221 pages

English

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221 pages

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Extrait

Description

This important account investigates the ruin of the Mesopotamian marsheshistorically one of the world's most important wetland environmentsalong with the decimation of an area inhabited, since the time of the Sumerians, by thousands of people living on artificial islands of mud and reeds and depending on sustainable fishing and farming. Located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in southern Iraq, the history of this important ecological and unique cultural jewel, which was destroyed under Saddam Hussein s reign through a series of constructed dams and water diversions designed to eradicate the remaining marsh dwellers, is analyzed at length. Interspersed with ancient Mesopotamian inscriptions and Old Testament quotations, this is a sobering account of the deliberate destruction of an environment for the purpose of ethnic cleansing."Features"

Presents over 30 rare, never before published photographs from the 1934 anthropology expedition to the marshlands

Includes essays by photographer Nik Wheeler, human rights advocate Baroness Emma Nicholson, author Rasheed Al-Khayoun and ecologist Robert France about the present state of the marshlands

Contains more than 20 photographs of Mesopotamian artifacts from the Harvard collection"

Sujets

Sciences de la nature

Sciences de l'environnement

Science

Ecology

Sciences et techniques

Life Sciences

Informations

Publié par	Libri Publishing Ltd
Date de parution	30 avril 2007
Nombre de lectures	1
EAN13	9781927043028
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0998€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

Our world in the Twenty-first Century holds the promise of being more than an empty, dry, dusty scrap of earth fought over by armies, generals, and politicians. The terrifying vision of neglect and crass ignorance is countered by the pure joy of a wet verdant floodplain, a lush estuary, a dense interweaving of people, home, and land-scape, as illustrated by the wonderful photographs contained in the present book. Yet the future of these places is held in a somewhat delicate and precarious grasp. The tension in our contemporary environment between the forces that may sustain or destroy the very tissue of our living landscape has established a need for constant vigilance. Yet, if we fail to recognize the signals, aided by the lessons from the his-torical precedents outlined inWetlands of Mass Destruction, we will see the slow steady erosion of that which is most precious. “Places and possessions, both material and spiritual are appreciated most when we find ourselves in danger of losing them,” wrote Ansel Adams. The united expertise of planners, ecologists, landscape archi-tects, scientists, economists, ethnographers and hydrologists is crucial where resources for recovery are tenuous and vulnerable. In the end, the activity of restor-ing places such as the marshlands of southern Iraq is humanely credible, with the potential to be beautiful in its outcome, and yet in the end utterly essential.

—Niall Kirkwood, Chair of the Landscape Architecture Department and Director of the Center for Technology and the Environment within the Harvard Design School (which hosted a conference in 2004 on restoring the cultural and ecological landscapes of the Iraqi marshlands), and editor of Manufactured Sites: Rethinking the Post-Industrial Landscape.

The passages ex cerpted and collected in this book are drawn from the cuneiform sources of ancient Mesopotamia, the land "between the rivers”, and from the Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament. All were written well before our era, yet their pathos and passion reveal a r ange of human emotion readily recognizable today. Their laments remind us forcefully that humankind's penchant for destruction has little changed since the author of Job wrote: "Man is prone to trouble as sparks fly upward." The Mesopotamian texts especially reflect direct experience with the flood-plain of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, a fragile landscape as vulnerable to human devastation in antiquity as it has proved to be today. In bringing together these ancient writings with an account of the ecological calamity besetting the marshlands

of modern Iraq, Dr. France evokes the voices of the past to illustrate and explain the present.

—Joseph A. Greene, Assistant Director of the Semitic Museum of Harvard University (which hosted public lectures in 2004 and 2005 on the archeology and ethnography of Iraq), and co-editor ofThe Archeology of Jordan and Beyond: Essays in Honor of James A. Sauer.

As the world wrestles with the threats of desertification, famine, floods, pandemics, water shortages, and pollution, Robert France has given us the opportunity to listen to the voices of past civilizations struggling with similar ecological devastation. These haunting quotes from four thousand years ago leave us to ponder whether today's civilizations have the wisdom and the vision to avoid a world in which we are left searching for a "single reed marsh" in a "desolate wilderness."

—Henry Lee, Director of the Environment and Natural Resources Program within the Belfer Center for Science and International Development at the Harvard Kenney School of Government (which hosted a panel discussion in 2004 on human rights and restoration issues concerning the Iraqi marshlands), and editor ofShaping National Responses to Climate Change: A Post-Rio Guide.

