British Museum to train Iraqi archaeologists

Iraqi archaeologists to be trained in reconstruction of heritage sites under scheme funded by 3 million government grantThe British Museum is to set up a training scheme for Iraqi archaeologists to tackle the aftermath of destruction wrought by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Art Newspaper has reported. 

A museum spokeswoman said the program, which has been awarded a 3 million-pound grant from the U.K. government, would help Iraq to document the damage and start the process of reconstruction and preservation. 

Archaeologists with extensive field experience in Iraq will lead the program, which will run for six months. They will train Iraqis in techniques including 3-D scanning, emergency retrieval techniques, forensic collection and documentation techniques, together with conservation and restoration techniques, the British Museum said in a statement. 

The museum's plan is to recruit two international archaeologists to head a training project. Small groups of Iraqi archaeologists will come to London for a three-month course and then return to their home country, where they will receive three further months of training from the two international specialists. The courses in Iraq will take place in the more secure regions in the north and Basra, in the south. Altogether 50 Iraqis will be trained to work on damaged sites over a five-year period. 

ISIL extremists caused extensive damage in Iraq this year at Nineveh, Nimrud and Hatra?and are now continuing to destroy heritage sites in Syria, particularly at Palmyra.

Jonathan Tubb, the keeper of the department of the Middle East at the British Museum, says there has been a feeling of impotence in the face of ISIL atrocities at archaeological...