L’Irak archéologique sinistrée

Sans vraie surprise, on apprendra que l’Irak est un pays absolument sinistré du point de vue de ses vestiges et sites archéologiques. Il est remarquable (?) qu’il s’agit, dans l’histoire de l’archéologie moderne, pour la première fois, d’un pays entier qui est considéré comme étant en danger.

Ci-après, quelques détails donné par le réseau interne européen:

« A Roman aqueduct in Spain, New York City's hotly debated “lollipop building” and the entire country of Iraq are among the World Monuments Fund's list of 100 most endangered sites. “This is the first time we have listed a country as endangered, and I think that we can all understand that every site in Iraq that is significant in terms of cultural heritage is at risk today,” Bonnie Burnham, president of the World Monuments Fund, said Tuesday. She said thousands of important sites in Iraq, known as the cradle of civilization, are at risk from war, looting and neglect. Feisal Amin al-Istrabadi, Iraq's deputy U.N. ambassador, said: “It is not only the heritage of Iraq that is at stake here .... It is in fact world heritage.”

» The organization's 2006 World Monuments Watch List includes 100 sites in 55 countries. The biennial watch list was begun in 1995 by the fund, a New York-based nonprofit organization dedicated to historic preservation. By focusing attention on the sites, the fund seeks to raise money for their protection and to spur local governments to protect their cultural heritage. While this year's list includes antiquities such as the Segovia Aqueduct, a miracle of Roman engineering, and the ninth-century Haji Piyada Mosque in Afghanistan, there also are nine 20th century sites. They include Oscar Niemeyer's International Fairground in Tripoli and Richard Neutra's Cyclorama Center in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, which is facing demolition in 2007. »

Mis en ligne le 22 juin 2005 à 18H20