Sew La Ti Embroidery:
Syria

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the damage occurred when government forces blew up a tunnel dug by insurgents under the city, while the state news agency said the tunnel was blown up by rebels.

According to Maamun Abdel Karim, statues, paintings, artifacts and ancient mosaics stolen from Syria have repeatedly been found on sale on the open market in the Turkish city of Gaziantep since the way for stolen in northern Syria ancient values lies through uncontrolled border with Turkey.

"We have appealed to the international community through different organizations so that they would make Turkey help us return these values to Syria. … Turkey has refused to cooperate with us," he said.

The official called on the international community to help Syria not only in returning the values that had already been smuggled to Europe, North America and the Gulf states, but, what is the most important, in ensuring control over the Syrian borders.

The IS militants, controlling large areas across Syria and Iraq, have destroyed numerous ancient historical artifacts and various places of worship, including mosques in addition to Christian churches and other shrines.

In May 2015, the IS captured Syria’s ancient city of Palmyra, a UNESCO World Heritage site, sparking fears it will destroy its ruins.

Source: Sputnik News [July 03, 2015]

"The ongoing destruction of Palmyra's cultural artifacts reflects the brutality and ignorance of extremist groups and their disregard of local communities and the Syrian people," decaled UNESCO chief Irina Bokova, strongly condemning this new assault on Palmyra, a World Heritage Site, particularly funerary busts and the renowned Lion statue of Athena from the entrance of the site's museum.

"The destruction of funerary busts of Palmyra in a public square, in front of crowds and children asked to witness the looting of their heritage is especially perverse,” she said, explaining that the busts embody the values of human empathy, intelligence and honor the dead. They also represent a wealth of information on costumes, jewelry, traditions and history of the Syrian people.

“Their destruction is a new attempt to break the bonds between people and their history, to deprive them of their cultural roots in order to better enslave them, "she declared.

With this in mind, Ms. Bokova reiterated her call to all religious leaders, intellectuals and young people to stand up against the manipulation of religion, to respond to the false arguments of extremists in all media and through the #unite4heritage campaign.

"I commend the courage of the youth from the Arab world who are committed to protecting their heritage as a source of strength, resilience and hope in the future,” she said.

Finally, she called strongly on all UN Member States, the art market and experts to join forces to curb the illicit traffic of cultural property.

“I call on all researchers, artists, filmmakers and photographers to continue to cooperate and join forces with UNESCO to document and share the wealth of the Mesopotamian civilization. Neither bombs nor jackhammers can erase this great culture from the memory of the world,” she declared, adding that nothing can ever stifle human creativity - despite the obstacles and fanaticism, this energy will come back stronger than before, buildings and sites will be rehabilitated, and some will be rebuilt, and culture will find its place because it embodies the vitality of societies.

“UNESCO will continue to work with the people of Syria to make sure that moment comes as soon as possible,” the Director General concluded.

Source: United Nations [July 03, 2015]

Jihadis took sledgehammers to the relics, smashed them to pieces and then lashed the man who allegedly smuggled the artifacts in a public square full of onlookers, they announced on social media Thursday.

One-fifth of Iraq's approximately 10,000 world-renowned cultural heritage sites are under the Islamic State's control and most have been heavily looted, Irina Bokova, the head of the U.N. cultural agency UNESCO, warned experts in London Thursday. Some Syrian sites have been so badly ransacked that experts say they no longer have historical or archaeological value.

"Violent extremists don't destroy [heritage] as a collateral damage, they target systematically monuments and sites to strike societies at their core," Bokova said Wednesday.

The 2,000-year-old Allat God statue, which depicts a lion catching a deer between its feet, is believed to have been destroyed Saturday. "ISIS terrorists have destroyed one of the most important unearthed statues in Syria in terms of quality and weight...it was discovered in 1977 and dates back to the second century A.D.," Ma'moun Abdul-Karim, director of museums and antiquities, told Syrian state-run news agency SANA Thursday.

It's "the most serious crime they have committed against Palmyra's heritage," he added to the AFP.

The militants have also planted improvised explosive devices (IEDs) around the ruins of the ancient city. The explosives appear placed according to a pattern that indicates they are set to optimize the "filmed destruction," says Michael Danti, co-director of the Syrian Heritage Initiative at the American Schools of Oriental Research, a group monitoring cultural damage in Syria and Iraq.

"The deliberate destruction, what we are seeing today in Iraq and Syria, has reached unprecedented levels in contemporary history," said Bokova.

Author: Barbara Boland | Source: Washington Examiner [July 02, 2015]

UNESCO and UNITAR-UNOSAT (United Nations Institute for Training and Research- United Nations Operational Satellite Applications Program) signed an agreement to better protect the world's cultural and natural heritage sites by using geospatial photographic capabilities, UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova said Wednesday at a conference in London. The agreement comes as ancient sites in the Middle East are under assault by terrorist organizations which include the Islamic State (IS).

