The ARTE documentary film „Trésors de Mésopotamie“, respectively „Mesopotamien – Archäologen retten, was zu retten ist“ was broadcasted on Arte on September 25, 2021 with participation of Mathieu Ossendrijver, the Principal Investigator of the ZODIAC project.

Mesopotamia – as it is called because of its location between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers – is in what is now Iraq. The land of Sumer, Babylon, the Gilgamesh epic, the rebel Nimrod and the legendary Tower of Babel: These names still stand for what was once Mesopotamia. In 2014, when the terrorist militia of the so-called Islamic State destroyed the most important archaeological sites of northern Mesopotamia, the ancient culture came back into the public eye. The propaganda video images staged by IS, which show the destruction of cultural treasures, went around the world. The ARTE documentary explores the question of the legacy of this civilization that IS terrorists wanted to destroy forever. Iraqi writer and journalist Jawad Bashara mobilized a group of archaeologists and Iraqi citizens to oppose the planned eradication of these pillars of civilization. In a race against time, Jawad Bashara and his supporters are trying to save the ruins, monuments and works of art spread all over Iraq and to restore them using the latest digital technology.