3,000-Year-Old Jewelry Displayed at Baghdad Museum
Submitted by Karen on Wed, 2003-07-09 14:02
The Treasure of Nimrud, a spectacular collection of jewelry dating back to the 8th century B.C., was put on display at the Iraqi National Museum by U.S.-led authorities. Agence France-Presse reports that the Treasure, consisting of 650 bracelets, necklaces, royal tiaras, and semi-precious stones, had been kept under lock and key since its discovery in the 1980s. It was displayed to a select group for just three hours to prove that it had not been plundered in the looting of the museum in early April, though much of the Museum's collection had been lost. "Of 8,000 items of world-class value," reported a coalition spokesman, "we can now only not account for 47." Pietro Cordone, an Italian envoy charged with overseeing Iraq's cultural activities, hopes the museum will open to the general public in November.