Katharyn Hanson, an archeologist and fellow at the Smithsonian’s Museum Conversation Institute, works on the preservation of damaged sites in Iraq. “For issues of ownership, the movable stuff gets discussed the most,” she told me. “Theft is sexy. Museum theft is really sexy. You know, museum heist movies are a big deal, and looting usually catches the headlines. [But with] immovable sites … there’s a unique responsibility for occupying powers, or even for powers who are in an advise-and-assist role.” Our conversation about that responsibility, which follows below, has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

Sigal Samuel: You train Iraqis in Erbil to do preservation work, through the Iraqi Institute for the Conservation of Antiquities and Heritage. Can you tell me a bit about the program?

Katharyn Hanson: The Iraqi Institute has been around since 2009. Through its various programs, international and American, 500 cultural heritage practitioners have come through. They’ve done everything from stone conservation to how to package artifacts to how to repair manuscripts. Almost all of our classes have a diversity that reflects the diverse population of Iraq. … We have men and women, Christians, Sunnis, Shia, Kurds, and Arabs all working together to help recover the sites.

Samuel: Why is it important to train local Iraqis to preserve artifacts there, rather than shipping artifacts to the U.S.?

Hanson: It is very unlikely that anything will be shipped out of Iraq for treatment. … Iraqi museum conservators and archaeologists are the first line of defense for these artifacts. They know the context the best, and they are the caretakers and stewards of these remains. … We have a saying at the Iraqi Institute—it’s about doing work to international standards but making sure that the equipment and techniques are locally available.

Samuel: What are people working on preserving right now?

Hanson: Back in January, Smithsonian met with Iraq’s State Board of Antiquities and Heritage. They asked us to work on Nimrud, about 25 kilometers south of Mosul, liberated [from ISIS] in November. We’ve been working pretty closely with a team of archeologists from Nineveh province, archeologists employed by the government there. We’ve been giving them equipment and skill-sets, and teaching a lot about how to take care of the site.

Samuel: At some sites, the destruction looks pretty total. How much is left to preserve?

Hanson: For an archeologist, even damaged things, even the fragments of the fragments, are still important artifacts. And that’s really crucial when you think about Nimrud and most of the Neo-Assyrian sites. A lot of the sculptures are made out of Mosul marble, which is water soluble. The big goal before this next winter is to get the sculpture fragments left onsite under some sort of roofing so they don’t melt. And there’s still the vast majority of the site which is underground and hasn’t been excavated yet.