Preliminary Inventory of the Maciej Milczanowski photographs
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Echo Base - Diwaniyah (Al-Qadishiah province)
1-7: Routine life in Echo Base near Diwaniyah.
8-10: Tactical Operation Center where Milczanowski as the Battle Captain and his chief of TOC Major Dariusz Slota are on duty
11-14: Bazaar in the base where soldiers could buy souvenirs, electronics, and so on (all Iraqis coming to this bazaar were checked by the guards and had special permissions for a limited period of time to come and sell goods inside the base)
15-21: Gym, which was always crowded
22-30: Place to rest after duty
31-33: Church inside the base, including cross with the names of all Polish soldiers killed in Iraqi mission; every Sunday there was a Holy Mass with a Polish priest
34-35: One of the contingents was from El Salvador; soldiers were curious to meet people from the other side of the globe
36-37: The Polish Prime Minister came before Christmas to Camp Echo and shared his good wishes with the soldiers
Delta Base - Al Kut
1: Main building of the Polish Brigade and battalion
2-5: View of the city of Al-Kut from the roof of the main building
6: One of the guard towers located on the bunker
7-8: Offices
9: View from the OP Tower 11 on the Tigris River
10: OP Tower 11, closest to the river and bush on the other side; anyone could come very close without being observed, and one of the Latvian soldiers was wounded there
11: The fence inside the base, between the zones of different levels of protection
12: Road inside the base along the perimeter during the rainy season
13-19: View of the Tigris River and the housing on the other side of the river
20-27: Buildings around the airport inside the base
28: Gate No. 1, very narrow place to force the incoming cars to maximally slow down
29-34: The Ukrainian soldiers who the base was taken over from never finished clearing it of mines, so during the winter especially there was the threat of mine explosions
35-38: Iraqi soldiers training inside the base
39-43: Very weak protection of the base was the primary concern of the Polish troops; building new protection measures had to be conducted at the same time that all patrols, convoys, and observation duties were carried out
44-45: Living conditions were good but only for a temporary stay; having no place to store personal belongings made the rooms messy
46: On duty with El Salvadorian officer
Patrol Camp Echo - Camp Charlie
1: Inside the Humvee
2-5: The road from Diwaniyah to Al-Hillah
6-10: Going north the landscape became more green
11-18: Ruins of the ancient Mesopotamian city of Kish
19-22: Just before Al-Hillah the landscape changed completely in comparison to the surroundings of Diwaniyah
23: Iraqi kids seeing Polish flag at the top of the car's antenna, coming into the road waving and waiting for water and food
Escort for DCO Brigade to Afak
1-3: Not many people lived around Base Charlie (south from Diwaniyah)
4-6: Check point composed of Bulgarian and Iraqi soldiers established while the Brigade Deputy Commanding Officer discussed with the Afak authorities, Iraqi police, and Iraqi Army commanders the plan for protection during the election
25-34: Villages between Afak and Echo Base
Convoy from Echo to Tallil
1: Preparation: Loading ammunition, switching bullet proof jacket from the official (nice looking one) into the ordinary (much more comfortable in case of any action)
2-5: People were very friendly; kids got some toys but also water and food from the Polish soldiers
6: Evening in the Tallil Base
7-8: Place with white sand marks the marshes (remnants of a sea bay from ancient times, which is why they were salty) where rebels of the First Gulf War hid from the regime until Saddam dried them and caught the rebels
Convoy Camp Echo - Camp Victory (Baghdad)
1-2: In the vicinity of Baghdad heavier vehicles were patrolling
3-7: Getting close to Baghdad
8-20: Saddam's palace on the water
21-34: Way back from Baghdad to Diwaniyah
1-2: Preparation in the camp
3: Bulgarian escort for the trucks with the Brigade officers
4: Road to shooting range
5-8: Shooting training
9: Local people near the shooting range
Babylon
1-8: Greek theatre founded by Alexander the Great, reconstructed by Saddam Hussein
