[ H O M E ]

Ancient history versus the 21st century

[ posted by the philosopher ]
Alas, the birthplace of civilization continues to produce real-life horror stories. Two days ago, the news media reported that German-born archaeologist Susanne Osthoff had been kidnapped by Iraqi insurgents as a hostage to use against the German government. But aside from the report on Science magazine's website, the American news stories -- which have been more concerned with the roughly simultaneous abduction of Virginian peace activist Tom Fox -- have mostly neglected to detail Osthoff's years of heroic work in Iraq, where she helped excavate the ancient Babylonian city of Isin almost 20 years ago.

More recently, Osthoff has risked life and limb to document the wholesale looting of archaeological treasures after the U.S.-led overthrow of Saddam Hussein's government. Along the way, she worked to personally bring mass quantities of food and medicine to innocent Iraqi civilians in need. (A Mother Jones magazine feature from 2003 shows Osthoff in the field, and the Iraq War & Archaeology website archives much related material.) Whatever anyone thinks of the war in Iraq, it's pretty clear that the abduction of a noble, caring and courageous earthling like Osthoff, who's out there trying to save not only ancient civilization's legacy, but living human beings as well, should be an outrage to us all.

01 December 2005 at 2:47 PM | permalink | 1 comments

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1 Comments:

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