No Man’s Land


Small exhibition at the British Museum looking at the history of boundaries in the Middle East.

The main part of the show looked at the moment when natural boundaries changed to man made one which often led to conflict. The term “No Man’s Land” for disputed territory goes back to the Assyrians. There were some fascinating artefacts from this time including a newly identified border pillar which have shown a white in the landscape. There was also a plaque, shown here,  showing a border ceremony.

It was nice to show these items with photographs from the 1980s by Ursula Schulz of the Ur and Uruk landscape which has since been destroyed but war and the Picot agreement which divided up the area following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

Closes on 27 January 2019

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