Iraqis Put Warplanes at Ancient Temple, U.S. Says : Archeology: Secretary Cheney says MIGs are next to ruins of historic site. Hussein reportedly has customarily placed military installations near cultural locations.

The Bush Administration accused Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on Wednesday of endangering one of the world’s most precious archeological treasures by parking two warplanes near the ruins of an ancient temple in the historic city of Ur.

Defense Secretary Dick Cheney said the Iraqi military command has placed the two Soviet-made MIG-21 fighter-bombers “right next to the pyramid” at Ur, a reference to the famous temple of Ur-Nammu, the king who reigned over the city-state about 2100 BC.

Ur was the capital of Sumer and the birthplace of the biblical patriarch Abraham. Its temple, or ziggurat, is perhaps the most spectacular archeological relic in Mesopotamia, the area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers known as the cradle of civilization. Much of the original pyramid-shaped structure is still standing.

Cheney said the decision to park the planes by the temple shows that Hussein should bear the blame for unintended destruction by allied bombers of civilian neighborhoods, cultural sites and other non-military facilities.

Cheney, speaking Wednesday to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said the two MIGs were spotted by “satellite imagery obtained just this morning.” Hussein’s placement of the planes at the site is “obviously an effort to use the archeologically significant facility to protect his military capabilities,” Cheney said.

“Clearly, (Hussein has) demonstrated repeatedly a willingness to use his population and cultural artifacts in an effort to shield and protect his military equipment,” Cheney said.

Cheney did not give any indication whether the two planes would be bombed by allied aircraft. But U.S. military officials have stated repeatedly that they would avoid targeting religious, civilian and historical sites in Iraq. Iraqi officials claimed Wednesday that about 500 civilians were killed when bombs struck a shelter in Baghdad.

Contacted independently, two specialists in Near Eastern archeology confirmed that for several years Hussein has placed military installations and equipment near ancient cultural sites.

Augusta McMahon, an archeological researcher at the University of Chicago, said the Ur site is bordered by and partly covered by Tellil, a military airfield west of Nasiriyah, a modern riverfront city. Both the modern city and the airfield have been targets of allied bombing.

“I have no idea how close the airplanes might be from the ziggurat, but part of the air base may be built on top of the site,” McMahon said. “You could have a runway only a couple of hundred meters from the excavation and it would be easy to roll planes right next to it.”

McGuire Gibson, professor of Mesopotamian archeology at the University of Chicago, said he last visited Ur a decade ago and noted that the airfield was about a mile from the remains of the ziggurat.

Gibson said he was apprehensive that U.S. military planners might lack familiarity with Iraq’s rich archeological legacy. “I’m pleased to learn they are discovering there is archeology there,” he said.

Gibson and McMahon expressed concern that most of the archeological sites left by successive ancient civilizations that flourished in the area are now at risk. This is partly because many are surrounded by cities, factories and other possible targets.

For example, in an area of northern Iraq once known as Assyria, the site of the ancient city of Nineveh is now surrounded by the modern industrial suburbs of Mosul. McMahon said that Mosul’s main oil storage tank is “right on a partially excavated tell (mound) next to the palace of the Assyrian kings.”

When McMahon was last at the site in the late 1980s, the Iraqis “had an antiaircraft gun and a truck with radar right there on the tell,” she said.

Also located nearby, Gibson said, is the partly excavated throne room of Sennacherib, an Assyrian king from 705 to 681 BC. Covered by a corrugated metal roof, the large, oblong structure contains a number of priceless relief carvings still affixed to the original walls.