A detail from a rectangular Ur panel showing warriors in a wooden horse drawn chariot. Ur is the most splendid of all ancient Sumerian cities of Mesopotamia

WASHINGTON, December 24 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - As Washington prepares to invade Iraq, it stands puzzled by the possibility of waging war and avoiding at once widespread devastation of Iraq's priceless antiquities and archeological treasures.

The U.S. fears worldwide anger if its war on Iraq inflicts damage to Iraq’s irreplaceable religious and cultural artifacts – part of the world's cultural heritage.

The possibility that war could lead to the destruction of even a small percentage of Iraq's historical treasures has raised the concern of scholars, curators and archeologists from around the world, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said Tuesday, December 24, in a detailed report.

The report quoted Ashton Hawkins, president of the American Council for Cultural Policy and Maxwell Anderson, president of the American Association of Art Museum Directors, as saying that it is not just the Iraqis who will be impoverished should U.S.  missiles strike Iraqi archeological sites.

"What they contain is not merely the patrimony of one small nation but that of much of the modern world, including the United States," they wrote in an opinion piece published recently in the U.S. press.

There are roughly some 10,000 archeological sites throughout the area, according to experts, the oldest of which date back to 5000 BC and the vast majority of which are unexplored. Pentagon officials are trying to locate where these treasures are, U.S. officials say, according to AFP.

Most important are archeological sites located in and near the ancient Mesopotamian city of Ur, identified in the Bible as the home of Abraham and deemed by some scholars to be the cradle of civilization, said AFP.

U.S. forces are accused of having pillaged treasures from Ur, the most splendid of all the ancient Sumerian cities of Mesopotamia, following Iraq's defeat in the 1991 Gulf War.

Many foreigners have also financed the theft of archeological pieces, Iraq has maintained, pointing an accusing finger at diplomats posted in Baghdad, as well as U.N. employees.

Other important archeological sites is Nineveh, the capital of the ancient Assyrian empire, located in what is now northern Iraq. Both Ur and Nineveh locales hold substantial undiscovered antiquities.

Washington has enlisted a team of experts knowledgeable about the region who will catalogue information about historical and archeological sites scattered across Iraqi territory, and who have agreed to pass that information to the Pentagon, said AFP.

Leading the effort is McGuire Gibson, an archeologist from the University of Chicago who has made frequent expeditions to Iraq over the past decade. Working with him is Charles Butterworth, a professor at the University of Maryland.

"They contacted us because they recognize our expertise in this field," said Butterworth, who described Iraq's treasures as being of "incalculable historical value."

Gibson and Butterworth, who are to be aided by about 40 academics in the task of locating and charting Iraq's historical sites, have a longstanding interest in the antiquities of the region. The duo had hoped years ago to open a historical research center in Iraq, but that effort had to be abandoned because of the 1991 war on the country.

"The work is indispensable," Butterworth said. "The plotting of these sites was done by the Iraqis a long time ago, and is not precise enough."

Even artifacts safeguarded at the Museum of Baghdad are not fully out of harm's way, Butterworth told AFP.

He warned that a nearby television station would be a prime target of U.S. missiles, and worried that a bomb explosion might lay waste to the museum and its precious exhibits.

Josh Keller, a military expert with the Federation of American Scientists, initially said that the risk of a missile striking an Iraqi museum or cultural site is diminished in this era of "smart bomb" technology, which allows the U.S. military to mark its target with pinpoint accuracy.

But, he eventually admitted that such a system is not foolproof.

"It is difficult to mark the area electronically. It has to be done by the intelligence," Keller said, adding that "it's almost impossible to mark every area."