Time.news – “Mesopotamia is the dream for those studying archeology of the ancient Near East. And the fear of a stay in Iraq vanishes in the face of the possibility of achieving a dream”: a young scholar from the University of Catania, Alice Mendola, who together with the team of archaeologist Nicola Laneri discovered the wall of Hammurabi in Tell Muhammad (Baghdad) sums up in very simple words the sense of a passion and a mission of study and excavation of the roots of humanity, described over the course of OpenLab “The pioneers of culture” promoted by the Federico II Foundation in Palermo at Palazzo Reale.
The archaeological mission that digs at Tell Muhammad is one of the 19 Italian ones present in Iraq and has brought to light a monumental wall almost 6 meters thick and a monumental door built in raw bricks at the time of Hammurabi of Babylon (dating back to the 1792-1750 BC). “When I was a boy – recalls Laneri – I went to Rome and met Paolo Matthiae: from that moment on I fell in love with the Near East. I have excavated in Syria, Turkey, Azerbaijan and now in Mesopotamia. It was difficult to convince the boys to come in Baghdad, but for now – he continues – I found five bold young men who endured the difficulties of the excavations in Baghdad and above all a director who demanded a lot”. In addition to Mendola, the team is made up of Rachele Mammana, Vittorio Azzaro, Giulia La Causa, Vittoria Cardini, Rawa Ali Salman, Mais Fawzi Jihad, Mohammad Muwaffaq Ahmad.
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The OpenLabs in Palermo
The site of Tell Muhammad could contain the key to one of the “mysteries” of Mesopotamian archeology: the location of the capital of the first empire born between two rivers, namely the Akkad of king Sargon (2335-2280 BC) “The continuation of the excavations maybe he will give us an answer,” he said the Italian ambassador in Iraq, Maurizio Greganti. On the subject, Laneri does not say too much and remains cautious.
Iraq, Greganti added, is “thirsty for culture, with very ancient roots and a vast artistic-literary production. The country is trying to recover the supremacy that for centuries had seen Baghdad at the center of Middle Eastern culture”. Archaeology, which by the way is a diplomat’s passion, is “the central pillar of the cultural exchange between Italy and Iraq. Italian archaeologists have been an integral and integrated part of the local communities, present since the 1960s and it is a presence that has never stopped, not even in the most difficult moments of this country. Iraq hosts the largest number of Italian archaeological missions, which deal with all periods of the country’s thousand-year history”.
As for the safety of the archaeological sites, this, the ambassador explained, is no longer threatened, thanks to the Iraqi authorities and the very presence of the archaeological missions. “The role of the archaeologist – he underlined – has changed, and excavations have a decisive impact on the development of the country: our archaeologists, among the best in the world, have always focused on skills and the transfer of skills to local communities. And the Transferred skills facilitate the growth of a productive sector”.
The importance of Italian missions in diplomatic relations between Italy and Iraq also emerged from the words of Laith Majid Hussein, direttore dell’Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage (Sbah), who underlined, among other things, the work that the Italians are carrying out in the reorganization of the archaeological museum in Baghdad, in the implementation of the Sumerian wing. “We are very happy with the collaborations in the field – he added – in the excavations that are taking place. We are very satisfied with the work of the Italian archaeologists”.
“Culture – he explained Patricia Monterosso, who leads the Federico II Foundation – is circulation, dialogue, a bridge: today even more than yesterday with the wars that see culture as the symbols to be destroyed, as is also happening in Ukraine and in other parts of the world. Like yesterday in Palmyra, when we witnessed the death of a living organism of history, which concerns us all. Our small but great contribution is to create elements of reflection for a debate through those who preserve the strong roots of culture or through those, essayists or artists, who propose a new perspective on reality. It is an open field, that of the ‘Pioneers of culture’, which we are launching today with archeology”.
Ancient Mesopotamia is the ‘scenario’ in which the first adventure of the ‘pioneers’ takes place, but, a few days after the capture of Matteo Messina Denaro, whose hiding weighed like a dark unfinished business on the souls of the Sicilians, the thought moves from Baghdad to Palermo, also marked by war for years and still today in the strenuous search for signs of rebirth. “Culture – underlined Monterosso – as we interpret it today in the Federico II Foundation – keeps in mind a concept of Aritostele: beauty coincides with ethics”.
“Beauty – he adds – must be preserved and must be kept high and strong with respect to a negative world, which has marked our past in Sicily and which the forces of order and the investigative bodies remind us of how it can arise and feed on new life. Preserving, for example, this Royal Palace which in the Middle Ages launched an ante litteram message of civilization and dialogue, which can be read in the Palatine Chapel, allows us to create a wall of resilience against that negative world which could return to mark our territory. Here: culture is an antibody against that world“.