The Ahwar is composed of seven elements: 3 archaeological sites and 4 swampy spaces in southern Iraq. The archaeological villages of Uruk and Ur and the archaeological of Tell Eridu are among the remains of the Sumerian peoples and settlements that developed in southern Mesopotamia between the fourth and third centuries BC. C. in the swampy delta of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The Ahwar of southern Iraq, also known as the Iraqi swamps, are unique, as one of the largest inland delta systems in the world, in an incredibly hot and arid environment.
It is a set of seven building blocks: 3 archaeological sites and 4 swampy wetlands in southern Iraq. The archaeological villages of Uruk and Ur and the archaeological site of Tell Eridu are among the remains of Sumerian peoples and settlements that developed in southern Mesopotamia between the fourth and third millennium BC-C. C. The Ahwar of southern Iraq, also known as the swampy regions of Iraq, are unique because it is one of the largest inland deltas in the world, in an incredibly hot and arid environment.
位 于 伊拉克 南部 的 ahwar 遗产地 由 七 部分 组成: 三 处 考古 遗址 和 四处 湿地 沼泽。 Uruk 和 ur 的 城市 考古 遗址 和 考古 遗址 构成 了 美索 不 达米亚 平原 南部 文明 的 的 和 和 和 和 和 和 和 和 和 和 和 和 和 和 和 和 和 和 和 和 和 和 和 和 和 和 和 和 和 和 和 和 构成 美索 不 达米亚 平原 南部 苏美尔 文明 的 城市 和 聚居 地 遗迹, 这 一 文明 于 公元 前 2000 – 3000 年 间 在 底格里斯河 和 幼发拉底河 湿地 三角洲 地区 兴盛。 伊拉克 南部 南部 Ahwar— 也 伊拉克 伊拉克 伊拉克 伊拉克 伊拉克 伊拉克 伊拉克 伊拉克 伊拉克 伊拉克 伊拉克 伊拉克 伊拉克 伊拉克 伊拉克 伊拉克 伊拉克 伊拉克 沼泽 十分 独特 ， 极度 炎热 炎热 和 干燥 环境 下 世界 上 最 的 内陆 三角洲 炎热 和 干燥 干燥 下 世界 上 最 大 内陆 三角洲 三角洲 系统。。。
Данный объект состоит из семи элементов: трёх археологическ. Древние города Урук и Ур, а также археологический объект Тель-Эриду входят в число сохранившихся руин шумерских городов и сооружений, возведённых в Южной Месопотамии между IV и III веками до н. э. в болотистых низовьях Тигра и Евфрата. Месопотамские болота на юге Ирака, также известные как болота аль-Ахвар, уникальны тем, что они образуют одну из самых больших в мире внутренних дельт, расположенную при этом в чрезвычайно жаркой и засушливой зоне.
De Ahwar bestaat uit zeven locaties: Drie archeologische en vier waterrijke moerasgebieden in Zuid-Irak. De archeologische steden Uruk en Ur, evenals de Tell van Eridu, zijn overblijfselen van Sumerische steden en nederzettingen die zich in Zuid-Mesopotamië ontwikkelden tussen het vierde en derde millennium voor Christus. De moerasdelta van de rivieren de Tigris en de Eufraat is een van’s werelds grootste inlandse deltasystemen in een extreem heet and droog klimaat.
Brief summary
The Ahwar of southern Iraq evolved as a component of the wider floodplain, the last point of the Alpine tectonic movement, which also led to the creation of the Zagros Mountains. Several points were intertwined to shape the property, including; Tectonic movements, climate replacement, dynamics of river hydrology, precipitation variation, and sea point replacement. Sea point variation and climate replacement have played a vital role in influencing the quantity and quality of water entering the Ahwar through rivers and their tributaries, as well as advancing and retreating the sea and transitioning from dry to semi-dry to rainy situations over the past 18,000 years.
Between 5000 and 3000 BC, the point of sea water reached its maximum extent about two hundred kilometers inland with marshes extending further inland. The swampy and changing landscape of this deltaic plain was the center where the first cities flourished. Uruk, tu and Eridu, the three cultural parts of the property, were originally situated on the edge of freshwater swamps and have evolved to become some of the most vital urban centers in southern Mesopotamia. These peoples have seen the origin of writing, monumental architecture in the form of adobe temples. and ziggurats, as well as complex technologies and societies. A vast corpus of cuneiform texts and archaeological evidence testifies to the centrality of the swamps to the economy, worldview, and devout ideals of the successive cultures of southern Mesopotamia.
