Broken promises for the Ma'dan

What better way to end a leisurely weekend filled with margaritas, knitting, baking and a steak dinner than with archaeology news! In brief, the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford has reopened its doors after 10 years of closure and a 15 million pound upgrade. This is great news for us Near East archaeologists since the Ashmolean houses a world-renowned collection of objects from Mesopotamia and Egypt. Of course, the role of the museum in Orientalist tendencies of the 19th and early 20th centuries will be left for another day/post (or class--come on Duke!).


This report from 60 minutes (see below and here) is a nice update on what is happening with the Ma'dan or Marsh Arabs in southern Iraq. For those not in the know, for thousands of years the southern region of what is now Iraq was a huge wetland with a unique habitat compared to the rest of the region. In the early 1990s, Hussein basically drained these marshes, kicked all the people out, and flattened their homes. Now, thankfully there is a resurgence of the marshes and the people who once lived there.


This video, though a bit on the cheesy side (what reporters aren't these days?), offers a nice glimpse into the world of the Marsh Arabs. However, the "elephant in the room" is the reason why Saddam drained the marshes in the first place. The video demonizes him of course, but it was Bush Sr. and the military that encouraged the rising up of the Marsh Arabs and other Shi'ite groups to help fight the first Gulf War on the side of the Americans. When we pulled out without a shred of protection left for these groups, Saddam brought the hammer down hard as punishment. Seriously, what did we expect would happen? The same story goes for the Kurds in the north. It is appalling our broken promises led to the destruction of so many lives.


Watch CBS News Videos Online