The Ottoman Bridge of Mosul: survey and history of an endangered heritage

While we were carrying out the Iraqi-Italian QADIS survey project in the south of Iraq (Marchetti and Zaina 2020), the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage asked us for help in protecting and developing the immense site of Nineveh, ever more endangered by urban encroachment after its liberation from Daesh in June 2017. A preliminary sur- vey was thus carried out in January 2019 and then, since the autumn of that same year, yearly campaigns of archaeological excavations and conservation have followed, until during the 5th campaign of 2023 the first part of the archaeological park of Nineveh was completed and opened to the public. We have applied an integrated approach aiming at setting the site in both its historical and urban contexts, with the goals of understanding how an imperial capital city functioned, but also how the modern urban identity of Mosul has been constructed in relation to its glorious and vast heritage, with a view to assuring its conservation and protection. Our Iraqi-Italian Archaeological Expedition to Nineveh by the University of Bologna and the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage (hereafter SBAH), directed by Ni- colò Marchetti, has been funded by that University and by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, benefitting as well from conservation grants by the J. M. Kaplan Fund and the Volkswagen Foundation in order to tackle the complex task of reintegrating the torn fabrics of society and heritage in a city devastated by war, civil strife and ideological clashes. Our approach thus brought us into contact with different priorities of different subjects, both public at international, State and local level, and private ones: besides Nineveh, it was the urban fabric of the Old City of Mosul which has attracted the most attention, with UNESCO being the most visible actor there. At the same time, many other landmark features remained neglected, such as the historical material connection between the two banks of the river, represented by the Old Bridge of Mosul made with mostly reemployed 7th century BCE ashlar: in fact, it was not only ignored but actually significantly endan- gered by new public works. We thus deemed it necessary to carry out there a salvage documentation operation in July 2022, as well as providing an historical context to that monument, on both of which aspects we report below.