“It’s devastating to have to be witness to what’s going on in Iraq. It’s just devastating, and to be this tangibly close to those Iraqi artifacts and to be able to see and know and feel what’s gone is heartbreaking,” Professor Susan Ackerman ’80 tells VPR in a story about the Islamic State’s destruction of antiquities in northern Iraq. Ackerman is the Preston H. Kelsey Professorship in Religion, a professor of women’s and gender studies, and a professor of Jewish studies.
Dartmouth, says VPR’s Charlotte Albright, “owns six monumental stone relief panels from Nimrud, Iraq, south of Mosul, where vandals claim to have been bulldozing sacred sites. While the videos released by the militant group cannot be verified, it’s clear that rare antiquities are ISIS targets.”
Listen to the full story, broadcast 3/11/15 by VPR.
