article_snippet: In the past week, video has circulated showing neatly dressed figures wielding rather new-looking sledgehammers and destroying archaeological objects in the Mosul Museum.
article_snippet: Although there are suggestions that some objects destroyed are only copies, many are said to be unique and irreplaceable objects that had survived thousands of years -- until now.
article_snippet: ISIS has been busy trying to damage the famed Nergal Gate entry to the ancient city of Nineveh -- a city with a history reaching back thousands of years -- and most recently ISIS is reportedly bulldozing the site of Nimrud, capital of the 9th-century B.C. Assyrian King Ashurnasirpal II, and source of the famed Nimrud ivories.
article_snippet: the famed Nimrud ivories were first cleaned by none other than Agatha Christie while accompanying Agatha Christie archaeologist husband, Max Mallowan, during his excavation.
article_snippet: The smashed artifacts of the Mosul Museum and the destruction at Nineveh and Nimrud speak to a wider ignorance of archaeology and the meaning of the artifacts that archaeologists recover, study and preserve.
article_snippet: The smashed artifacts of the Mosul Museum and the destruction at Nineveh and Nimrud are the material record of humanity.
article_snippet: The smashed artifacts of the Mosul Museum and the destruction at Nineveh and Nimrud are not just for scholars, The smashed artifacts of the Mosul Museum and the destruction at Nineveh and Nimrud are for everyone.
article_snippet: The smashed artifacts of the Mosul Museum and the destruction at Nineveh and Nimrud are the text of the past that helps define our future.