Tower and Town, May 2021 (view the full edition)EditorialIt is easy to overlook the fact that Mesopotamia's 7,000 years legacy also has immediacy by being that of modern Iraq. This sets the background for the first two articles which share a critical perspective for developing and framing cultural heritage from the past in the service of the present. In “Mesopotamian Heritage and Hope” it is the period from antiquity to the Mongolian Sacking of Baghdad in 1258 AD that is in focus, consolidating the hope generated by the recent historical visit of Pope Francis to Iraq. In the second piece, “Owning the Past”, Paul Collins develops this further by describing the actual experience of staging an exhibition in which museum culture is utilized to counter current Mesopotamian impasses. Suha Rassam echoes this in the third piece. Her passionate discourse includes early Christianity and the impending existential threats faced by Christianity in Iraq. Needless to say, Britain has had long association with modern Iraq, and this is pointed out in the fascinating piece by Ghanim Alsheikh. Here we are presented with the case of the little known British monument near Basra. In addition, Hugh de Saram and John Osborne take us back in time to the Mesopotamian clay tablet records. Hugh highlights his journey of discovering the richness of Biblical Archaeology and John informs us about one of the most important discoveries in Nineveh, the Flood Tablet - literature in its infancy. This edition is further enhanced by the regular church and town contributions. Finally, we would like to express our gratitude to the individual authors and members of the T&T team. An illustrated extended Mesopotamia edition is now available on the T&T website. Raik Jarjis |