Troops headed to Iraq get lessons in ancient artifacts Iraq-bound troops get lesson in ancient artifacts

While stationed in Afghanistan's rural Kunar province, Fred Straka sometimes came across mud-brick buildings where villagers were selling all manner of bric-a-brac, including old coins and bronze daggers.

"You'd see a lot of what looked like artifacts," recalled Straka, a Newark, Del., resident who was in the Delaware National Guard.

Though he bought an imitation Enfield rifle, Straka said he stayed away from objects that looked like antiquities.

Good move, he learned last week during a special two-day session at Fort Dix and the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Straka is now a lieutenant colonel attached to the Army's 352d Civil Affairs Command, which is headed to Iraq next month to support local reconstruction efforts in 14 provinces.

He and 60 other soldiers heard presentations about how to respect the nation's vast cultural heritage, whether that means thwarting looters of ancient sites or helping to preserve museums and mosques. The message was reinforced with a tour of the archaeology museum in West Philadelphia, where the troops got to see artifacts of the kind they might encounter overseas.

The idea for such briefings came from museum deputy director C. Brian Rose, in the wake of the 2003 looting of the Iraq National Museum - when an estimated 15,000 artifacts were stolen, 7,500 of which have since been recovered. Rose, who now is also president of the Archaeological Institute of America, imagined that U.S. armed forces could play a role in preventing future desecration. After going through various channels to enlist the military's cooperation, he gave the first lecture in 2005, at Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Rose and other scholars who spoke last week had an obvious professional interest in encouraging troops to tread carefully amid the very sands of history, in a part of the world that includes the Mesopotamian cradle of civilization.

A respectful attitude has strategic value as well, Rose said.

Showing appreciation for local culture - past and present - helps troops to win the "hearts and minds" of the nation where they are deployed, whether it is Iraq, Afghanistan, or elsewhere, Rose told his audience.

"You are playing a fundamental role in keeping the culture of these nations alive, and therefore a fundamental role in keeping the nations alive," the archaeologist said.