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CNN Live Saturday
Interview With Jason Williams
Aired June 14, 2003 - 14:33 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: In Iraq, a treasure hunt turns up some ancient jewels there. The all but forgotten royal relics from the tombs of Nimrud were uncovered in a secret vault inside a vault in Baghdad's bombed out Central Bank. The artifacts are more than 1,000 years old. They were placed in the bank during the first Gulf War, and then apparently forgotten. National Geographic "Ultimate Explorer" producer Jason Williams is in Washington to tell us more about the treasure hunt and the find. Good to see you, Jason. It's one thing to hear about this find; it's another to see it. What did you see?
JASON WILLIAMS, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC: Good afternoon. Well, I will just backtrack a little bit. This is something which I have been looking for, for over 10 years. The find itself has been first discovered in 1988, by Mozehi Mahmoud (ph), an Iraqi archaeologist working at the site. And over the course of about three digging seasons, he uncovered what some people have described as the second most important archaeological find since the discovery of Tutanchamun's tomb in the 20th century.
A really quite remarkable hoard of exquisite gold jewelry which once adorned four Syrian queens. This one appeared about 2,700 years ago. The materials were very briefly put on display in Baghdad at the Iraq Museum there, this in either 1989, or 1990, depending on who you asked. But with the first of the Gulf Wars, those materials were taken off display and frankly just disappeared. And by the time I got on their trail in the early 1990s, they simply -- no one knew where they were, and no one could tell us where they went.
WHITFIELD: And even greater fear during the war when there was so much looting and other artifacts were taken from museums, in and around Baghdad, that perhaps this great find right here, this treasure trove just might be among those that were looted? Was that ever a concern to you as well?
WILLIAMS: Absolutely. We had three principal concerns. When we realized that by the 1990s, late 1990s, we realized that actually the materials were being stored in the Central Bank in Iraq. But when I got to the Central Bank, it had taken a direct hit from a American cruise missile. So I was very worried that perhaps everything would be melted down. We also heard reports that Qusay Hussein had made a massive withdrawal two days before the war began. And we were concerned that perhaps the Hussein family had taken charge of these remains. And then, of course, potentially that looters had got down there. As it turned out when we got into the Central Bank and started looking around for the vault which we knew would contain these treasures, we realized it had been flooded, almost certainly deliberately as a protective measure, and we were faced with either walking away from it, or finding a way to pump out the Central Bank.
And we chose the latter route. Brought in some pumps, and over the space of about two weeks, we drained approximately 650,000 gallons of water from the Iraq Museum.
WHITFIELD: So Jason, is it your belief that that flooding took place intentionally to preserve this cache of goods?
WILLIAMS: Yes, pretty much so. It's impossible to tell, but the bank was designed by a German company. The Germans we know in the past have used flooding as a final protective measure. We were able to find a large scale faucet which had been quite clearly recently turned on, and when we turned that off, all of our flooded problems had subsided and we were able to start actually draining it.
WHITFIELD: Wow, it's incredibly beautiful stuff that you've uncovered there. Gotten a chance to get a closer look, and now we will all get a chance to get a closer look at it, too. Thanks very much, Jason Williams, for joining us, and of course all of you can watch Jason's work, when his documentary debuts on "National Geographic Ultimate Explorer," the program is set to air Sunday July 6, at 8:00 Eastern time. Check local listings for your channel in your community. All right, thanks very much, Jason.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired June 14, 2003 - 14:33 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: In Iraq, a treasure hunt turns up some ancient jewels there. The all but forgotten royal relics from the tombs of Nimrud were uncovered in a secret vault inside a vault in Baghdad's bombed out Central Bank. The artifacts are more than 1,000 years old. They were placed in the bank during the first Gulf War, and then apparently forgotten. National Geographic "Ultimate Explorer" producer Jason Williams is in Washington to tell us more about the treasure hunt and the find. Good to see you, Jason. It's one thing to hear about this find; it's another to see it. What did you see?
JASON WILLIAMS, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC: Good afternoon. Well, I will just backtrack a little bit. This is something which I have been looking for, for over 10 years. The find itself has been first discovered in 1988, by Mozehi Mahmoud (ph), an Iraqi archaeologist working at the site. And over the course of about three digging seasons, he uncovered what some people have described as the second most important archaeological find since the discovery of Tutanchamun's tomb in the 20th century.
A really quite remarkable hoard of exquisite gold jewelry which once adorned four Syrian queens. This one appeared about 2,700 years ago. The materials were very briefly put on display in Baghdad at the Iraq Museum there, this in either 1989, or 1990, depending on who you asked. But with the first of the Gulf Wars, those materials were taken off display and frankly just disappeared. And by the time I got on their trail in the early 1990s, they simply -- no one knew where they were, and no one could tell us where they went.
WHITFIELD: And even greater fear during the war when there was so much looting and other artifacts were taken from museums, in and around Baghdad, that perhaps this great find right here, this treasure trove just might be among those that were looted? Was that ever a concern to you as well?
WILLIAMS: Absolutely. We had three principal concerns. When we realized that by the 1990s, late 1990s, we realized that actually the materials were being stored in the Central Bank in Iraq. But when I got to the Central Bank, it had taken a direct hit from a American cruise missile. So I was very worried that perhaps everything would be melted down. We also heard reports that Qusay Hussein had made a massive withdrawal two days before the war began. And we were concerned that perhaps the Hussein family had taken charge of these remains. And then, of course, potentially that looters had got down there. As it turned out when we got into the Central Bank and started looking around for the vault which we knew would contain these treasures, we realized it had been flooded, almost certainly deliberately as a protective measure, and we were faced with either walking away from it, or finding a way to pump out the Central Bank.
And we chose the latter route. Brought in some pumps, and over the space of about two weeks, we drained approximately 650,000 gallons of water from the Iraq Museum.
WHITFIELD: So Jason, is it your belief that that flooding took place intentionally to preserve this cache of goods?
WILLIAMS: Yes, pretty much so. It's impossible to tell, but the bank was designed by a German company. The Germans we know in the past have used flooding as a final protective measure. We were able to find a large scale faucet which had been quite clearly recently turned on, and when we turned that off, all of our flooded problems had subsided and we were able to start actually draining it.
WHITFIELD: Wow, it's incredibly beautiful stuff that you've uncovered there. Gotten a chance to get a closer look, and now we will all get a chance to get a closer look at it, too. Thanks very much, Jason Williams, for joining us, and of course all of you can watch Jason's work, when his documentary debuts on "National Geographic Ultimate Explorer," the program is set to air Sunday July 6, at 8:00 Eastern time. Check local listings for your channel in your community. All right, thanks very much, Jason.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
