Uncovering the past is one thing, but turning it into politicised "heritage" is something else. The National reports the arrival of 13 Polish archaeologists in Kuwait for a "rescue mission" before history is buried under a $77billion megaproject known as City of Silk:

Piotr Bielinski, the director of the research institute who is heading the excavations, said the Poles were on an “intellectual mission”, but because Kuwaitis use archaeology to build a national identity, there is also a political angle.

Mr Bielinski said archaeology in Kuwait was given a boost in 1991 after the allied forces ended the Iraqi occupation ... He said the Kuwaitis started to legitimise their statehood by “looking for particular features of their civilisation”.

But you don't need an archaeologist to dig up the relevantWikipedia page to find that the Sabah family, who preside over this ancient civilisation, arrived from Nejd (in modern-day Saudi Arabia) as recently as the 18th century.

Posted by Brian Whitaker, 11 November 2009.