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By: Nineveh On Line Staff
December 13, 2008
Dr. Donny George Youkhanna, a very
prominent and well known Assyrian archaeologist and
scholar who was instrumental in recovering many of
the artifacts looted from the National Museum in
Baghdad after the fall of Saddam in 2003 gave a
wonderful presentation at the California State
University, Stanislaus on Saturday, December 13th at 2
p.m. in the Vasché Library West Reading Room.
Dr. Youkhanna is an Assyrian
Christian, a native of Iraq, who along with his
family was forced to flee Iraq in 2006. Dr. Youkhanna is currently a visiting Professor of
Anthropology at Stony Brook University in New York.
As the Director General of
Baghdad’s National Museum, he played a major roll in
recovering almost half of the 15,000 artifacts that
were looted from the museum of Iraq’s archaeological sites during the chaos that followed
the 2003 fall of dictator Saddam. Many artifacts
were sold on the international antiquities black
market in many countries including Jordan, Syria,
Turkey, Iran, South Africa and South America.
Dr. Youkhanna's lecture included a
multitude of academic and informative material
regarding who the Assyrian people are as well as a
variety of their achievements with a concentration
in many of the marvelous ancient artifacts created
by the Assyrians ranging from enormous and
fascinating city sculptures such as the Lamasso to
lavish pieces of jewelry to brilliant everyday
items.
He stressed the idea of unity for the Assyrian
people regardless of their faith or Church
affiliation, and exposed the conflicts within the
Assyrian people that is allowing for the
deterioration of that unity as well.
As an archeologist, Dr. Youkhanna
expressed that through academic research and
evidence it is found that the Assyrian people have
the name Assyrian originating from the country of
Assyria.
In answering questions from the
audience regarding some confusion among those who
falsely claim that Chaldeans of today are not
Assyrian but rather related to the
Chaldeans of antiquity, Dr. Youkhanna explained
in detail how the Chaldean name came to existence in
modern day Iraq and how the Catholic Church named a
group of Assyrians converted from the Holy Apostolic
Catholic Church of the East to Roman Catholics.
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