From 2000 BC, the sea receded to the south. This led to a climate shift towards a more arid environment that led to the drying up of ancient swamps and, in turn, the decline of the giant cities of southern Mesopotamia. Today, the adobe ruins of Uruk, Ur and Eridu are ruled through the remains of ziggurats that still stand in the arid but striking landscape of the arid floodplain.
With the regression of seawater, new marshes have formed in the southeast. The main marshes of Ahwar, as we know them today, were formed at this time about 3,000 years ago.
Huwaizah, East and West Hammar and the central Ahwar marshes are basically fed by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
The Huwaizah Marsh component is a unique freshwater system, receiving gigantic amounts of flood water and limited amounts of seasonal rainfall descending from the northern and northeastern highlands. At the same time, it is the only herbal component that was not drastically exhausted in the 1980s and 1990s, which led to the salvation of its key ecological elements. This led it to be the number one safe haven for many keystone species of birds of African and Indian descent in the Middle East, which have since spread elsewhere after the flood in the early 2000s.
The Central Marshes component includes Ahwar’s existing ecological core. Distinguished through its vast ecosystems, it provides extensive habitat for many viable populations of taxa with maximum biodiversity and conservation importance.
The eastern and western parts of the Hammar Marshes involve a specific ecological phenomenon unlike the other parts. Here, salty sea water advances inland, affected on one side by tidal movements in the southernmost regions of the marshes, while on the other side, making its way into the prolonged desert to the southeast. This creates very explicit ecological situations with marine fish species as breeding domain in the eastern Hammar, while the western Hammar includes the last scale domain for millions of migratory birds before entering the vast Arabian desert. .
Criterion (iii): The remains of the Mesopotamian cities of Uruk, Ur and Eridu are exceptional testimony to the expansion and subsequent decline of southern Mesopotamian urban centers and societies from the Ubaid and Sumerian eras to the Babylonian and Hellenistic eras . The three towns were the main religious, political, economic and cultural centers that arose and evolved in an era of profound change in human history. These 3 parts of the assets testify to the contribution of the southern Mesopotamian cultures to the progression of the ancient urbanized societies of the Near East and to human history as a whole: the structure of monumental works and public works in the form of ziggurats, temples, palaces, walls and hydraulic works; a class society reflected in the urban layout that included tombs and royal palaces, sacred precincts, public warehouses, spaces dedicated to industry and vast residential neighborhoods; the centralized control of resources and surpluses that gave rise to the first writing systems and administrative files; and the conspicuous entry of imported goods. This exceptionally artistic era of human history has left its mark across time and space.
Criterion (v): The remains of the ancient cities of Uruk, Tu and Eridu, now in the desert but originally situated near freshwater swamps that retreated or became saline before drying up, best illustrate the effect of volatiles. deltaic landscape of the Tigris-Euphrates rivers during the rise and fall of major urban centers. Evidence of this relict wetland landscape can now be discovered in the topography of cities in the form of shallow depression lines containing permanent or seasonal swamps, dry waterways and canal beds, and agreed mounds formed on what were once islets surrounded by swamp water. Architectural elements, archaeological evidence, and a giant corpus of cuneishape texts further document how the wetland landscape helped shape devout beliefs, worship practices, and literary and artistic beliefs. expressions of successive cultures in southern Mesopotamia.
Criterion (ix): The Huwaizah, East and West Hammar and Central marshes exhibit ecological succession processes of foreign importance in one of the driest interior deltas in the world, and involve a high degree of speciation in a young ecosystem. and wintering problems for ducks in Western Eurasia-Caspian-Nile, as well as a main stopping point for shorebirds flying along the Asia-West Africa-East flyway. It is also vital for the migration of fish and shrimp species from the Persian Gulf. to the marshes, since the maximum species of fish have diadromous characteristics (migratory between salt and fresh water).
Criterion (x): Huwaizah, East and West Hammar and Central Marshes involve habitats of great importance and importance for in situ conservation of biological diversity, adding endemic and limited diversity species, and populations of threatened species.
