It emerged over the weekend that 170,000 ancient artifacts housed in the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad had been destroyed or looted. The New York Times reports the destruction of the museum is likely to be reckoned as one of the greatest cultural disasters in recent Middle East history. The National Museum recorded a history of civilizations that began to flourish in the fertile plains of Mesopotamia more than 7,000 years ago. Among the treasures lost or destroyed, the world’s first written words. After surviving for more than 5,000 years, distinctive clay tablets from the Royal Tombs of Ur are gone. The tablets have cuneiform writing and are recognized as the root of all mankind’s written communication. The world’s earliest examples of mathematics, including calculations that have led to the modern system of timekeeping, using hours, minutes and seconds, based on the number six.

Museum officials are outraged at U.S. troops for failing to protect the museum. For weeks before the war, archaeologists and scholars around the world had warned the Pentagon about post-war looting. They reminded the Pentagon that after the 1991 Gulf War, nine of Iraq’s 13 regional museums were plundered. Meanwhile, Reuters reports U.S. troops are seizing trophies from Iraq to take home with them or even to sell on eBay.