The archaeology and the architectural history of Iraq is of utmost significance for the region as a whole. Millennia-old clay structures left behind by the world's earliest farmers and city dwellers here mix with impressive architectural works of outstanding value for art history. And they fundamentally always have one thing in common - their building material consisting of clay. Unlike the stone pyramids and temples of Egypt, buildings of dried mudbrick and even burnt brick are highly susceptible to weathering through rainfall and wind. Their ruins therefore often emerge from the landscape in the shape of mounds only. Open scars left behind by century-old excavations, erosion, and recent changes induced by agriculture and a relentless expansion of the physical infrastructure and cities, but also by armed conflict have thus placed Iraq's modern archaeology in front of challenges that can only be met with concerted efforts.

Special attention of the Baghdad branch office is given to the protection of Iraq's cultural heritage. In close cooperation with Iraqi universities and the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage (SBAH) it therefore has been for more than a decade highly committed to the execution of cultural preservation projects.

Together with academic and non-academic partners, an „Iraqi-German Summer Graduate Programme“ is regularly held, which is aimed at Iraqi students and professionals. The programme represents a platform for exchanging and discussing scientific work from the diverse fields within archaeology, philology, and cultural preservation, as it also offers an opportunity to discuss methods and evaluate findings. Owing to strong demand, the programme was recently expanded and consolidated to form the Iraqi-German Centre for Archaeology and Assyriology, whose quarters are at the University of Baghdad. The centre seeks to support research projects in Iraq and to engage in the education and training of experts within the academic sector. For its work on the ground, the DAI branch office in Baghdad will use the centre as a prominent meeting place.

As part of the „KulturGutRetter“ programme by the German Archaeological Institute and in conjunction with the work of the Archaeological Heritage Network (ArcHerNet), cultural property conservation experts, including those from the Orient Department, are facing urgent challenges for instance from the destructions inflicted by ISIS at Nimrud and Mosul in Northern Iraq. Via international cooperation projects focussing on cultural preservation, the Baghdad branch office is conducting a training programme called the Iraqi German Expert Forum on Cultural Heritage (IGEF) specialised on architectural research and conservation, and which lasts for a six-month period and takes place in both Iraq and Germany. The aim here is to build the professional capacities of staff at the Iraqi antiquities authorities and museums through extra training and thus to shore up Iraqi specialist institutions and the country's traditionally well-established scientific structures.

The scientific projects of the Orient Department in Iraq, and especially those of the Baghdad branch office, consistently go together with conservation schemes, capacity-building programmes, and efforts to raise educational awareness among the population. In a first line of approach, conservation measures are being organised and implemented, while plans for sustainable tourism promotion at the World Heritage Site Uruk are currently being developed by experts from Germany and staff at the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage. Along a second strand, the researchers report in public lectures on current findings at local universities in Iraq's southern governorates such as in Baghdad, al-Muthanna, Diwaniyah, and an-Najaf, particularly resulting from the research projects carried out at Uruk and al-Hira. The aim is to raise awareness for cultural heritage in the local communities and to contribute, at least on a modest scale, to a sense of identity.

The threat to cultural heritage within the planned reservoir zone ahead of the Makhul Dam project in northern Central Iraq calls for the implementation of new conservation strategies. Together with staff at the antiquities administration and by aid of training programmes, direct support will be offered. The aim here is to document and, wherever possible, salvage endangered cultural heritage. The newly founded Ta’ziz Antiquity Alliance by initiative of the German Federal Foreign Office seeks to strengthen the expertise of local antiquities administrations in Northern Iraq and to promote institutional exchange between the authorities in the different ethnic regions of Northern Iraq, likewise with archaeological projects overseen by staff of the Orient Department.

In addition to its active efforts within research and cultural preservation, the Baghdad branch office has repeatedly succeeded in assisting the Iraqi antiquities administration with technology and expertise for the preservation of valuable archive materials.  As early as in 2004, the Iraq Museum in Baghdad was equipped with archive cabinets for its clay tablet repository, whilst showcases were equipped with new safety catches. Most recently in 2017 and 2018 the corresponding Aarchive departments of the Iraqi antiquities administration were furnished with equipment destined to digitise archival material, such as documents and plans.

In 2019 the antiquities administration in Mosul too was furnished with office and documentation technology. For this matter, workshops are regularly held together with Iraqi colleagues from the archive department in order to spell out the equipment's particular functions and to discuss issues specifically linked to archival work.