Ancient gold artefects to be shown online
Tuesday, 24th November 2009 (4702 views)
A series of ancient gold artefects that appear at Iraq's National Museum are to be showcased online.
Thousands of images of the artefacts will be put online by Google as part of a bid to encourage foreign companies to invest in Iraq.
The Iraq Museum has been mostly closed to the public since the 2003 invasion due to security concerns, but people from all over the world will be able to see the collection online from early 2010.
Google chief executive officer Eric Schmidt said that he cannot think of a better use of the company's time and resources than making these images available to people all over the world.
A collection of gold jewellery known as the Nimrud treasures is feared to have disappeared after the 2003 invasion.
The items have previously been described by British Museum archaeologist John Curtis as "the most significant archaeological discovery since King Tutankhamen's tomb was uncovered in Egypt in 1922".
