Archaeology Magazine - Passport to Antiquity - Passport Stamp 6

Stamp text: "Permission to leave Mesopotamia. J. Lersch [initials below?]. Abu Kamal 4/5/20."

Among the most dangerous parts of the team's journey in Iraq was a trip from Baghdad up the Euphrates River to what is now Syria (then called "the Arab State"). Breasted noted that convoys in this area were frequent targets of Arab snipers, and related an event that had taken place recently along the road: "Not long ago they shot the Indian driver of one of the vans right through the heart as he drove his machine at full speed. A neighboring driver sprang out of his machine, stopped the driverless car which was running wild, and saved the body of his comrade, fighting off the Arabs as he did so."

The Oriental Institute caravan preparing for ride through the desert from Baghdad to the Mediterranean (Courtesy Oriental Institute)

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