Samuel M. Paley
(The University at Buffalo / State University of New York, USA)
There are an increasing number of publications of archaeological sites in digital format and using virtual reality or “movie” files. They can be found in bookshops and on-line. The Nimrud Citadel project is one of those. The topic of this year’s conference is why we do digital archaeology. The answer to this question for us was simple: access to the archaeological site of Nimrud is difficult in the best of times and now impossible, Near Eastern antiquities are increasingly in the news and we are getting many inquiries about them, and Nimrud has been looted at least twice in the last dozen years. Therefore, our project has both its educational and practical goals: to provide a resource for schools, colleges and univiersities to teach about a pradigmatic site for Neo-Assyrian archaeology and to make our records available for the legal authorities who are searching for looted artifacts and prosecuting offenders. This paper will explain our goals and show what has happened to some of the antiquities as they have reached the market.