Iraq's museum to go digital
26 November 2009
Iraq's Antiquities and Heritage Board has partnered with Google to digitise the ancient artifacts and provide a virtual access to the museum’s collections. The first of its kind initiative, it is an attempt to preserve and showcase the rich cultural heritage and history of the war-torn country.
Unfortunately, protection didn't come soon enough for thousands of cultural artifacts in war-torn Iraq. But at least now, a virtual tour of the Iraq National Museum will be made possible at the beginning of 2010, by using state-of-the-art technology from Google.
- Image credits: Times Online/ Baghdad museum holds artefacts from the Stone Age through to the Babylonian, Assyrian and Islamic periods
CEO and Chairman of Google, Eric Schmidt, along with members of Iraq's Antiquities and Heritage Board have announced a project to make a virtual tour of the Iraq National Museum a reality early next year.
The project, the first of its kind at any museum, will digitise and electronically catalogue artifacts at the Iraq National Museum, allowing global access to the collection.
The move is part of an ongoing commitment by US institutions to partner with Iraqis under the strategic framework agreement to help support and showcase Iraq's rich cultural heritage and history.
Schmidt said that the US State Department and a group of Google employees have taken more than 14,000 images of antiquities in the Museum that will be available to the world at the beginning of 2010.
Iraq National Museum, which held thousands of artifacts from ancient Mesopotamia, one of the world's earliest civilisations, was looted along with other institutions as US-led forces toppled Saddam Hussein's regime in April, 2003.
