ANCIENT TREASURES

Newsweek explains how a new Met exhibit reminds us why the devastating looting of antiquities in Baghdad matters:

Ancient places with such Seussian names as Uruk, Eridu and Kish—to say nothing of that ur-urban place called Ur—were in fact the world’s first real cities, the show argues, with a level of social organization that can truly be called civilized. These cities weren’t dinky—in 3200 B.C., Uruk had a population of 40,000—and trade routes reached east to the Indus Valley (modern Pakistan and northwest India) and west to the Mediterranean. To keep the necessary records, people developed the first written language, cuneiform—marks incised on clay tablets. To enforce rules of conduct, they developed systems of government.

If you make it to NYC it sounds worth your time to stop by for a look.