PRESENT DANGERS FACING ASHUR
Although the Tigress River provided ancient Ashur with many of its subsistence needs, in modern times the river’s flooding creates ongoing problems with erosion to the city. Ashur’s residential areas, located in the lower terrain of the city, are particularly susceptible. If the lowlands are destroyed, archaeology will lose vital information concerning the building evolution from the Sumerian, Akkadian, and Assyrian empire (ICOMOS, 2003).
Ashur has recently faced another serious danger. Saddam Husain’s dam project threatened to submerge the site. The project was temporarily put on hold when, in 2003, Ashur was added to both the World Heritage and the World Heritage in Danger lists. However, the driving factor of this project is still a major concern in Iraq. In recent years dams have been constructed upriver. As a result, downstream Iraq faces serious water shortages. The international conflict over fresh water resources remains unresolved. Thus, future dam projects may still threaten Iraq (ICOMOS, 2003).
Although looting is a major issue in many of Iraq’s ancient archaeological sites, Ashur has been under the protection of armed guards for the last 10 years and looting in the city has ceased. The guards occupy what was once the Ashur Museum. Thus tourism has become almost non-existent. At this time, there are no funds for tourism, education, or repairs to the city. When the first excavations began in 1903, the unearthed remains of Ashur were left unprotected and a century of exposure to weather conditions has begun to erode the city’s monumental architecture (ICOMOS, 2003).
