat to World Heritage in Iraq (Oxford University)
• Informed Comment (Dr. Juan Cole, University of Michigan)
• The Guardian, Iraq section
• The New York Times, Iraq War section
• The New Yorker, From the Archive: The War in Iraq
• Iraqi Press Monitor(Institute for War & Peace Reporting)

IW&A Documents series

1 - A. Riedlmayer, Yes, the Oil Ministry Was Guarded!, May 7, 2003, updated May 17, 2003
2 - D. George, Iraq Museum Policy for Access to the Collection for Study, December 8, 2004
3 - J.M. Russell, Notes from Iraq session at AIA meeting in Boston, 1/8/05, January 10, 2005
4 - F. Deblauwe, Attending RAI 51. Observations on the 51e Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale in Chicago, July 17-23, 2005, August 5, 2005, last updated September 16, 2005
5 - R. Teijgeler, "So Yesterday Was the Burning of Books" — Wartime in Iraq. ..., October 5, 2005
6 - F. Deblauwe, Note on John Russell's Lecture 'Recovering Iraq's Past' in St. Louis on November 5, 2005, November 16, 2005
7 - An Appeal for the Release of Susanne Osthoff, December 4, 2005, updated December 8, 2005
8 - R. Parapetti, Partial Reopening of the Iraq Museum, Work in Progress, March 27, 2006
9 - F. Deblauwe, The State of Preservation of the Neo-Assyrian Reliefs at Khinnis/Bavian, May 14, 2006
10 - F. Deblauwe, Donny George's Exile and the State of the SBAH, November 11, 2006

Running tally of sites looted and damaged in the course of the Iraq War

(very preliminary and grossly incomplete list based on the articles listed on this web site; modern name followed by possible variants between square brackets and, if known, by ancient name(s) between parentheses; initial "el-" does not count for alphabeticizing; look up names with and without an initial "Tell") ($ = looted; # = damaged)

Abbas el-Kurdi $
Abu Shahrain (Eridu) #
Abu Skehr $
Adr el-Sa'id $
'Ana #
Babil (Babylon, Babel) $#
→ Bavian - see Khinnis
Birs Nimrud (Borsippa) $
Bismayyah (Adab) $
→ Chokha - see Tell Jokha
Dahaileh $
Dair Mar Elia [St. Elijah's Monastery] #
Dhahir [el-Dhaara?] (Dubrum) $
Drehem (Puzrish-Dagan) $
Fara (Shuruppak) $
Farwa $
el-Hadr (Hatra) $#
Ishan Bakhriyyat (Isin) $
Khinnis [Khines, Khuns, Bavian] (Khunusa) #
Kirkuk [Kerkük] (Arrapha) #
Kuyunjik [Koyunjuk] (Nineveh, Ninua) $
el-Meda'in [Madaen, Salman Pak, Sulman Pak] (Ctesiphon, Tisfun) $
el-Medinah [Tell el-Meda'in] (Bad-Tibira) $
Nimrud (Kalkhu, Calah) $
Nuffar (Nippur) $
el-Qusair $
→ Salman Pak - see el-Meda'in
Samarra (Souma, Sumere, Sumra, Surra Man Ra'a) #
→ St. Elijah's Monastery - see Dair Mar Elia
Tal Afar [Telafar] #
Tell Abu Antik [Abu Antiq] $
Tell Abu Duwari (Mashkan-Shapir) $
Tell Ibzeikh (Zabalam) $
Tell Jokha [Chokha] (Umma) $
Tell el-Lahm [Tal Laham, al-Lham] (Kisiga) $
Tell el-Muqayyar (Ur) $
Tell el-Namil [Tell Naml/Neml, el-Namel] $ *
Tell Senkereh (Larsa) $
Tell Shmid [Shmet] $
Tell Sifr (Kutalla) $
Tell el-Wilayah (Larak) $
Telloh (Girsu) $
Umm el-Aqarib [Um el-Ajareb, Um Alkarab] $
Umm el-Hafriyyat $
Umm el-Hashin $
Warka (Uruk) $
el-Yusufiyyah #

• ? (subsite of Kish excavated by a Japanese team; possibly Akkad) $

• Unidentified sites in the Diyala province $

• Early historic village site near Tell el-Ubaid $

• Smaller sites a few km from Warka (Uruk) $

• Fisk June 3, 2003 also mentions "Tukulti, Tel el-Zabul, ... Tel el-Jbeit, Tel el-Dihab and Kulal-Jabr" but I can't identify or place them properly

• Note: good maps for sites in southern, northwestern and northeastern Iraq can be found at the The threat to world heritage in Iraq site

Please join in these e-mail writing / petition actions:

1) Handelsverbot für Hehlerware aus Raubgrabungen (Prohibition of trade in looted artifacts)
2) Statement read at the Workshop 'The Threat to Iraq’s Cultural Heritage – Current Status and Future Prospects' (July 23, 2005)(at the occasion of the 51st RAI in Chicago)

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