Finding
the Treasures of Nimrud
An interview with film-maker
Jason Williams
The Treasures of Nimrud, jewelry and other precious artifacts
recovered in the late 1980s from Assyrian royal tombs near Mosul
in northern Iraq, have been compared to the contents of Tutankhamun's
tomb. In the aftermath of the looting that took place in Baghdad
following the demise of the Saddam Hussein regime, many feared
that this collection was lost forever along with countless other
priceless objects from Irag's National Museum and elsewhere
in the country. Early in June 2003, film-maker Jason Williams
and his National Geographic camera crew succeeded in locating
and recovering the Treasures of Nimrud and other precious heritage
objects in the Central Bank of Iraq, where in 1990 they had
been placed for safekeeping. Meanwhile, looting is reportedly
continuing at archaeological sites elsewhere in the country.
In this interview, recorded via telephone on 31 July 2003, Mr. Williams recounts this remarkable story
and offers his perspectives on the heritage crisis in Iraq.
The Interview:
To hear the interview, click
on the bandwidth for your player below.
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About Jason Williams:
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Jason Williams.
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Jason Williams is the President of JWM Productions. His multiple Emmy Award-winning work has been seen on the BBC, CBS, UK Channel 4, UK Channel 5, CNN, Discovery, Le Cinq, National Geographic, NBC, PBS, TBS, and TLC, as well as on numerous broadcast, cable and satellite outlets around the world. Jason has produced and directed programs in thirty countries and on six continents. He has made films on such diverse subjects as natural history, anthropology, current affairs, ancient history and marine technology.
His career began as an anthropologist, but, in 1985, he switched
to journalism, producing live news and current events programming
for CNN. A Senior Producer for TBS Productions in the late 1980's,
he became Vice-President of Development & Production for Time-Life
in 1991. As Series Producer and Producer on the landmark series,
Lost Civilizations, he won the Primetime Emmy for Best
Informational Series in 1996. That same year, he founded JWM
Productions with Bill Morgan. Their company is now based in
Takoma Park, Maryland, and has produced more than 120 hours
of programming over the past six years.
Currently in production is a new reality format for the History
Channel, Time Titans; The Thieves of Baghdad for National
Geographic's Ultimate Explorer, Nazi Grand Prix for Channel
4 (UK) and Natural Born Sinners for Animal Planet. Other
recent productions include Aftermath for Discovery Health;
Turkey Secrets for Animal Planet; The Treasure Seekers
for National Geographic; The Unfinished War for CNN;
24/7 for TLC and Granada; Hidden Worlds for Travel
and Time Life; Beating Time for Discovery Health; Biomes
& Eco-Systems for Kids for Schlessinger Media; Challenger:
Go For Launch for Discovery and the BBC, and Millennium
Man for PBS and Channel 4.
Past productions include contemporary and historical programming
such as Treasure!, Behind the Badge and Inside the
Inferno for TLC; expedition and adventure programming like
Expedition Discovery for Discovery and Great National
Parks of the World for The Reader's Digest; and natural
history films like Underdogs: Prairie Dogs Under Attack and
Tiger! for Turner Original Productions and the National
Wildlife Federation, as well as The Velvet Killer and
the Emmy award-winning Saving JJ for National Geographic
Explorer.
The Web links below
are selected websites for exploring this and related subjects.
These include sites that we regard as informative and reliable.
AIA
Urges Protection of Iraq's Archaeological Heritage (Archaeological
Institute of America)
Ancient
Assyrian Treasures Found Intact in Baghdad (National Geographic
Ultimate Explorer)
The
Fertile Crescent (Emuseum, Minnesota State University)
Happy
Homecoming: Some Looted Treasures Return to Iraq's National Museum
(ABC News)
Iraq Treasures to Tour US (BBC)
JWM Productions
Mesopotamia (The British Museum)
The
National Geographic Society's Cultural Assessment of Iraq (National
Geographic Society)
Nimrud:
Central Palace Area, 9th-8th centuries BCE (Dr. Paley)
Nimrud:
Northwest Palace of Ashur-nasir-pal II, 9th Century BCE (Dr.
Paley)
Stolen
Stones: The Modern Sack of Nineveh, by John Malcolm Russell (Archaeology
Magazine)
Task
Force on the Cultural Heritage of Iraq (Archaeological Institute
of America)
The
Tower of Babel: Dangerous Archaeology (University of Maryland)
Treasure
of Nimrud Is Found In Iraq, and It's Spectacular (Ancient
Worlds)
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