Article: A fertile crescent for looting; A National Geographic survey finds guards at some key sites, but others, especially in the south, are being robbed.(USA)

Byline: Mary Wiltenburg Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

They come by the hundreds. Gangs of thieves with shovels and penknives are now raiding Iraqi archaeological sites, gouging millenniums-old artifacts out of the dirt in what scientists consider a potentially catastrophic loss of the early record of human civilization. That's the picture that emerges in a new survey released Wednesday - the first since the recent war - about the state of sites that may hold undiscovered treasures.

Progress has been made securing some key sites, but more are now being scavenged, according to National Geographic, which did the survey.

The report ...

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