The lecture Heritage, Genocide and Memory by Dr. Alda Benjamen is taking place during the opening programme for the second part of the trilogy Michael Rakowitz & Ancient Cultures featuring the installation Lamassu of Neneveh (2018) presented by NEON and the Acropolis Museum.

The Lamassu signifies glory while narrating a history of displacement, destruction, and re-creation. It embodies the links between objects and people—their triumphs, struggles, and livelihoods—through food, art, writing, and memory. In the late 19th and through the 20th century these once-disconnected parts were reimagined, remembered, and memorialized in newspapers, re-created objects, and works of art. At times the Lamassu served to reconnect communities with its Mesopotamian heritage. The state also employed Mesopotamianism, combining heritage, oil and nationalism merged to elevate the nation-state, often denying living communities’ connection to this heritage. The Lamassu here stood as a guardian not only of identity, but also of the human rights, intertwining culture and identity embodying the homeland – often in new territories. Surviving genocide aimed at destroying ancient heritage and the connections it represents—links to the past that are multilingual, religious, and cultural. Lamassu’s memory reflects that of a people and a community, along with the image of an invisible enemy, imagined and feared but unreal. The Lamassu embodies what can still be drawn together, as it has been for millennia. Uniquely Mesopotamian, it endures as a testament to resilience.

Dr. Alda Benjamen is an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Dayton where she teaches courses on the modern history of the Middle East. Recently, she was the Avimalek Betyousef Faculty Fellow in the Department of History and the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Prior to that, she was Fellow at the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress and a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pennsylvania Museum and the Smithsonian. Most recently she was the research director of a US state department funded cultural heritage preservation project focusing on marginalized communities in Iraq, including Assyrians and Yezidis.