# State Department awards Penn $2 million to preserve cultural heritage in northern Iraq



## Disir (Jan 3, 2019)

When ISIS terrorists in northern Iraq destroyed cultural heritage sites in and around Mosul, they frequently targeted minority groups including Christians, Yazidis, Shia, Kurds, and other groups for cultural cleansing and genocide. Now, in an effort to revitalize the city and the culture of the people who live there, the U.S. Department of State has awarded the University of Pennsylvania $2 million for a three-year, two-phase stabilization project. 

In part one, already underway, a team led by Penn archaeologist Richard L. Zettler and archaeologist Michael Danti, a Penn alumnus, will conduct assessments and implement small-scale repairs at 15 to 20 sites in the area. The second phase will involve the prioritization of sites for conservation. 






The al-Nuri mosque, an important symbol of Mosul, was blown up by the terrorist group as the Iraqi army closed in on the area.
“Our goal is to rewind and repair the damage done, to address the blatant attempts to erase cultural memory and freedom of expression,” says Danti, who earned his doctoral degree from Penn in 2000 and has joined the effort as project manager. “ISIS aggressively targeted cultural heritage and cultural diversity in Mosul. Anything that didn’t conform to their narrow interpretation of Islam was fair game.” 

Penn has been active in Iraq for more than a century, and Zettler, an associate professor in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations in the School of Arts and Sciences, has had a relationship with the University of Mosul, a key partner in the new project, for the past five years. “We feel deeply connected to our colleagues in Mosul and appreciate the chance to help them rebuild their region after the Islamic State’s devastating campaign of cultural genocide,” Zettler says. 
State Department awards Penn $2 million to preserve cultural heritage in northern Iraq | Penn Today

That's an interesting tidbit.


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