Why Should We Care?

Abstract

In the wake of the looting of the Iraq Museum in April 2003, many of us who work in the previously invisible field of ancient Mesopotamian art and archaeology found ourselves besieged by media requests for information and insights into what had happened. One of the most popular questions, and the one I found the most challenging, was “Why should we care?” Those of us who work in the area do so because we care, but how to express that to an audience unfamiliar with even the broadest outlines of Mesopotamian culture? After several interviews in which I tried to explain a variety of reasons why we should care, all of which ended up being cut, I discovered that there was a “correct” answer: “Because Iraq is the Cradle of Civilization.” That, along with the obligatory list of “firsts” (the first cities, the first monumental architecture, the first writing …), would generally do the trick, and it had the advantage of requiring no reflection at all.