IN PRAISE OF JOHN RUSSELL. This archaeologist has been mentioned before in PaleoJudaica and I've been meaning for some time to point out this article (which Explorator reminded me of). Professor Russell has been in Iraq since September, working as Deputy Senior Advisor to the Iraqi Ministry of Culture to help preserve and protect Iraq's antiquities. He is scheduled to come home next month. We all owe John Russell a great debt of gratitude. Thanks John. I hope there's someone there to look out for the interests of Iraq's antiquities once you're home.

Excerpt from "The Treasure Hunter" (Boston Globe):

It is a job other American archeologists, reluctant to partner with the US government and loathe to take time from their research, shied away from and for which Russell is especially well suited. Much of his day-to-day work in Iraq is bureaucratic drudgery, such as negotiating contracts to revamp the devastated national museum. But by the time he leaves this month, Russell intends to have the museum ready to reopen, thanks to a $1.7 million grant from the US State Department. And the atmosphere for the staff is vastly changed. Before the US invasion, he says, museum personnel put themselves in danger speaking their minds. Now, things are opening up. Asked how he feels about working for the US government, he retorts: "I'm working for the Iraqi government -- that's why I took this job."

The past months have mellowed his criticism of the United States' actions during the early days of the invasion. Initial reports that all of the Iraq Museum's artifacts were stolen proved exaggerated, though some 13,000 items that vanished in the days immediately following the American assault on Baghdad remain missing. "It is fair to say the US military could have done more," he says, "but I can't pretend to know what should have been done."

His focus, odd for an archeologist, is the future. "Iraq is really transforming, and that's symbolized by the museum, the symphony, the library," he says. That optimism is tempered by the lower priority given cultural heritage in an often chaotic country whose basic infrastructure and evolving government need urgent attention. And violence is ever-present. Museum staff members have been killed or injured by gunfire or in the free-for-all of Iraq's roads. "Anytime you go out," he says, "you could get killed."

Russell does say there are perks -- such as avoiding a New England winter and enjoying the Southern-fried chicken and grilled-cheese sandwiches available in the palace canteen. But what he clearly relishes is the chance to help preserve the past: "How often do you get a chance to be part of history and feel you are making a difference?"

Note, by the way, that in an all-too-typical display of journalistic stereotying and poverty of imagination, the writer, Andrew Lawler, finds it "odd" for an archaeologist to be concerned with the future.