Iraq Cultural Heritage Conservation Initiative

The Iraq Cultural Heritage Conservation Initiative addressed archaeological and architectural sites in Iraq, aiming to identify and address priorities for conservation and management; develop long-term tools and professional capacities to support the Iraq State Board of Antiquities and Heritage in the stewardship of these sites; and to support conservation and management of sites. This was a partnership of Getty, the World Monuments Fund, and the Iraq State Board of Antiquities and Heritage.

• One-week program of instruction in the use of geographic information systems (GIS) was held for six SBAH personnel in September 2004 in Jordan, with support from UNESCO
• Month-long training program in Jordan in November and December 2004 for sixteen SBAH staff, featuring modules on rapid site and building description and assessment, documentation and recording, and database and GIS applications
• One-week GPS course for eight SBAH personnel at ACOR in April 2005 to reinforce and extend GPS training from the November-December 2004 course
• One-week course in April 2005 for three SBAH personnel from Babylon, including the site director, in rapid site recording and assessment as part of a longer training program hosted and organized by the British Museum
• The attendance of one SBAH participant at the monthlong ARIS (Architectural Records, Inventories and Information Systems For Conservation) training course hosted by ICCROM in Rome in April 2005
• Ten-day metric survey course in June 2005 in Jordan for eight SBAH personnel, reinforcing and extending the metric survey training of the November-December 2004 course.
• Month-long training program for twenty SBAH personnel and one Iraq State Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities representative in August and September 2005 in Jordan, focused on reinforcement of rapid site assessment and recording methods, international conservation conventions and charters, international conservation organizations, and site management planning.
• Fourteen-week training course at the State University of New York at Stony Brook between January 20 and May 20, 2006, for two SBAH personnel, dealing with the use of satellite imagery and GIS to identify threats and disturbances to archaeological sites
• Web-based national geospatial inventory system for the SBAH—the Middle Eastern Geodatabase for Antiquities (MEGA)-Iraq—to be used as a planning and decision-making tool for the legal protection of sites, site management, infrastructure and development control, World Heritage requirements, and development of national and regional research strategies. Due to complications, the system was instead first deployed nationwide in Jordan in December 2010.
• In 2009 the WMF launched the Future of Babylon project—a collaboration with the SBAH with funding through the U.S. Department of State—to develop a site management and conservation plan for the archaeological site of Babylon

Known as the Cradle of Civilization, Iraq contains more than ten thousand recorded archaeological sites and monuments. In addition, many thousands of sites have not been excavated. Following the 1991 Persian Gulf War, widespread looting decimated hundreds of these sites. Postwar sanctions prohibited Iraq from receiving international assistance, leaving the country's cultural patrimony in the hands of a severely depleted antiquities staff hampered by inadequate expertise and funding.

Annenberg Foundation: funding general initiative activities (2006)

J.M. Kaplan Fund: funding general initiative activities (2004–2007)

U.S. National Endowment for the Humanities: funding database development (2004–2005)

Iraq State Board of Antiquities and Heritage

World Monuments Fund