Nawala Al-Mutawalli
{{Short description|Iraqi archaeologist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2025}}
{{Infobox academic
| citizenship = Iraq
| occupation = Archaeologist, museum director
| known_for = Director of the Iraq Museum during the Battle of Baghdad (2003)
| awards = Honorary membership of the International Association for Assyriology
| education = University of Baghdad
| thesis_year = 1994
| discipline = Archaeology
| sub_discipline = Epigraphy and philology
| workplaces = Iraq Museum
University of Baghdad
}}
Nawala Ahmed Al-Mutawalli ({{langx|ar|نوال المتولي}}) is an Iraqi archaeologist, philologist and former director of the Iraq Museum. She is also Professor Emeritus of Archaeology at the University of Mosul. 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 and bullae and has published extensively on the archaeology of Iraq.
Education and career
Al-Mutalwalli graduated from the University of Baghdad with a degree in archaeology in 1976, and graduated from the same institution with a PhD in 1994.{{Citation |last1=Al-Mutawalli |first1=Nawala A. |title=The Story of Nawala A. Al-Mutawalli, a Woman Archaeologist from Iraq |date=2023 |work=Women in Archaeology |pages=401–411 |editor-last=López Varela |editor-first=Sandra L. |url=https://link.springer.com/10.1007/978-3-031-27650-7_20 |access-date=23 March 2025 |place=Cham |publisher=Springer International Publishing |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-3-031-27650-7_20 |isbn=978-3-031-27649-1 |last2=López Varela |first2=Sandra L.}} She has excavated at the sites of Tell Aswad, the Hamrin Dam, Ishan Mazyad, Umma, and Aqarquf.{{Cite web |title=UNIVERSITY OF BAGHDAD TEAM |url=https://site.unibo.it/waladu/en/uni-baghdadvteam |access-date=23 March 2025 |website=site.unibo.it |language=en}} She is an expert in cuneiform 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.{{Cite news |last=Sandler |first=Lauren |date=1 November 2004 |title=The Thieves of Baghdad |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2004/11/the-thieves-of-baghdad/303570/ |access-date=23 March 2025 |work=The Atlantic |language=en |issn=2151-9463}}{{Cite news |last=MacLeod |first=Donald |date=8 July 2003 |title=US archaeologist calls for armed clampdown on Iraq looters |url=https://www.theguardian.com/education/2003/jul/08/museums.iraqandthearts |access-date=23 March 2025 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}} In 2000 she co-convened a celebration of 5000 years of writing in Iraq.{{Cite web |title=العراق يحتفل بمرور خمسة آلاف عام على الكتابة |url=https://www.aljazeera.net/culture/2000/12/26/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%82-%D9%8A%D8%AD%D8%AA%D9%81%D9%84-%D8%A8%D9%85%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%B1-%D8%AE%D9%85%D8%B3%D8%A9-%D8%A2%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%81-%D8%B9%D8%A7%D9%85-%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%89 |access-date=23 March 2025 |website=الجزيرة نت |language=ar}} 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{{refn|The number given varied at the time, between 33 and 170,000.{{Cite news |date=18 June 2003 |title=Iraq's museums: what really happened |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2003/jun/18/heritage.highereducation |access-date=23 March 2025 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}|name=first|group=note}} were looted from the collection.{{Cite web |date=30 June 2003 |title=Details of National Museum of Iraq looting emerge |url=https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2003/07/01/details-of-national-museum-of-iraq-looting-emerge |access-date=23 March 2025 |website=The Art Newspaper - International art news and events |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=مديرة متحف بغداد تؤكد سرقة 10 آلاف قطعة أثرية |url=https://www.aljazeera.net/culture/2003/6/15/%D9%85%D8%AF%D9%8A%D8%B1%D8%A9-%D9%85%D8%AA%D8%AD%D9%81-%D8%A8%D8%BA%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%AF-%D8%AA%D8%A4%D9%83%D8%AF-%D8%B3%D8%B1%D9%82%D8%A9-10-%D8%A2%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%81-%D9%82%D8%B7%D8%B9%D8%A9 |access-date=23 March 2025 |website=الجزيرة نت |language=ar}} Reported by The Art Newspaper to be a member of the Ba'ath Party (which was almost compulsory under Saddam Hussein's regime), after the fall of Baghdad, museum employees demanded her resignation. This was based on accusations reported in The Atlantic 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, and guarded the museum alongside other colleagues and archaeologists preceding the Battle of Baghdad.{{Cite book |last=Rothfield |first=Lawrence |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qfb2_dZSx3MC&dq=Nawala+Al-Mutawalli&pg=PA86 |title=The Rape of Mesopotamia: Behind the Looting of the Iraq Museum |date=1 August 2009 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-72943-5 |language=en}}
Recognition
In 2021, she was appointed as an honorary member of the International Association for Assyriology, in recognition for her work.{{Cite web |last=Pappi |first=Cinzia |date=23 July 2022 |title=General Meeting Torino 2021 |url=https://iaassyriology.com/general-meeting-torino-2021/ |access-date=23 March 2025 |website=The International Association for Assyriology |language=en-GB}} She is also Professor Emeritus of Archaeology at the University of Mosul.{{Cite web |title=Al-Nahrain Engineering Celebrates Arabic Language Day with a Scientific Seminar {{!}} جامعة النهرين {{!}} Al-Nahrain University |url=https://nahrainuniv.edu.iq/en/node/26738 |access-date=23 March 2025 |website=nahrainuniv.edu.iq}}
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.{{Cite book |last1=Al-Mutawalli |first1=Nawala Ahmed |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.20523022 |title=Bullae from the Main Tell: Documents of Umma's Administration in the Early Old Babylonian Period. With a contribution by Adelheid Otto |last2=Ismael |first2=Khalid Salim |last3=Sallaberger |first3=Walther |last4=Otto |first4=Adelheid |date=2024 |publisher=Harrassowitz Verlag |isbn=978-3-447-12170-5}}
- 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.{{Cite journal |last=Al-Mutawalli |first=Nawala |date=1999 |title=A New Foundation Cylinder from the Temple of Nabû Ša H̆arê |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/iraq/article/abs/new-foundation-cylinder-from-the-temple-of-nabu-sa-hare/8133F358FC89705F3468393836612BFF |journal=Iraq |language=en |volume=61 |pages=191–194 |doi=10.2307/4200475|jstor=4200475 }}
Notes
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