The site was severely looted and damaged nevertheless after the first Gulf War, and chunks of its unique and ancient friezes have appeared on the European and American art markets. Nippur – the great ziggurat here has only three major looters' pits cut into it, which are the first in over forty years of valuable research and excavation. Umma – looters descended upon the site as soon as Coalition bombing began; the site is now pockmarked with hundreds of ditches and pits.