IS overtook the 2,000 year-old archaeological site at Palmyra, Syria, a city of Greek and Roman ruins, in May and has threatened to destroy it. Bokova said IS has destroyed mausoleums, temples and statues around the area on a wide scale, and planted explosives within the ancient city. It previously destroyed Assyrian ruins and artifacts in Syria.

Monitoring by satellite could reduce and document the extent of destruction, prepare reconstruction and provide evidence for international courts of justice, she added.

"We are very worried about Libya, being a divided country. We have a small office there and are working with the local governments and mayors. We are very concerned about the expansion of Isis (IS) and youth radicalization. We are worried about Somalia. This (the satellite program) is our response to extremism," Bokova said.

The agreement was signed Wednesday in Bonn, Germany.

Author: Ed Adamczyk | Source: UPI [July 02, 2015]

Maamoun Abdulkarim, the head of the government's Antiquities and Museums Department, told The Associated Press that the extremists destroyed the grave of Mohammad Bin Ali, a descendant of Imam Ali, cousin of Islam's Prophet Muhammad and a deeply revered Shiite saint. The grave was just north of Palmyra.

The second tomb is close to the city's famed Roman-era archaeological site and was the final resting place of a Sufi scholar, Nizar Abu Bahaa Eddine, who lived in Palmyra some 500 years ago.

The militants of the Islamic State group are Sunnis who follow a radical interpretation of Islam that views visiting tombs and religious shrines as tantamount to idol worshipping. They view Shiites as heretics and the followers of Islam's mystical Sufi orders as deviants.

Since the Islamic State group captured Palmyra last month, there have been fears that the extremists, who have destroyed famed archaeological sites in Iraq, would demolish Palmyra's sprawling Roman-era ruins, which were once one of the most popular tourist sites in the Middle East.

Earlier this week, Abdulkarim said he had received "unofficial news" from Palmyra that the militants intended to blow up the town's main historic site and that he had contacted tribal chiefs in the area to try to dissuade the militants. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it had received information that Islamic State militants have mined the site. The report could not be independently verified.

Palmyra's UNESCO world heritage site is famous for its 2,000-year-old Roman colonnades, other ruins and priceless artifacts. Before Syria's conflict began in 2011, tens of thousands of tourists visited the remote desert outpost, a cherished landmark referred to by Syrians as the "Bride of the Desert."

Syrian authorities say they moved hundreds of priceless artifacts to Damascus ahead of the IS takeover last month, but the fate of those ruins too large to move is now in the hands of the extremists. Islamic State militants have already looted and vandalized a museum in the Iraqi city of Mosul and have massively damaged the ancient cities of Hatra and Ninevah - both UNESCO world heritage sites.

Source: Associated Press [June 24, 2015]

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it was not clear whether the militants were preparing to blow up the ancient desert city, a UNESCO Wold Heritage Site, or simply intended to impede any counter offensive by government forces.

Islamic State captured Palmyra from the forces of President Bashar al-Assad in late May, arousing fears that it might destroy its ruins, which include monumental streets lined with columns, temples and burial towers.

The extremist group has previously destroyed ancient monuments in Iraq, saying they were pagan, and is also thought to earn money from selling or authorizing the sale of archaeological artefacts.

But it has also shown off monuments such as the ancient city of Rasafeh, north-east of Palmyra, in propaganda footage about its self-proclaimed caliphate.

Shortly after capturing Palmyra, Islamic State blew up its military prison, notorious for the brutal treatment of political prisoners.

The Observatory, whose reports are compiled from a network of activists around Syria, said that clashes were taking place between Islamic State and government forces on the edge of the desert some 100 kilometres west of Palmyra.

Meanwhile, the Observatory reported further advances by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), who are pushing south after capturing the border region of Tel Abyad from Islamic State last week.

The YPG victory linked up the Kurdish stronghold of north-eastern Syria with the Kobane enclave and cut off one of Islamic State's main supply routes from the porous Turkish border.

The Syrian conflict, which started when government forces brutally repressed peaceful protests in 2011, has degenerated into a multi-sided civil war between the al-Assad regime, an array of mainly Islamist rebel groups, Islamic State and the Kurds.

Author: Pol Gradaigh | Source: DPA International [June 21, 2015]

The Association for the Protection of Syrian Archaeology said the museum "suffered serious damage caused by two explosive-packed barrels dropped Monday by Syrian army helicopters."

The non-governmental organization published pictures of the museum, located in an ancient Ottoman caravanserai, showing entire walls once covered with mosaics collapsed into rubble.

It said that several mosaic panels had been damaged in the eastern portico of the museum, including at least two that were knocked off their display by the force of the blast.

Other pieces were damaged by shrapnel and the pictures published by APSA on its website showed large holes gouged into an oval mosaic with a zig-zag pattern.

The museum building and surrounding complex, including a historic mosque, were also badly damaged, according to the APSA, with pictures showing several pillars destroyed and sections of roof that had caved in.

Reached by phone in Damascus Saturday, the head of Syria's antiquities, Maamoun Abdulkarim, acknowledged the damage at the museum, but declined to say who was responsible.

