Nawala Ahmed Al-Mutawalli () is an Iraqi archaeologist, philologist and former director of the

Iraq Museum The Iraq Museum () is the national museum of Iraq, located in Baghdad. It is sometimes informally called the National Museum of Iraq. The Iraq Museum contains precious relics from the Mesopotamian, Abbasid, and Persian civilizations. It was loo ...

. She is also Professor Emeritus of Archaeology at the

University of Mosul The University of Mosul () is a public university located in Mosul. It is one of the largest educational and research centers in the Middle East, and the second largest in Iraq, behind the University of Baghdad. The University of Mosul was close ...

. In 2021, she was appointed as an honorary member of the International Association for Assyriology, in recognition for her work. She is an expert in

cuneiform Cuneiform is a Logogram, logo-Syllabary, syllabic writing system that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Near East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. Cuneiform script ...

and bullae and has published extensively on the archaeology of Iraq.

Education and career

Al-Mutalwalli graduated from the

University of Baghdad The University of Baghdad (UOB) (, also known as Baghdad University) is a public university, public research university in Baghdad, Iraq. It is the largest university in Iraq and the tenth largest in the Arab world. History The College of Isl ...

with a degree in archaeology in 1976, and graduated from the same institution with a PhD in 1994. She has excavated at the sites of Tell Aswad, the Hamrin Dam, Ishan Mazyad,

Umma Umma () in modern Dhi Qar Province in Iraq, was an ancient city in Sumer. There is some scholarly debate about the Sumerian and Akkadian names for this site. Traditionally, Umma was identified with Tell Jokha. More recently it has been sugges ...

, and Aqarquf. She is an expert in

and bullae and has published extensively on the archaeology of Iraq. From 1995 to 2000 she was Head of Cuneiform at the Iraq Museum. She was subsequently the museum's director from 2000 to 2003. In 2000 she co-convened a celebration of 5000 years of writing in Iraq. She was director of the Department of Archaeology at the University of Baghdad from 2017 to 2018.

Iraq Museum and the Battle of Baghdad

Looting, as a result of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, took place during Al-Mutawalli's tenure as director and she estimated at the time that 12,000 objects were looted from the collection. Reported by ''

The Art Newspaper ''The Art Newspaper'' is a monthly print publication, with daily updates online, founded in 1990 and based in London and New York City. It covers news of the visual arts as they are affected by international politics and economics, developments i ...

'' to be a member of the

Ba'ath Party The Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party ( ' ), also known simply as Bath Party (), was a political party founded in Syria by Michel Aflaq, Salah al-Din al-Bitar, and associates of Zaki al-Arsuzi. The party espoused Ba'athism, which is an ideology ...

(which was almost compulsory under

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein (28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 until Saddam Hussein statue destruction, his overthrow in 2003 during the 2003 invasion of Ira ...

's regime), after the fall of Baghdad, museum employees demanded her resignation. This was based on accusations reported in ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher based in Washington, D.C. It features articles on politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 185 ...

'' that Al-Mutawelli had been complicit in longer-term looting of Iraqi antiquities orchestrated by the regime. In ''The Rape of Mesopotamia,'' Lawrence Rothfield described how al-Mutawalli was issued with an

AK-47 The AK-47, officially known as the Avtomat Kalashnikova (; also known as the Kalashnikov or just AK), is an assault rifle that is chambered for the 7.62×39mm cartridge. Developed in the Soviet Union by Russian small-arms designer Mikhail Kala ...

, and guarded the museum alongside other colleagues and archaeologists preceding the Battle of Baghdad.

Recognition

In 2021, she was appointed as an honorary member of the International Association for Assyriology, in recognition for her work. She is also Professor Emeritus of Archaeology at the

Selected works

* Al-Mutawalli, Nawala Ahmed, et al. ''Bullae from the Main Tell: Documents of Umma's Administration in the Early Old Babylonian Period. With a Contribution by Adelheid Otto''. Harrassowitz Verlag, 2024. * al-Mutawalli, Nawala Ahmed. 2010. "Administrative Cuneiform Texts from Umma in the Iraq Museum. Excavation of Shara Temple." ''Sumer'' 55: 45–86. * Al-Mutawalli N. A New foundation cylinder from the Temple of Nabû ša ḫarê. ''Iraq''. 1999;61:191-194.

Notes

References

{{Authority control Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Iraqi women archaeologists Iraqi women curators Women museum directors University of Baghdad alumni University of Mosul alumni Women philologists Epigraphers Assyriologists