Damascus<\/i><\/p>\n
Islamic fundamentalists in\u00a0Syria have started to destroy archaeological treasures such as\u00a0Byzantine\u00a0mosaics and Greek and Roman statues because their portrayal\u00a0of human beings is contrary to their\u00a0religious beliefs. The systematic\u00a0destruction of antiquities may be the worst disaster to ancient\u00a0monuments since the Taliban in Afghanistan dynamited the giant statues\u00a0of Buddha at Bamiyan in 2001\u00a0for similar ideological reasons.<\/p>\n
In mid-January the Islamic\u00a0State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis), an al-Qa\u2019ida-type movement\u00a0controlling\u00a0much of north-east Syria, blew up and destroyed a\u00a0sixth-century Byzantine mosaic near the city of Raqqa\u00a0on the\u00a0Euphrates. The official head of antiquities for Raqqa province, who\u00a0has fled to Damascus and does\u00a0not want his name published, told\u00a0The\u00a0Independent: \u201cIt happened between 12 and 15 days ago. A Turkish\u00a0businessman had come to Raqqa to try to buy the mosaic. This alerted\u00a0them [Isis] to its existence and they\u00a0came and blew it up. It is\u00a0completely lost.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other sites destroyed by\u00a0Islamic fundamentalists include the reliefs carved at the Shash\u00a0Hamdan, a\u00a0Roman cemetery in Aleppo province. Also in the Aleppo\u00a0countryside, statues carved out of the sides of a\u00a0valley at al-Qatora\u00a0have been deliberately targeted by gunfire and smashed into fragments.<\/p>\n
Professor Maamoun Abdulkarim,\u00a0general director of antiquities and museums at the Ministry of Culture\u00a0in Damascus, says that extreme Islamic iconoclasm puts many\u00a0antiquities at risk. An expert on the Roman\u00a0and early Christian\u00a0periods in Syria, he says: \u201cI am sure that if the crisis continues in\u00a0Syria we shall have\u00a0the destruction of all the crosses from the early\u00a0Christian world, mosaics with mythological figures and\u00a0thousands of\u00a0Greek and Roman statues.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of the mosaic at Raqqa, discovered\u00a0in 2007, he says: \u201cIt is really important because it was undamaged and\u00a0\u00a0is from the Byzantine period but employs Roman techniques.\u201d<\/p>\n
Syria has far more surviving\u00a0archaeological sites and ancient monuments than almost any country in\u00a0the\u00a0world. These range from the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus with its\u00a0magnificent eighth-century frescoes\u00a0to the Bronze Age Ebla in Idlib\u00a0province in north-west Syria, which flourished in the third and second\u00a0millennia BC and where 20,000 cuneiform tablets were discovered. In eastern\u00a0Syria on the upper\u00a0Euphrates are the remains of the Dura-Europos, a\u00a0Hellenistic city called \u201cthe Pompeii of the Syrian desert\u201d\u00a0where\u00a0frescoes were found in an early synagogue. Not far away, close to the\u00a0border with Iraq, are the\u00a0remains of Mari, which has a unique example\u00a0of a third-millennium BC royal palace.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, many of the most\u00a0famous ancient sites in Syria are now held by the fundamentalist\u00a0Islamic\u00a0opposition and are thereby in danger. Professor Abdulkarim\u00a0says that it is not just Isis but \u201cJabhat al-Nusra [the official\u00a0affiliate of al-Qa\u2019ida] and the other fundamentalists who are pretty\u00a0much the same\u201d.<\/p>\n
He emphasises at the same time\u00a0that he approaches his job of trying to preserve Syria\u2019s heritage\u00a0during the\u00a0civil war from a politically neutral point of view. The\u00a0civil war has inflicted heavy damage, notably in\u00a0Aleppo, where the\u00a0minaret of the Great Umayyad Mosque was destroyed along with seven\u00a0medieval souks,\u00a0or markets, with over 1,000 traditional shops burnt\u00a0out.<\/p>\n
Homs Old City has suffered\u00a0serious damage and is still held by the rebels, while the immense\u00a0Crusader\u00a0fortress of Krak des Chevaliers has been battered by\u00a0government air strikes. The great church at St Simeon\u00a0has been turned\u00a0into a military training area and artillery range by rebels.<\/p>\n
Syria\u2019s museums are generally\u00a0secure and moveable items have been taken elsewhere for safe-keeping.\u00a0Museum staff say they saw what happened in Iraq after 2003 and moved\u00a0quickly. A folk museum at Deir\u00a0Atieh between Damascus and Homs was\u00a0taken over, but the rebels were after old pistols and rifles on\u00a0display that they intended to put to military use.<\/p>\n
The most devastating and\u00a0irreversible losses to Syria\u2019s rich heritage of ancient cities and\u00a0buildings are the\u00a0result of looting. Much of this is local people\u00a0looking for treasure, though in many cases they are\u00a0obliterating the\u00a0archaeological record by using bulldozers. Two looters were killed\u00a0when they used a\u00a0bulldozer to excavate a cave at Ebla, causing its\u00a0roof to collapse.<\/p>\n
What worries Professor Abdulkarim and his staff is that over the\u00a0last year the looting has become large\u00a0scale. He says that there is \u201ca\u00a0mafia from Turkey, Iraq and Lebanon hiring hundreds of people to strip\u00a0sites\u201d. Among what are known as the Dead Cities in Idlib province in\u00a0northern Syria, once prosperous and\u00a0then mysteriously abandoned 1,000\u00a0years ago, there are signs that thieves have brought in antiquities\u00a0experts to advise them about the best places to dig, going by the\u00a0orderly nature of the excavations.<\/p>\n
Theft of antiquities is particularly bad in the far east of Syria\u00a0at Mari where an armed gang \u00a0numbering 500\u00a0has taken over the\u00a0site. An official report says that the looters have been focusing on\u00a0\u201cthe Royal Palace, the\u00a0southern gate, the public baths, Temple of\u00a0Ishtar, the Temple of Dagan and the temple of the Goddess of\u00a0Spring\u201d.<\/p>\n
Even worse is the situation at Dura-Europos where 300 people are\u00a0excavating. A report by the Directorate-General of Antiquities and\u00a0Museums says that efforts by local communities to stop the digging\u00a0here have\u00a0failed and heavy machinery is being used. The report says\u00a0that illegal excavations have \u201cled to the\u00a0destruction of 80 per cent\u00a0of the site as perpetrators are digging holes that can reach three\u00a0metres in\u00a0depth\u201d.<\/p>\n
For some Syrians, often\u00a0well-armed in war-ravaged, impoverished areas, the looting of\u00a0antiquities has\u00a0become a full-time job. In great stretches of the\u00a0country outside state control there is total disorder with\u00a0banditry\u00a0and kidnapping common. Rebel commanders, even if they wanted to, are\u00a0not going to give\u00a0priority to protecting ancient monuments.<\/p>\n
Professor\u00a0Abdulkarim complains that he has received little international help in\u00a0preventing the looting of\u00a0Syria\u2019s rich heritage. The deliberate\u00a0targeting by Isis and other jihadist groups of mosaics and statues\u00a0seen\u00a0as profane will accelerate the speed of destruction. Antiquities\u00a0that have survived invasions and wars for\u00a05,000 years may soon be\u00a0rubble.<\/p>\n
_________________________<\/p>\n
Patrick Cockburn<\/i>\u00a0is the author of \u00a0<\/i>Muqtada: Muqtada Al-Sadr, the Shia Revival, and the Struggle for Iraq<\/a>.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n