Damage to Syria’s heritage 14 September 2014

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A conference will be held at the Damascus Museum on September 24 and 25 under the patronage of the Minister of Culture. Prof. Paolo Matthiae from the Italian Archaeological Mission will participate via Skype. The Ebla site has given a wealth of knowledge about the ancient world since its discovery, but remains in danger. Information can be found here.

The DGAM reports that the exhibition ‘The Splendor and Drama of Syria’ successfully completed its journey in Rome the end of last month. The travelling exhibition was part of an effort to heighten awareness of the damage being done to Syria’s heritage. The note and pictures can be found here.

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(Not covered in other sections)

• The Huffington Post reports on cultural damage (“Trading Treasure for Weapons: ISIS Campaign of Terror Strikes at Culture”, 9 September 2014) urging Secretary of State John Kerry to keep cultural heritage part of ‘the agenda of his coalition building efforts’.
• The Wall Street Journal ran ‘Syria’s “Blood Diamonds:” A Nation’s War on Culture’ (8 September 2014) by Christian C. Sahner. The article discusses how ‘The nation’s heritage has been used as a weapon to finance bloodshed, to settle sectarian scores and to erase entire chapters of the country’s past in the expectation of radically reshaping its future.’ Sahner has a book coming out with OUP this month called Among the Ruins: Syria Past and Present.
• The International Business Times (September 4, 2014), covers the benefit IS receives from its looting activities. It observes that ‘the Islamic State is funding its jihad by plundering historical artifacts in Syria and Iraq’. The full article is here.
• ‘Islamic State makes millions from stolen antiquities’ (Al-Monitor, 4 September 2014) says the problem lies with ‘the warring parties’ indifference to historical heritage coupled with international traffickers taking advantage of authority vacuums in many areas.’
• National Geographic, ‘Archaeologists train ‘Monuments Men’ to save Syria’s Past’ (September 3, 2014), leads with a discussion of the terrible damage to Dura Europos. Dr. Simon James, who previously worked at Dura, says that ‘the looters were bankrolled to a massive extent to do something like this’ referring to the ‘lunar landscape of spoil heaps’. The article reports on the workshop in Turkey also discussed by the NYT (below).
• The New York Times has a story entitled “ISIS’ Antiquities Sideline” (September  2, 2014) written by three US-based academics who have recently trained museum staff in techniques to document and protect Syria’s heritage. They report that ISIS’ involvement in the illicit trade in antiquities is ‘more complex and insidious than we expected’, ranging from the encouragement of casual looting to the licensing of ‘semiprofessional field crews’ from Iraq. The authors conclude that ‘ISIS has caused irreparable damage to Syria’s cultural heritage.’
• Artnet.com posted a brief story, ‘Is Isis Bankrolling Terrorist Activities with Stolen Antiquities” (2 September 2014).