纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 012乌尔军标(7)

"The plundering of Baghdad has continued for a third day to the consternation of international aid agencies ..." (BBC news report)

" ... at the National Museum in Baghdad we were shown where Sumarian artefacts were ripped down when it was looted just after the war, but experts say an even greater cultural crime is now being committed. This official calls it a ?rape of the history of mankind'." (BBC news report)

But for Iraqis in particular, these objects have a very special place. Here's Lamia Al-Ghailani again:

"For the Iraqis, we think of it as part of the oldest civilisation - which is in our country, and we are descendants of it. We identify quite a lot of the objects from the Sumerian period that have survived until now .... so ancient history is really the unifying piece of Iraq today."

So Mesopotamia's past is a key part of Iraq's future. Archaeology and politics are set to remain closely connected as, tragically, are cities and warfare.

I began this programme by suggesting that all urban societies might ultimately depend on violence to defend their wealth, but in the next programme, I'll be taking a more hopeful view. I'll be in the Indus Valley, in modern Pakistan and India, looking at a civilisation whose cities were defined, not by memorials, kings and victories but, apparently, by their peaceful plumbing!