WetlandsofMassDestruction

AncientPresageforContemporaryEcocideinSouthernIraq

Edited by Robert Lawrence France, author of the forthcomingBack to the Garden: Searching for Eden in the Mesopotamian Marshes

Foreword by Edward L. Ochsenschlager, author of Iraq’s Marsh Arabs in the Garden of Eden

Essays by Nik Wheeler, Emma Nicholson and Rasheed Al-Khayoun

Green Frigate Books Sheffield, Vermont

Library of Congress Control Number 2005936018 ISBN: 0-9717468-3-4 ISBN13: 978-0-9717468-3-1

First Edition Printed in Canada

All Rights Reserved Copyright © 2007 by Robert France Foreword, and essays copyright © 2007 by Edward Ochsenschlager, Nik Wheeler, Emma Nicholson and Rasheed Al-Khayhoun. Photographs copyright © by the President and Fellows of Harvard College

Published by: Green Frigate Books P.O. Box 461 Sheffield, Vermont USA 05866-0461 www.greenfrigatebooks.com

France, Robert Lawrence Wetlands of Mass Destruction: Ancient Presage for Contemporary Ecocide in Southern Iraq LCCN: 2005936018 ISBN: 0-9717468-3-4 ISBN13: 978-0-9717468-3-1 1. Mesopotamian Marshes. 2. Sumerian, Babylonian, Assyrian Inscriptions. 3. Biblical Quotations. 4. Wetland Destruction. 5. Genocide and Ecocide. 6. Ecological Restoration.

Typeface for the inscriptions and quotations is Papyrus, which seemed appropriate.

Printing this book on 100% recycled stock has saved: 4 trees (40’ tall and 6-8” diameter); 1,830 gallons of water; 736 kilowatt hours of electricity, 202 pounds of solid waste; 396 pounds of greenhouse gases.

Dedication

To my mother, Marilyn France, who taught me the power of poetry and the essentialness of empathy. To little Mina who found her namesake herein as a Sumerian unit of wealth. To the ancient Mesopotamian scribes and their diligent contemporary epigraphers whose timeless words are contained in these pages. To the more than fifty international journalists killed while try-ing to record the truth during the latest war in Iraq. And to “Nidaba” to whom we owe so much…

Establisherofthestandardversionthereof wasNidaba[Goddessofwritingand literature], shespun,asitwere,aweboutofthosewords,andwritingthemdownonatabletshelaidthemreadytohand.

—HymntoKesh

Contents

Foreword Past-Present Ethno-Archaeological Linkages in Iraq’s Marshlands Edward L. Ochsenschlager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi PrefaceOut of Time’s Abyss: Voices of Portent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 PrologueofYesterday In the Garden of Earthly Delights: Eden Found . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 IntroductiontoToday Wetlands of Mass Destruction: Paradise Lost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

AlbumandEssays PartOne:Water “A Swamp He Made Into Dry Land”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 “What the evil winds had sent hither” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 “Disturbed was the Tigris river” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 “The men…knew not water” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 “The water…has gone bad” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 “I shall weep for you, the pure Euphrates” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 EssayOne: Witness to a Lost Landscape: The Marshes in the Mid-Seventies Nik Wheeler. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 PartTwo:Ecology “The Lord’s Word Kills the Marsh” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 “I shall dig out r eed thickets” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 “The earth’s outcry” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 “Not even a reed marsh was to be seen” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 “The mantles of radiance were lost” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 “In the fields the surf ace had become bad” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 “My tears ran down my cheeks” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

EssayTwo: Human Rights Issues in the Iraqi Marshlands: A Case for Genocide Baroness Emma Nicholson of Winterbourne. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 PartThree:People “A Reed Pipe of Dirges” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 “He plotted evil, to devastate the land, to destroy people” . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 “A day of doom” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 “The dead outnumber the living” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 “Their hands have caught you”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 “The people scattered” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 “Laughter is become lament” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 EssayThree: Experiences and Hopes of the People of the Al-Ahwar Marshes Rasheed Bander Al-Khayoun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 PostscriptforTomorrow The End is Nay: Eden Restored . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 AppendixHarvard University’s Collection of Near Eastern Artifacts and Archive of Early Marsh Arab Photographs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Inscription and Quotation Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Inscription Sources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

Photograph Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

About the Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

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