This includes bird species (e. g. , endemic Iraqi warbler and babbler, subspecies of limited diversity of the black grebe, black francolin, and hooded crow and vulnerable marbled teal), mammals (p. e. g. , the endemic short-tailed Bunn rat, a subspecies of Mesopotamian hair otter and gerbil of limited diversity), and 6 species of fish of limited diversity. The assets provide habitat for several reptiles, adding the endangered Euphrates softshell turtle, known in some places in Iraq and Iran, and Murray’s finger gecko, whose diversity is limited to Ahwar, Shatt AI Arab and the western coast of Iran. The marshes also provide habitat for the relict populations of 3 species of birds (the African dart, the sacred ibis and the Goliath heron) that are thousands of miles away. of its main world populations in Africa.
Integrity
The three archaeological ensembles included in the assets offer a complete picture of the urbanization process of Ubaid and Sumer in their original but now dry marshy environment. Almost all major archaeological and architectural features of Eridu, Uruk and Ur are contained within the barriers. of the assets, however, some are within the buffer zone and beyond. However, the main port, located outside the asset barriers, has not yet been excavated and asset barriers may be extended to accompany it. at a later date.
The use of dust as the main construction curtain in southern Mesopotamia creates express conservation conditions. The cost that the passage of time has imposed on the deserted cities of southern Mesopotamia is greater than in the case of stone or baked brick architecture discovered in other parts of the world. the old global where remajors can be monumental and visually stunning. Yet the eroded remajors of the 4 ziggurats of Eridu, Uruk and Ur still dominate the desert landscape and offer striking visual testimony to the age and durability of the iconic peak. architectural elements of Mesopotamian cities.
Sedimentation layers protected the remains of Uruk, Ur and Eridu until the twentieth century, when archaeological excavations uncovered several buildings. The excavated remains of Eridu were later reburied with the exception of the ziggurat. Fabrics used to consolidate or shield the remains, while others were exposed without maintenance or armor between the 1930s and 1960s, some being affected by erosion caused basically by rain and dust. Only Ur suffered limited but reversible damage in the recent conflict.
In general, the integrity of the 3 villages is vulnerable: the conservation of their exposed fabric requires urgent attention to avoid irreversible erosion and collapse.
The 4 wetland parts of the assets cover a domain of more than 210 000 ha and another 200 000 ha of buffer zones surrounding the 4 parts provide additional coverage for the assets in total, as well as at the level of detail. As these details are ecologically interdependent, it is mandatory to identify a set of ecological corridors to ensure the connectivity of serial assets.
The highest notable risk to the ecological integrity of the assets is waters that vary significantly with their continued suitability into the uncertain future. It is mandatory to ensure that the minimum amount of water is guaranteed so that the assets maintain their biodiversity and ecological processes. More generally, additional studies are needed to verify the diversity of plants, vertebrates, and invertebrates within the assets and their surrounding landscapes.
The 4 parts surround most of the hatcheries of the main bird species in other regions of the property. Hatcheries are spaces of low human intervention where reed plants are used to build nests on the shores of small islets abundant in the surrounded by giant bodies of water away from dry lands and away from possible predators.
Numerous populations of more than 197 species of migratory waterbirds related to the Palaearctic region settle in the active and spend their migrations there during winter periods through Western Eurasia-Caspian-Nile and Eurasia-Africa. The number of migratory birds employing the assets is expanding, along with advanced degrees of rehabilitation. In addition, an increasing number of globally threatened species are documented.
Authenticity
In terms of the authenticity of the curtains of the 3 urban archaeological sites, the excavations of a series of emblematic public buildings provide an intelligent understanding of the spatial organization of the political, administrative and devout sectors of the cities. While there is no doubt about the link between the fabric and what it wears, this link is incredibly vulnerable for some areas, where beyond the lack of conservation and maintenance it has caused irreversible erosion of clay and baked brick fabric and the possible collapse of some structures. The level may soon be reached where important evidence has been eroded.
No primary reclamation or conservation projects have been undertaken since the 1930s, with the exception of the reconstruction in the 1960s of a component of the outer layer of your ziggurat using baked bricks and limited amounts of cement. This intervention did not respect the original designand the shape of the monument, however, cracks in the cement lead to water infiltration. The most recent conservation of the site has been carried out using compatible fabrics as far as possible.
Together, the authenticity of the 3 peoples is highly vulnerable due to a legacy of poor protection and conservation.
Protection and control requirements
The overall governance of the assets is ensured through the Ahwar National Management Committee of southern Iraq as World Heritage Properties. The committee is headed by the Minister of Water Resources and includes the Ministry of Culture (State Council for Antiquities and Heritage), the Ministry of Health (Department of Environment), the Ministry of Petroleum, the Ministry of Agriculture and relevant ministries. The Committee coordinates all government decisions applicable to assets, adding the budget allocation and implementation steps of the 2015 consolidated control plan developed for the assets. .
