Iraqi archaeologist, museums champion, dies at 80

An Iraqi archaeologist, who lent her expertise to rebuilding the National Museum's collection after it was looted in 2003, has died at the age of 80.

Lamia al-Gailani's family says she passed away on Friday in Amman, Jordan. She was a devotee of Iraq's heritage and museums, and one of the first female Iraqi archaeologists to excavate the country's ancient sites.

In the years following the 2003 U.S. invasion, al-Gailani helped identify and recover artefacts stolen from the National Museum in Baghdad for its reopening in 2015.

She also championed a museum for antiquities in the city of Basra that opened in 2016.

Born in Baghdad in 1938, al-Gailani received her PhD in archaeology from the University of London and resided in the U.K.

She is survived by three daughters.