Penn Museum creates a newly digitated photo file to document the story of Yazidi

Almost 300 photographs taken in northern Iraq during the 1930s and stored in the Penn Museum have been digitized and shared with the Yazidi community, which is indigenous for that region, forming what the researchers describe as the first visual archive of the group.

The images, which show weddings, sanctuaries, festivals and the daily life of the Yazidi indigenous people, were originally taken by the archaeologist Penn Ephraim Avigdor Speiser and his team during the excavations in the Mesopotamian sites of Tepe Gawra and Tell Billa. Many of the photos had not been cataloged or published to Marc Marín Webb, a PH.D. The candidate in Mesopotamian history and archeology, rediscovered them in 2022.

“The Penn museum colleagues knew that I was watching Lalish’s story, and then this colleague sent me the photo,” Webb said in an interview with the Pennsylvanian newspaper. “We went to see the photos and found all those 300 photos.

The Penn Museum study scanned the collection in high resolution, cataloging negatives and fragile impressions that had remained stored for decades.

“The Penn Museum was very generous in scanning everything and sharing it in such a record,” Webb said. “300 photos in just a few months.”

In April, the photographs were exhibited in Iraq through the Sersal Project, a collaboration between Penn, the University of Victoria-Biblioteca Goethe Institute and the Music School of the Mirzo de Sinjar Foundation.

Webb described the collaboration with the Mirzo Foundation as the “most important” part of the project.

“Having musicians composing songs from Yazidi’s history, looking at this photograph was a beautiful dialogue between oral stories and visual memory,” he said.

Reman Salo, a second -year -old student who was born and grew up in northern Iraq, recalled his reaction when he first learned the photographs in an interview with the DP.

“It was incredible, in reality, because as someone from the community, it was a big deal to see the Penn museum pay attention and worry about those things,” Salo said. “I was very happy, sincerely, I was very proud.”

According to Salo, the photographs research process was also emotional.

“At home, our parents and grandparents have told stories about our history. Knowledge is passed through generations,” he said. “But when you put a camera, or a photo, in that voice, you can really see it. At least I saw photos of my hometown 100 years ago, which was incredibly surprising.”

The photographs emerged a decade after the campaign of the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham 2014 in Sinjar, that the United Nations have classified as genocide.

Webb said the photographs, although originally created for archaeological documentation, have assumed a new role that connects the past and present.

He stressed that the decision of the Penn Museum to digitize and share the images reflects broader efforts to support the preservation of heritage in Iraq, where much of the Yazidi culture has been the target of destruction.

“It helps to attract … attention to not so much genocide, but what happens after genocide,” Webb said. “The problem of places like Sinjar is that it is still destroyed … there are still devices (and) mass tombs that have not been opened.”

For salo, photographs expand the possibilities of how Yazidi’s life can be represented and have the potential to create more awareness for indigenous communities. .

“It is a great thing that reflects a history of the community that has existed for thousands of years, years of civilization, culture and resilience,” he said. “We are not only known for violence against us, but also … happy moments.”

Webb acknowledged that local populations in Iraq have expressed a similar desire for memory during the exhibitions.

“These images allow you to have empathy with people, because they are marrying, because they are celebrating in the sanctuaries,” he said.

He also described his hope of continuing the project beyond his pH.D. dissertation.

“The idea would be to generate the right file, the first visual file of the community,” Webb said. “Maybe we can find a way to collaborate with different files … It is a project around memory, and I am very interested.”

The pending approval of museums, said Webb, are also being made plans to bring exposure to Philadelphia.