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Google documents Iraqi treasures; will post photographs on Web site
Associated Press Writer
The museum was ransacked in the chaotic aftermath of Saddam Hussein's ouster in April 2003, and only reopened to visitors early this year. Schmidt, who toured the museum with U.S. Ambassador Christopher Hill on Tuesday, said it was important for the world to see Iraq's rich heritage and contribution to world culture.
“The history of the beginning of - literally - civilization is made right here and is preserved here in this museum," Schmidt said at a ceremony attended by Iraqi officials.
“I can think of no better use of our time and our resources than to make the images and ideas from your civilization, from the very beginnings of time, available to billions of people worldwide," he said.
Schmidt said Google has taken about 14,000 photographs of the museum and its artifacts, and the images will be available online in early 2010.
The antiquities in the museum's vast storage vaults and artifacts from other sites across the country will also be photographed as they become available and then put on the Internet, he said.
The museum was among many institutions that were looted or set ablaze across Iraq in the days and weeks that came after Saddam's ouster.
The museum holds artifacts from the Stone Age through the Babylonian, Assyrian and Islamic periods.
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