This is "a new tragedy for Syrian heritage," said Abdulkarim and called for the country's museums to be "neutral zones" in the war.

"No one, from any side, should harm that which forms our country's history," he said.

The United Nations last year warned that nearly 300 sites of incalculable value for Syria and human history have been destroyed, damaged or looted in the country's conflict.

The warning, based on satellite imagery, followed repeated statements of concern from archaeologists and other experts about the damage being done to Syria's historic sites and the rise in looting of antiquities.

More than 230,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began in March 2011 with anti-government demonstrations before spiraling into a war after a regime crackdown.

Source: AFP [June 20, 2015]

Palmyra, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is one of the most important archaeological sites in the Near East, and one of the best preserved city-states in the world.

"In the face of current tragic upheavals in Iraq and Syria, every stone, arch and carved relief plays a greater historical and cultural role than it has in the past," said Julian Raby, the Dame Jillian Sackler Director of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and Freer Gallery of Art. "Like the relief of Haliphat, each stone can remind a people of its past, and fashion identity both individually and collectively."

Once lush, wealthy and cosmopolitan, Palmyra ("the city of palms") was an oasis in the desert at the hub of trade between the Mediterranean, Mesopotamia, ancient Iran and Southeast Asia. Two millennia ago, its inhabitants constructed monumental colonnades, temples, a theater and elaborate tomb complexes, a significant amount of which survives today.

Dating from 231 AD, the limestone funerary relief sculpture depicts an elegant, bejeweled figure with both Roman and Aramaic artistic influences, reinforcing Palmyra's status between the Eastern and Western worlds.

The accompanying photographs were taken 1867-1876 by prolific photographer Fèlix Bonfils and provide the most complete visual record of Palmyra from the 19th century.

The engraving images are from Robert Woods' 1753 The Ruins of Palmyra, a publication that inspired the popular neoclassical architecture style in Britain and North America. Its image of an "Eagle Decorating an Ancient Roman Temple" was the model for the image on the seal of the United States, and its depictions of Palmyra's coffered ceilings shaped the ceiling of the north entrance of the Freer Gallery of Art.

The display will be on view indefinitely.

Source: Smithsonian's Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery [June 09, 2015]

The General Assembly adopted a resolution on saving Iraq's cultural sites as international concern mounted over the fate of the Syrian archaeological site of Palmyra captured by Islamic State fighters a week ago.

Videos of IS combatants destroying artifacts at the Mosul museum and smashing sledgehammers into ancient walls at Hatra and Nimrud sparked an outcry and calls to prevent the "cultural cleansing" of the Middle East.

The non-binding resolution drafted by Germany and Iraq condemns the "barbaric" destruction and looting of heritage sites and calls for the prosecution of perpetrators of cultural vandalism.

The measure urges states to ensure that art collectors, auction houses, art dealers and museum professionals provide documentation to verify the provenance of artifacts.

"The destruction of Iraqi cultural heritage, the cradle of civilization, is no less barbaric and serious than killing Iraqis," Iraq's Ambassador Mohamed Ali Alhakim told the 193-nation assembly.

German state minister Maria Boehmer said the destruction of world heritage sites "is a war crime and an attack on humanity as a whole."

"Every person needs to know that the purchase of property from Iraq is punishable but also that it supports and finances terrorist activities," said Boehmer.

The resolution calls for stepped-up efforts to protect and track items of cultural heritage and warns that attacks on historic monuments may amount to war crimes.

During a news conference following the adoption, Alhakim lamented that the Security Council did not adopt such a resolution, which would then have been binding and enforceable.

The council in February adopted a resolution that seeks to cut off financing to the Islamic State group from the smuggling of antiquities.

That measure slapped a ban on the sale of antiquities from Syria, while a 10-year-old ban on those from Iraq remains in force.

Source: AFP [May 28, 2015]

The Islamic State group has released a video showing that these ruins are still intact. And in an interview released yesterday, the head of the group's military forces in Palmyra, Abu Laith al-Saoudi, stated that they would preserve the ruins—perhaps because some buildings lack religious connotations or worship—but destroy the site’s statues, which the group believes are religious idols.

Recent satellite images reveal no new damage, confirmed Einar Bjorgo, the manager of UNOSAT, a U.N. satellite imaging project. But he and Danti cautioned that a more in-depth comparison with older satellite images and eyewitness accounts are needed for confirmation. UNOSAT’s more complete analysis is expected to be released Friday

Palmyra, a crossroads of trade between Europe and Asia for thousands of years, “was the quintessential romantic archaeological site out in the desert,” Danti says. Famous buildings include a medieval Islamic citadel, the Temple of Bel, and barracks and temples where Roman soldiers lived and worshipped. Danti reports that sources in Palmyra told him that most of the artifacts held in the Palmyra museum were removed before the Islamic State group arrived. What might remain are the large statues and bas-reliefs that were affixed to the museum’s walls, he said.