Department of Defense's Archaeology Playing Cards

When one, if one ever, thinks of how the War on Terrorism affected playing cards the likely sole answer is the Iraq most wanted cards. However, few know that the American Department of Defense also has created playing cards dealing with the archaeology of Iraq and Afghanistan. The moral of the cards can be summed up as "Don't blow things up and don't offend the locals."

The archaeology awareness playing cards (PDF of cards) seeks to impress the importance of archaeology on soldiers. The cards use language that impresses importance to the soldiers like the two of clubs that features the hill in Iraq where Jonah is believed to be buried or the three of diamonds which teaches insurgents sale artifacts, sometimes to soldiers, to finance terrorism.

The cards have limited distribution and hard to come by. However, the fact that soldiers are receiving them is evidence of the Defense Department understanding the correlation between good relations and cultural heritage preservation.