The cultural heritage of Iraq and Syria: the present condition of sites and the measures that must be taken to secure them

13 July 2015

On the occasion of the most recent Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale (International Assyriology Meeting), held last month in the Swiss cities of Geneva and Bern, philologists, historians, art historians and archaeologists of the ancient Near East devoted themselves to a day given over to devising strategies for the reconstruction and re-creation of archaeological museums, sites and parks in Iraq and Syria, once peace is restored.

This special session was initiated by the partnership called ‘Syrian heritage in danger: an international research initiative (shirīn)’. The association had been invited to address representatives of the personnel responsible for the management of ancient relics and museums in Iraq and Syria who have to cope, on the ground, with the destruction and pillage of the region’s cultural heritage.

Much was said about the situation in Iraq in recent months because of the propaganda disseminated by ISIS via shocking video footage posted online. The director of the museums of Iraq went on to speak about the pillage of the museums in Bagdad and Mosul. In 2003, in less than three days, the Bagdad Museum was utterly devastated; 15,300 exhibited or stored objects were pillaged and 40% of the archives were destroyed. Only about 4,300 items have been recovered so far. Thanks to the contribution of foreign aid, the galleries displaying the Sumerian, Assyrian and Parthian collections have been restored, and the museum reopened its doors to the public on 28 February 2015, as a swift response to the destruction wrought by ISIS. Also presented were some small objects evacuated from the museum at Mosul (from 1999 onwards), where they have been replaced by replicas. Since 2009, the museum’s collections have been undergoing digitalisation.

In Syria, at least 322 archaeological sites are the subject of looting and pillage and the illegal trafficking of antiquities; these sites include Apamea, Ebla, Dura-Europos, Mari, and Tell al-Achari. Furthermore, at least 86 illegal excavations have been censused across the land. ISIS has taken control of numerous sites, about which sadly we lack any information. Michel al-Maqdissi, the exiled director of the Archaeological Excavation and Studies Service, conjures up a sort of cultural ‘genocide’, whose mise-en-scéne is reproduced by means of truly unflinching media. According to Cheikhamous Ali, who founded the Association for the Protection of Syrian Archaeology (APSA), Palmyra, the ‘Pearl of the Desert’, classified as World Heritage by UNESCO, has doubly suffered. Here, the Syrian army has built a military base, tunnelled deep into the ground, left garbage, and erased archaeological strata, replacing them with roadways for tanks to pass down. During the conflict, three of four porticos of the Temple of Bel, dating from 32 ce, were damaged. One hundred and twenty-five archaeological items originating from Palmyra were confiscated between 2012 and April of 2015. In June, ISIS seized the Greco-Roman site; it is now heavily mined.

The historical monuments, often located in city centres, have also suffered a lot of damage. In Syria, many museums have been pillaged — ethnographical museums in particular. The collections of several archaeological museums were pre-emptively evacuated so as to store them in a safe place; large pieces of heritage were protected with sandbags. Digital inventories are currently being created for the collections of museums which are still accessible, and interactive maps of the sites are being drawn.

For now, excavation sites and facilities must be made secure: only a few on-site guards still receive their salaries from their mission chiefs. But it is equally important to prepare for a post-conflict scenario by evaluating needs and planning the studies and tasks which will have to be undertaken. The inventorying of ancient sites and monuments, and of objects held in museums, has to be carried out, and a list of all damage incurred drawn up. For example, the analysis of aerial photographs can be useful when trying to assess the amount of pillage and plunder the sites have experienced.

Sadly, Iraq and Syria suffer from a great lack of conservators and conservation workshops. It is therefore beneficial to send young people abroad to train, and to ensure the transfer of knowledge on-site. Such training includes the reconstruction of historical monuments by respecting the original materials and ancient techniques. Above and beyond the training of specialist personnel, it is vitally important to raise awareness in the local population of the vestiges of their past; such education also concerns refugees living in camps in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon. Associations such as Heritage for Peace are already involved in this area of activity.

One of ISIS’s main sources of finance derives from the illegal trafficking of antiquities. Objects are supplied to order, hence one is speaking of professional looting, as well plunder on a small-scale, by means of the sale of items to individuals on the Internet. In Germany and Switzerland, Internet sales are closely monitored, but unfortunately this is not the case in France. Paragraph 3 of the introduction to the UNESCO convention held on 14 November 1970, reads: ‘Considering that articles of cultural heritage represent fundamental components in the civilisation and culture of people, and that their true value can only be fully grasped if their origin, history and context are understood with the utmost clarity’, the signatory States pledge (Article 13) ‘to prevent, by all appropriate means, the transfer of cultural properties which tends to favour the illegal import or export of such heritage; and to ensure that their relevant personnel collaborate with the aim of facilitating the restitution, to the rightful owners, in as shorter time as possible, cultural heritage which has been exported illegally.’

To put an end to the trafficking, everyone must play their part. The buyers of antiquities must understand that they are effectively complicit in the looting!