Uruk, tu and Eridu are through Law No. 55 of 2002 that it takes precedence over any other public law, and each is registered in the Official Gazette as separate archaeological sites with their own barriers and buffer zones corresponding to those of the sites that make up the property.
The State Board of Antiquities and Heritage of Iraq (SBAH) has worked in partnership with foreign archaeological missions to begin implementing the provisions of the control plan relating in particular to the three archaeological complexes. Priorities come with staff education and capacity building, as well as studies and conservation of the most volatile monuments and spaces at each archaeological site. In addition, a monitoring formula has been put in place to cover the 3 constituent sites and their buffer zones covering all the points that would possibly have effects on their integrity and authenticity. Two committed control groups have been established: one that supervises the paintings in Uruk, the other in the rate of Ur and Eridu. These groups report to the Provincial Directorates of Antiquities and Heritage (DAH): Dhi Qar DAH has jurisdiction over Ur and Eridu, while Muthanna DAH has jurisdiction over Uruk. The DAH are assisted through the Antiquities and Heritage Police, created in 2007 to monitor archaeological sites. The Antiquities and Heritage Police maintains a permanent presence in Uruk and Ur and patrols Eridu.
To respond to the highly volatile conservation situations of the 3 localities, a survey program will be undertaken to create a fundamental delimitation of the conservation status of the assets; Conservation programs will be developed for the 3 cities on the basis of surveys that obviously describe the other intervention characteristics before the start of conservation work; and a detailed master plan/roadmap for asset conservation will be developed on a sustainable basis.
Huwaizah, East and West Hammar and the Central Marshes have been designated Ramsar sites and are covered by the Ministry of Water Resources. Each component of the marshes has been assigned committed control staff who report to water resource allocation control in Dhi Qar, Maysan and Basra provinces. Also in this case, the provisions of the 2015 Consolidated Management Plan give priority to the education and training of personnel in all areas applicable to the conservation of the herbal value of the property. The control plan also addresses the participation of local stakeholders in the decision-making process and the ability of local communities to adapt to their living situations and maintain their classical lifestyle. In addition, the Ministry of Water Resources (MWR) has just completed its “Strategy for Land and Water Resources in Iraq (SWRLI)” which covers the era to 2035. This strategy charts the path towards an integrated control of land and water in the mild of the prevailing physical, hydrological and climatic situations. He also reviewed the water-food-energy nexus in Iraq and advised primary investment plans in reaction to climate replacement adaptation measures and other progress requirements.
SWRLI recognizes the Iraqi marshes as a valid “water user” on an equal footing with agricultural, domestic and commercial uses. This is a first step forward in the strategy of assembling water minimums for the environment.
The existing annual and seasonal operational plans for the Iraqi water formula controlled through MWR seek to integrate the minimum waters allocated to the marshes of southern Iraq, adding the 4 marshy parts of the property. An amount of 5. 8 BCM (one billion cubic meters) of water is allocated on an annual basis for the swamp and incorporated into water formula operations. However, it is known that water varies particularly on an annual basis and therefore it is very important that a minimum of water is generated and maintained over the long term.
The Center for Iraqi Marsh and Wetland Restoration (CRIMW) conducted a complex modeling exercise to simulate the hydrology of southern Iraq. and ecological processes. However, significant and sustained efforts are needed to better perceive hydrological regimes, adding the definition of minimum water needs for the preservation of herbal value.
Regional problems such as dam projects, increased irrigation, pollutants and drought in a changing climate remain demanding situations that need to be systematically addressed, as they will increase pressure on these fragile wetlands. In addition, explanatory and regulatory measures must be implemented. in buffer zones where potential oil extraction activities may pose a significant risk to Ahwar’s integrity. Finally, the impact of agricultural, fishing and hunting activities on ecosystems will need to be well regulated. Tourism is not an existing risk. however, it can have a greater influence in the medium term.
The barriers of the 4 herbal features and related buffer zones provide cover against threats, such as oil exploration and urban development. However, greater efforts are needed to review the barriers and for all parties to remain hydrologically and, as far as possible, ecologically connected.
Staff remain inadequate for assets, and there is a desire to recruit and manage more human resources, particularly the administrator, guards and guides. Asset control wants to be strengthened in a way that takes into account the classical use and dependence of the network on the herbal elements of the assets.
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