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in the first Gulf War, the UN Coalition forces (mostly the US) carpet bombed parts of Iraq that contained a lot of yet-to-be-excavated ancient villages (they lo

in the first Gulf War, the UN Coalition forces (mostly the US) carpet bombed parts of Iraq that contained a lot of yet-to-be-excavated ancient villages (they looked like mounds in the sand by the 1990s). we lost of a bunch of priceless history then, too. i'm not trying to make statements about the equivalences or non-equivalences of various war participants over there, but, there's so much ancient history being destroyed by military operations nowadays. who the hell knows what's being lost in Yemen right now? and there are also ethical questions. i mean, suppose we could pay Blackwater to lead a team of archaeologists to make digital copies of some stuff -- but they had to kill a few dozen people in the process? would anyone still feel good about donating to that campaign? would it have been worthwhile?

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WillPostForFood 9y ago
Nowadays? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destruction_of_the_Library_of_Alexandria https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destruction_of_the_Library_of_...
- LoSboccacc 9y ago
  "During his reign of the eastern part of the Empire (40–30 BC), Mark Antony plundered the second largest library in the world (at Pergamon) and presented the collection as a gift to Cleopatra as a replacement for the books lost to Caesar's fire." Oh, Romans
  - pault 9y ago
    To be fair, he was one of the more colorful characters in the history of the empire. That entire generation is fascinating.
knowThySelfx 9y ago
Remnants of Pagan civilisations is being destroyed by this. There could be some agenda over this.
CalRobert 9y ago
If you find this kind of thing interesting, you might want to check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_codices https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_codices It's profoundly depressing to consider what was lost, though.
- mbroncano 9y ago
  Yes, you could say we'd learn something is the last 500 years. Mildly related, in the same times, a minority protection office was established and funded to some extent [1] which also incurred in some well known political upheaval. There's nothing new under the sun. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protector_of_the_Indians https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protector_of_the_Indians

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

WillPostForFood 9y ago

Nowadays? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destruction_of_the_Library_of_Alexandria https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destruction_of_the_Library_of_...

LoSboccacc 9y ago
"During his reign of the eastern part of the Empire (40–30 BC), Mark Antony plundered the second largest library in the world (at Pergamon) and presented the collection as a gift to Cleopatra as a replacement for the books lost to Caesar's fire." Oh, Romans
- pault 9y ago
  To be fair, he was one of the more colorful characters in the history of the empire. That entire generation is fascinating.

knowThySelfx 9y ago

Remnants of Pagan civilisations is being destroyed by this. There could be some agenda over this.

CalRobert 9y ago

If you find this kind of thing interesting, you might want to check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_codices https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_codices It's profoundly depressing to consider what was lost, though.

mbroncano 9y ago
Yes, you could say we'd learn something is the last 500 years. Mildly related, in the same times, a minority protection office was established and funded to some extent [1] which also incurred in some well known political upheaval. There's nothing new under the sun. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protector_of_the_Indians https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protector_of_the_Indians