Nawala Al-Mutawalli | |
|---|---|
| Citizenship | Iraq |
| Occupation(s) | Archaeologist, museum director |
| Known for | Director of the Iraq Museum during the Battle of Baghdad (2003) |
| Awards | Honorary membership of the International Association for Assyriology |
| Academic background | |
| Education | University of Baghdad |
| Thesis | (1994) |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Archaeology |
| Sub-discipline | Epigraphy and philology |
| Institutions | Iraq Museum University of Baghdad |
Nawala Ahmed Al-Mutawalli (Arabic:نوال المتولي) is an Iraqi archaeologist, philologist and former director of theIraq Museum. She is also Professor Emeritus of Archaeology at theUniversity of Mosul. In 2021, she was appointed as an honorary member of theInternational Association for Assyriology, in recognition for her work. She is an expert incuneiform andbullae and has published extensively on the archaeology of Iraq.
Al-Mutalwalli graduated from theUniversity of Baghdad with a degree in archaeology in 1976, and graduated from the same institution with a PhD in 1994.[1] She has excavated at the sites of Tell Aswad, theHamrin Dam, Ishan Mazyad,Umma,[1] andAqarquf.[2] She is an expert incuneiform andbullae and has published extensively on the archaeology of Iraq.[1] From 1995 to 2000 she was Head of Cuneiform at the Iraq Museum.[2] She was subsequently the museum's director from 2000 to 2003.[3][4] In 2000 she co-convened a celebration of 5000 years of writing in Iraq.[5] She was director of the Department of Archaeology at the University of Baghdad from 2017 to 2018.[1]
Looting, as a result of the2003 invasion of Iraq, took place during Al-Mutawalli's tenure as director and she estimated at the time that 12,000 objects[note 1] were looted from the collection.[7][8] Reported byThe Art Newspaper to be a member of theBa'ath Party (which was almost compulsory underSaddam Hussein's regime), after the fall of Baghdad, museum employees demanded her resignation.[7] This was based on accusations reported inThe Atlantic that Al-Mutawelli had been complicit in longer-term looting of Iraqi antiquities orchestrated by the regime.[3] InThe Rape of Mesopotamia, Lawrence Rothfield described how al-Mutawalli was issued with anAK-47, and guarded the museum alongside other colleagues and archaeologists preceding theBattle of Baghdad.[9]
In 2021, she was appointed as an honorary member of theInternational Association for Assyriology, in recognition for her work.[10] She is also Professor Emeritus of Archaeology at theUniversity of Mosul.[11]
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