By: Marshall Ramsey II, Worthy News US Correspondent
The Parthian city of Hatra, well known for its high walls full of inscriptions and watchtowers dotted around the fortified city, stands forlornly in the midst of wild grass in northern Iraq.
Situated about 180 miles (290 km) north of Baghdad and 68 miles (110 km) southwest of Mosul, Hatra withstood repeated attacks and played an important part in the Second Parthian War against the Romans. It repulsed the sieges of both Trajan (116/117) and Septimius Severus (198/199), but fell in the end, Hatra was included into the new dynastic Empire, the Sassanian, in 224 CE.
For the past decade, since the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, the ancient city has suffered from inadequate excavations and maintenance, and decreased tourism to the historic site due to civil unrest. "Tourists stopped visiting the site years ago because of the insecure situation in the area, even foreign archaeological teams' safety cannot be ensured," a local security source who refused to be named told the Xinhua news agency, who broke the story on Monday.
The city was founded in the 4th century BC by Athra, also called Hathra and Annar, who went on to become the 7x great grandfather of the semi-legendary Odin, himself born around 215 AD.(1) Hathra himself can trace his ancestry back to King Memnon of Ethiopia who can trace his ancestry back to a certain man who was given the name Zeus by his descendants. This man's name was Zarah ben Judah, son of Jacob/Israel. Evidence of this can be found at www.halexandria.org/dward928.htm. Although the timeline between its assertion and mine are different, it nonetheless provides a reference to the claim that Zeus and Zarah are the same person.
The country that, since the 1920's was known as Iraq, is home to the earliest civilizations. In over 5,000 years the country was bestowed with numerous historic treasures, which, as a result of the unrest in the past decade, have been afflicted by a cultural catastrophe. The region become part of the Persian Empire in 539 BCE (451 BC by biblical accounts) and remained Iranian over 1,000 until 637 CE (AD) when it was invaded by the Arab Muslims.
Chaos and fragile security during the post-invasion years left many historic sites in the hands of looters who carried out random excavations and stole tens of thousands of antiquities, usually causing irreversible damage, said Huda Hussein, an Iraqi female archaeologist.
"The links of the antiquities to their places are evidences for the civilisations that once prevailed there, so moving them will cut the links. But of course they (the looters) don't know or they don't care, and they only care about money," she said.
In the chaos following the fall of Baghdad by the United States on April 9, 2003, the Iraqi national museum was ransacked by looters including some of the US soldiers. An estimated 15,000 priceless antiquities were lost and only about haft of them have been recovered so far. Majority have left the country for West.
The museum, which houses some of the world's most precious artifacts of ancient Mesopotamia, is still not open to the public due to slow renovations amid persistent violence in the country. Only specially arranged groups are allowed to visit some renovated halls.
Original story located here: http://www.cais-soas.com/news/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=379:24-06-2013&catid=67
(1) http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/pre/pre03.htm (in section 3)
The Parthian city of Hatra, well known for its high walls full of inscriptions and watchtowers dotted around the fortified city, stands forlornly in the midst of wild grass in northern Iraq.
Situated about 180 miles (290 km) north of Baghdad and 68 miles (110 km) southwest of Mosul, Hatra withstood repeated attacks and played an important part in the Second Parthian War against the Romans. It repulsed the sieges of both Trajan (116/117) and Septimius Severus (198/199), but fell in the end, Hatra was included into the new dynastic Empire, the Sassanian, in 224 CE.
For the past decade, since the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, the ancient city has suffered from inadequate excavations and maintenance, and decreased tourism to the historic site due to civil unrest. "Tourists stopped visiting the site years ago because of the insecure situation in the area, even foreign archaeological teams' safety cannot be ensured," a local security source who refused to be named told the Xinhua news agency, who broke the story on Monday.
The city was founded in the 4th century BC by Athra, also called Hathra and Annar, who went on to become the 7x great grandfather of the semi-legendary Odin, himself born around 215 AD.(1) Hathra himself can trace his ancestry back to King Memnon of Ethiopia who can trace his ancestry back to a certain man who was given the name Zeus by his descendants. This man's name was Zarah ben Judah, son of Jacob/Israel. Evidence of this can be found at www.halexandria.org/dward928.htm. Although the timeline between its assertion and mine are different, it nonetheless provides a reference to the claim that Zeus and Zarah are the same person.
The country that, since the 1920's was known as Iraq, is home to the earliest civilizations. In over 5,000 years the country was bestowed with numerous historic treasures, which, as a result of the unrest in the past decade, have been afflicted by a cultural catastrophe. The region become part of the Persian Empire in 539 BCE (451 BC by biblical accounts) and remained Iranian over 1,000 until 637 CE (AD) when it was invaded by the Arab Muslims.
Chaos and fragile security during the post-invasion years left many historic sites in the hands of looters who carried out random excavations and stole tens of thousands of antiquities, usually causing irreversible damage, said Huda Hussein, an Iraqi female archaeologist.
"The links of the antiquities to their places are evidences for the civilisations that once prevailed there, so moving them will cut the links. But of course they (the looters) don't know or they don't care, and they only care about money," she said.
In the chaos following the fall of Baghdad by the United States on April 9, 2003, the Iraqi national museum was ransacked by looters including some of the US soldiers. An estimated 15,000 priceless antiquities were lost and only about haft of them have been recovered so far. Majority have left the country for West.
The museum, which houses some of the world's most precious artifacts of ancient Mesopotamia, is still not open to the public due to slow renovations amid persistent violence in the country. Only specially arranged groups are allowed to visit some renovated halls.
Original story located here: http://www.cais-soas.com/news/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=379:24-06-2013&catid=67
(1) http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/pre/pre03.htm (in section 3)
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