1950-2011
He was an archaeologist. He was born in Habbaniyah. He first studied English and French literature at the University of Baghdad, but he moved to the Department of Archeology, and received his BA in 1974, and then the MA in 1986 and the PhD in 1995. He worked in the General Corporation of Antiquities until he became the General Director of the Iraqi museums, and the director of Iraqi Corporation of Antiquities. He was credited with saving the Iraqi National Museum from theft and destruction after the fall of the former regime in 2003. In 2006 he left the country to Syria and then to America, where he became a visiting professor at the University of New York-Stony Brook. He knew Akkadian and English as well as Syriac and Arabic. He has various researches and studies in the field of his specialty, including: ‘the Old Warehouses in Mesopotamia’ in 1985, ‘the Old Sayings in Mesopotamia’ in 1994, ‘Architecture in the Sixth Century BC in Siwan Hill’ in 1997, and others.
