When Frederick Matson seamed a newspaper the morning after U.S. warplanes first bombed Iraq, a name on a map of U.S. bomb targets caught his eye: Salman Pak.

Located just southeast of Baghdad, Salman Pak is a village so small that it does not appear on most maps of Iraq. But for Matsen, a research professor emeritus of archaeology at the University, Salman Pak is not just another little town in a foreign land.

Matson helped excavate Selucia-on-the-Tigris, across the river from Salman Pak, during an archaeological expedition in 1936 and 1937. He wondered whether the town's major archaeological landmark, the Arch of Ctesiphon, is still standing.

Opening the red "Pocket Visitor's Guide to Baghdad" that he used on his first visit, Matson pointed to the western part of the city, which he suspects is bearing the brunt of allied bombing. Some ancient Arabic architecture may be destroyed as a result, he said, though the city's west bank was largely undeveloped when he first visited.

But Matson and other University archaeologists who have studied Mesopotamia said the destruction of ancient buildings and artifacts is not their only concern. They worry that the war may make it even harder for Western archaeologists to work in the Middle East.

"No foreign archaeologists, except for perhaps Jordanians, are going to have a chance to get into Iraq during our lifetimes, and probably yours," Matson predicted. "It all depends on the government of Iraq af ter the war."

The safety of ancient religious and archeological sites has apparently been a concern of Gen. Colin Powell, chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff. Powell has said since the war began that U.S. warplanes are trying to avoid hitting temples and other landmarks.

The area between Iraq's two major rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, is of special significance to archaeologists, said Claire McHale Milner (graduate-anthropology), who teaches a course on ancient civilizations. Mesopotamia is part of the area known as the "Fertile Crescent," where, according to anthropologists, humans first developed agriculture.

Their villages developed into city-states with advanced forms of government, such as Sumer in southern Iraq and Akkad in the north.

Mesopotamian civilization made great advances in astronomy, mathematics, architecture, art and politics. The earliest known samples of writing, known as cuneiform, were also found in Sumer. This writing consisted of wedges stamped on clay tablets and was used mainly to record taxes and trade statistics.

The earliest written laws were enacted under King Hammurabi of Babylon during the 17th century B.C. The Code of Hammurabi influenced Roman law, which in turn became the civil law now used by many European countries.

But besides developing these "civilized" institutions, the Mesopotamian city-states also kept busy making war and building empires, Matsen said.

"It's like if Boalsburg wants to take over State College and State College wants to take over Bellefonte," Matsen said, running his hands over a map of Iraq to suggest the waves of conquests that swept back and forth over Mesopotamia -- the Sumerians, the Akkadians, the Babylonians, Alexander the Great, all the way to the Ottoman Empire and the British domination of the early 20th century.

"Everybody wanted to control this area," Matson said, adding that many archaeological sites were ruined during these wars.

Despite this previous destruction, enough evidence remained for archaeologists to piece together much of what is known about Mesopotamia, Milner said. Although misguided bombs may destroy or damage some sites, enough materials will be left over for further research into the origins of civilization, she said.

"It's sort of remarkable, the ability of those resources to last and continue to give us more information," Milner said, pointing out that besides war, archaeological sites are also threatened by looting, new agriculture and new construction sites.

"My own feeling is that the archaeological record tends to be more threatened in peace than in war," said David Webster, professor of anthropology, who helped excavate some Iraqi sites in the late 1970s. "There are, for example, many peacetime dam projects that have submerged many sites that were not previously explored and destroyed them."

Although people are concerned by the spectacular images of war, Webster contends that "your standard civil engineering projects" pose a greater threat to the archaeological record.

Nature claimed one of Matsen's first digs in Iraq when the Tigris changed its course.

"When I returned in 1955, my whole little temple that I'd excavated was under water," Matsen said. "If the Tigris changes its course again, my little temple might be under mud. But it wouldn't be worth the expense to dig it back up again."

Grave robbers and looters often scour ancient sites looking for trinkets and knicknacks to sell tourists. But fortunately for archaeologists, Matsen added, looters usually overlook the important stuff -- garbage, which is useful in carbon-dating site materials.

Unable to prevent war or control the political processes that could make future expeditions more difficult, archaeologists will try to make the best of the situation for when they regain access to sites.

"My first reaction (to the invasion) was concern for other archaeologists still in the area," Milner said. "But August, when Iraq first invaded, is usually the hottest time of year, so many of them had just left Iraq about two weeks before the invasion.

Webster said archaeologists and anthropologists are still seeking a clearer picture of what life was like for the average Mesopotamian. Much attention has been paid to the residences and tombs of nobles, and to temples and religious rituals. But archaeologists in the past two decades have been excavating the outskirts of ancient cities, where the common laborers lived.

"We could work out there for 100 years and still not begin to learn everything we would like to learn about it," Webster said.