SITE LOOTING IN IRAQ: The good news is that site protection forces in Iraq are finally having an effect on the site looting. The bad news is that many of the already looted artifacts have not been showing up on the antiquities market and it's possible they may be held in storage for many years in the hope that ardor for recovering them will cool down. Meanwhile:

On the ground, archaeologist Abdal Amir Hamdani, in charge of antiquities for Dhi Qar province, home to some of Iraq's most famous archaeological sites, says his focus has shifted from looters to smugglers.

"I'm not an archaeologist. I'm a policeman," he says.

Hamdani uses what he calls a "hunting dog" -- a former looter turned paid informant -- who follows up on rumours and goes out with a digital camera and global positioning system (GPS) equipment to locate and mark smugglers' houses.

Italian carabinieri forces disguised as Bedouin then go with Hamdani to carry out often fruitful raids.

"This is the war within the war, the forgotten war," he says of his dangerous job.

Last October, eight Iraqi customs officers were found dead and their recently seized cargo of antiquities disappeared on the road to Baghdad.

Al-Fajir, 100 kilometres (60 miles) north of Hamdani's base in Nassiriyah, is rife with smugglers and dealers, he says, and 60 suspect homes in the small town of 10,000 have already been identified.

Hamdani shows photos of seized artifacts: Parthian glasswork, Sumerian statues and erotic images on temple tablets, hundreds of coins, gold jewellery and bowls inscribed in ancient Aramaic, some clumsily glued together, damaged forever.

This, incidentally, is the first reference to looted Aramaic incantation bowls I can remember seeing.

Here's a photo of some recovered antiquities.

(Via Frances Deblauwe and Archaeology Magazine News.)

UPDATE: Michael van Rijn links to an article on the Iraq Museum website on Internet sales of Iraqi artifacts. It has photos of Aramaic incantation bowls for sale on EBay and elsewhere. At least one has been brought to the attention of the FBI for return to Iraq.