9-11: Famous Processional Way build by King Nabuchodonosor [Nebuchadnezzar] and used by Alexander the Great; reconstructed by Saddam Hussein
12-14: Gate Ishtar; original ornaments in the shape of Babylonian gods
15-17: Temple of Ninmah, reconstructed on Saddam Hussein's orders; reconstruction was under way when the war started
18-20: Inside of the Gate Ishtar
21-25: Ruins of the Palace named Museum because of the numerous findings
26-29: The walls along the Processional Way
30-34: In the ruins still could be found bricks and plates with Kline writing
35-41: Famous wall of Babylon, described by Herodotus and counted once as one of the seven wonders, later replaced by the Hanging Gardens
42-43: Place where some archeologists believe the Hanging Gardens could have been; it is in the north-eastern corner of the main palace, beside the Processional Way and Ishtar Gate
44-52: The main palace
53: Bricks in which Saddam Hussein ordered written that he as the next king of Babylon reconstructed the palace
54-56: The new and heavy bricks were placed on the ancient ruins, the only purpose of that being showing himself [Saddam Hussein] as the great builder, but in fact such reconstruction only ruined finally all that was left of the ancient remnants
Nippur
1-7: First look at the ziggurat in Nippur and northern side of the city
8-9: Wall surrounding the ziggurat and the temple area
10: Eastern part of the temple yard
11: Walls
12: Kind of storage prepared in later times, when the ziggurats were used as defensive structures and lost their sacred character
Views from the top of the ziggurat
13-14: Southern part of the temple yard
15-16: Large temple of goddess Inanna
17: Another part of the walls surrounding the temple
18-19: The inside of the brick structure at the top of the ziggurat
20-21: Southern part of the temple yard and further the elevation called the hill of the thousand plates, where the plates were lying in the ground; the Kline texts writing from that place told a large part of the history of the Sumer
22-25: Looking from the top of the ziggurat
26-30: Place of the last excavations made by American archeologists until 2004
31-36: Southern part of the temple yard
37-39: Walls of the ziggurat
40: Gate in the southern wall
41-45: Southern part of the temple yard
Ur
1: Stairs to the top of the ziggurat
2-5: Eastern view from the top of the ziggurat
6-7: Ziggurat was not under archeological conservation and falls into ruin once again
8-10: Southern view from the ziggurat
11-13: Northern view from the ziggurat
14-16: Southern view from the ziggurat
17-19: Partially reconstructed palace
20: Gate to the temple circle; the gate was partially built from dried clay bricks, not burned, which is why it is in very bad condition
21-25: Cars of the site protection, planes patrolling area
26-31: Details of the ziggurat; the best preserved object of that class, but a lack of conservation causes it damage
32-39: Very illustrative comparison of the structures build with the clay bricks dried in the sun and burned in fire
40: Information board of the archeological site
41-49, 52-53, 58-59: Details of the palace, and planes patrolling the area
50: The man who watched the archeological site; Milczanowski discussed the monuments, tombs, and reconstruction with him, and it appeared that he was a professor at Baghdad University
51: Some tombs of the 1st and 2nd dynasty of Ur were covered during the invasion to prevent them from being looted or destroyed
54-56: Structures between the official part of the city (with the temples and palaces) and the living quarters
57, 75, 103, 108: One of the examples of the sewage system
58-73: Tombs of the third dynasty of Ur
74, 76: Rooms of the guardians of the kings' tombs and priests at the same time
77-80: Evening in Ur at the end of the first day of sightseeing
81-84: The third dynasty tombs on another day of sightseeing
85: Information board with map of the city of Ur
86-89: General view of the tombs quarter
90: Ziggurat from the tombs area
91-94: Part of Ur which was not reconstructed yet
95-101: Reconstructed part of the city of Ur; according to the guide, one of the houses there belonged to Abraham
102-122: Other monuments, not reconstructed yet, and last look at the ziggurat
Collection description.doc
DearPolishTroopsChristmas2005 (1).pdf
Plan of Babilon northern part.jpg
Mesopotamian archeology sites.ppt
Plan of Nippur.ppt