The Iraqi permit to excavate, 1924 to 1939

Iraq's Antiquities Law of 26 June 1924 made a permit of the Minister of Communications and Works, through the Director of Antiquities, the condition of any dig. The first, Permit No. 1, went to the joint expedition of the British Museum and the University of Pennsylvania for Ur, while Gertrude Bell was Director.

Bearer prints it as that permit was typed: one sheet, English on the left and Arabic on the right, block for block, the mounds named in both, the Director of the day signing.

Bearer makes an investigator's papers for Call of Cthulhu and any 1920s or 1930s tabletop campaign: the passport a consul would have filled in, with the visas and frontier stamps a campaign leaves in it, and the permits, certificates and tickets of the period, to print or to share.

An example

Open this example in the office

The paper

Parts reconstructed

• the revenue stamp over the minister's line: the permit read carries one; the stamp drawn is ours

The same paper elsewhere

• Permits to dig by country

Still to be confirmed

• the day and the place of issue are not on the permit read, so Bearer prints neither; the date of issue only chooses who signs. What would settle it: another Iraqi permit to excavate, dated.
• clause (c) speaks of "these mounds" (هذين التلين, two of them), as the permit read does: a permit for one site or for three has not been found. What would settle it: an Iraqi permit for one site or for more than two.
• the Arabic of clause 1 agrees the verb with البعثة (the expedition, feminine: مرخوصة), as on the permit read; a grantee named by a masculine noun would take مرخوص. What would settle it: an Iraqi permit granted to a person or to a masculine body.
• four years when no expiry is typed in: the permit read runs from 1924 to 31 March 1928; what the Antiquities Law itself allows has not been found. What would settle it: the Antiquities Law, 1924.
• the Arabic months other than March (اذار, on the permit read) are the Iraqi names, spelt as the permit spells its words, without hamza. What would settle it: an Iraqi paper of the period dated in those months.
• Gertrude Bell signs until her death on 12 July 1926, a date from secondary sources; after it the title is printed Director of Antiquities (مدير الآثار القديمة, masculine) and the name left to the pen, since her successors' own permits have not been found. What would settle it: a permit to excavate signed after July 1926.
• the Minister of Communications and Works is the minister of the permit read; the ministry's name in later years has not been found. What would settle it: a permit of the thirties.
• the Antiquities Law of 1936 replaced that of 1924; the permits granted under it have not been found, so the type runs on unchanged. What would settle it: a permit to excavate of 1936 or later.
• the sheet is set at A4. What would settle it: the permit measured.

Sources

• Gertrude Bell, Honorary Director of Antiquities, for the Minister of Communications and Works; accepted by C. Leonard Woolley. Original in the British Museum; photograph published by the Penn Museum, Expedition magazine, 'Archaeology in the Digital Age', Antiquities Department of the Government of 'Iraq, Permit to Excavate No. 1: the joint Expedition of the British Museum and the University of Pennsylvania at Tall al Muqaiyir (Ur) and Tall al 'Ubaid, valid until 31 March 1928, typed in English on the left and in Arabic on the right, line for line: the department and the permit's number; clause 1, the expedition permitted to excavate for antiquities at (a) and (b), two mounds, and (c) the area round them defined on a map attached; clause 2, valid until a date and subject to the Antiquities Law, 1924 and to any law or regulations the 'Iraq Government issues meanwhile; the Minister of Communications and Works (a revenue stamp over his line); the Honorary Director of Antiquities, signed in English and in Arabic; accepted on behalf of the two institutions in accordance with article 9 of the Antiquities Law, 1924. The Arabic writes its figures in Arabic-Indic digits and the month as اذار. (read directly)
• Colonial Office, London, 1928, Report by His Britannic Majesty's Government on the Administration of 'Iraq for the period 1920-1927, the list of the laws of 1924 gives the Antiquities Law, 1924, of 26 June 1924; the reports of the following years name the excavations licensed (Ur, Kish, Nineveh, Nuzi, Warka, Khorsabad) but do not print the law (read directly)

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