Destruction of Mosul Museum artifacts

The destruction of Mosul Museum artifacts became publicly known on February 26, 2015 when the group known as ISIL released a video showing their destruction.

The Mosul Museum, opened in 1952, is the second largest museum in Iraq, with the first being the National Museum of Iraq. The museum is split into four areas of focus: The Assyrian hall, the Hatrene hall, the Islamic hall, and the Prehistoric hall.

Iraq's present day borders overlap with the historic extent of Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia is considered to be one of the first areas in which urbanization evolved, beginning around the 4th millennia B.C. The "city" became the center of the new social system, resulting in the need of centralized power. Artistically, the land of Iraq holds evidence of the switch from stylized and schematic figures to more realistic representations of the human form. Writing evolved during this time period as well, allowing people to describe divine figures and conceptualize religion. Archaeological efforts uncovered evidence of Mesopotamia as a world contemporary with the Bible, with many stories on cuneiform tablets describing versions of similar biblical texts.

The world's understanding of Iraq and its history comes from the archaeological efforts that have taken place on its land. Because of a lack of visible architectural remains in the area, Mesopotamia, and Iraq in particular, are where the "treasure hunting" of old transformed into the beginnings of the real archaeological research we know today. Archaeologists have been researching in Iraq for over a century and a half, lending us a great amount of time to truly understand the region's impact on those who live there and ultimately, the rest of the world.

In a video shared on February 26, 2015, ISIL entered the Mosul Museum with the purpose of destroying artifacts they deemed "idolatrous". Members of the group can be seen pushing over many statues, while using jackhammers and sledgehammers to damage the faces of others. A spokesperson appears in the beginning of the video, explaining the rationale behind the group's actions. The rationale pertains to the assumption that these objects (statues, figurines, etc.) were once worshiped instead of Allah.

A translation from the video is as follows: "These ruins that are behind me, they are idols and statues that people in the past used to worship instead of Allah. The so-called Assyrians and Akkadians and others looked to gods for war, agriculture and rain to whom they offered sacrifices…The Prophet Mohammed took down idols with his bare hands when he went into Mecca. We were ordered by our prophet to take down idols and destroy them, and the companions of the prophet did this after this time, when they conquered countries."

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Wikipedia