Community Heritage of Mosul

The ‘Community Heritage of Mosul’ is a project proposed and led by the College of Archaeology at Mosul University to both understand and strengthen Ninewah communities’ connections to cultural heritage. It is a research project oriented towards practice based skills in developing community heritage as a pillar of Mosul’s rebuilding using the resources of the College of Archaeology at Mosul university, helping to create a bridge for the College of Archaeology itself to reach out to Mosul’s secondary schools through their staff with a view to promoting community heritage.

The project works to first identify and strengthen the relationship that now exists after significant destruction to Ninewah’s diverse cultural heritage and build community resilience at a difficult time after the occupation of the province by DAESH. The project will work with community leaders, the teaching staff of secondary schools and other stakeholders to build stronger community connections to cultural heritage as a central element of post-conflict rebuilding. The project will produce a community heritage teaching and reading resource prepared specifically for secondary school age students about the role of cultural heritage particularly in Mosul’s inter-cultural communities with a view to improve social cohesion and peaceful co-existence. It is hopeful also that the project will prepare a community heritage guide for the College of Archaeology on approaches to community heritage. This output is designed to build the College of Archaeology’s academic capacity and skills to better engage and address the current challenges facing Ninewah’s cultural heritage resources.  

Research Design and Methodology

The project is split into two main phases. The first is to build community-heritage capacity as an approach that the Directorate of Education in Mosul could use to better understand and activate the role of community heritage in society.

The second phase builds on skills developed at the College of Archaeology to reach out to Mosul’s wider community, particularly the teaching staff of secondary schools. This component of the project raises awareness of the role of community heritage in society. 

Project Outputs

The team held five workshops:

• The reality of cultural heritage in areas of armed conflict with Prof Saeed Al-hajji, Dr. Omar Al-Azzawi, Prof. Abdul Hafeez Faraj
• Plastic art and its embodiment of the events in Mosul after 2014 with Dr. Lamaia Jassim AlJawary
• The impact of wars terrorist operations on the architectural heritage of Mosul and ways to rebuild it
• The position of international law in the protection of antiquities and heritage with Dr. Zaid Abdul Wahab Al-Nuaimi
• Rehabilitation of archaeological and heritage sites in Nineveh Governorate