Friends Of Basrah Museum

News

 

Oct 01 2018
September visit of Dr Ilham Al Ameer to the British Museum

Dr Ilham Al Ameer of the Cuneiform Department of the Iraq Museum spent the month of September working with Mr Christopher Walker at the British Museum on the decipherment of  60 tablets selected for the Basrah Museum. They prepared labels in English and Dr Ilham has subsequently translated them into Arabic. This is the start of a process to ensure the objects are labelled for the Museum. There will be a training programme for Basrah Museum staff and volunteers with on-going work identifying objects with Iraqi and international scholars. Dr Ilham met with the FOBM Trustees at the start of her stay and we were delighted later to introduce Dr Ilham to Professor Eleanor Robson of UCL and the Nahrein Network (NN).  The FOBM are very grateful to Mr Walker for his kind collaboration and to Dr Jonathan Tubb, Keeper (Head) of the department for supporting this work under his department's auspices. 

Photos: (Left) Dr Ilham with FOBM Trustees - Dr John Curtis, Mr Peter Hunt (HWH & Associates - Project Managers Basrah), Sir Terence Clark, Dr Ilham Al Ameer, Angela Grimshaw & Dr Lamia Al Gailani-Werr. (Middle) Joan Porter MacIver (Project Coordinator), Dr Lamia Al-Gailani Werr, Dr Ilham, Mr Christopher Walker and Professor Eleanor Robson.  (Right) Dr Ilham with Mr Christopher Walker looking at details of a tablet from Uruk at the British Museum.

Sep 01 2018
British Council Country Director Iraq Victoria Lindsay visits Museum

The Country Head of British Council Iraq Victoria Lindsay visited the museum on 8 August and was guided around by Mahdi Al Musawi of Bur Alaman and the Iraqi Friends of Basrah Museum.  In addition to visiting the Basrah Gallery, she looked at the exterior of the building and some building work and the Education Room, which is being created and refurbished with an anonymous grant arranged through the British Institute for the Study of Iraq (BISI)  in collaboration with the FOBM.

Aug 01 2018
Museum Display Cases Delivered March 2018 - to be installed

The 54  Reier Museum Display cases were delivered to the Museum in the Spring and have been unpacked and placed in the three galleries. Bur Alaman worked with the Museum Director to arrange the port clearance. A number of containers arrived at the museum and all the cases were unloaded and kept in the Museum. Subsequently the crates with the cases have all been unpacked and put into place into the three remaining galleries - the Sumer, Assyrian and Babylonian Galleries.  All the objects have been selected by a joint committee at the Iraq Museum and will be delivered to Basrah Museum before the end of the year.

Apr 09 2018
HMA Mr Jon Wilks CMG visits the Basrah Museum April 2018

The FOBM was delighted to hear about the visit of HMA Jon Wilks to the Basrah Museum. Museum Director Qahtan Al Abeed provided an explanation of the Basrah Gallery objects and ths history of the Museum to the Ambassador, his colleagues and entourage. 

Photos were provided by Qahtan Al Abeed and Mahdi Al Musawi.

Apr 05 2018
Reier Museum Display Cases arrived Basrah Museum March 2018

The FOBM Trustees are grateful to a number of people and companies for ensuring that the Reier Museum Display cases designed for the three remaining galleries were delivered in March 2018 to the Basrah Museum. Two members of the Basrah Museum Staff attended special training sessions on the cases at the Reier factory in Germany. FOBM is grateful to Reier for manufacturing the cases within the critical time scale of the CPF grant and ensuring their timely delivery to Umm Qasr Port. 

The four containers were cleared through the port through the assistance of Mahdi Al Musawi of Bur Alaman and Sea Jewel and Peter Hunt and Sarah Cain of HWH & Associates with the involvement of Qahtan Al Abeed, Basrah Museum Director, and no doubt with the assistance of many others. The cases are being unpacked and placed in the galleries.  The next phase includes the  on-going selection of objects with a joint committee of the State Board of Antiquties and Heritage and the Iraq Museum with the Basrah Museum with the close involvement of HE Qais Al Rasheed, Vice-Minister & Chairman of the State Board of Antiquities & Heritage and Director of the Iraq Museum.