Iraq celebrated on Wednesday the return of hundreds of historical artefacts, from an ancient Assyrian statue to a 20th century presidential tea set, which were looted, lost or loaned abroad over recent decades.Recovered artefacts are seen at the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad, Iraq July 8, 2015 [Credit: Reuters/Khalid al-Mousily]
The recovery of the 800 items from museums, universities and auction houses in the United States, Italy and Jordan marks a small victory for Iraqi authorities struggling to protect their heritage from theft and destruction by Islamic State fighters.
The hardline Islamist militants have taken over some of the world's richest archaeological sites in northern Iraq, home to Assyrian cities dating back 2,700 years and the Graeco-Roman era desert complex of Hatra.
Videos released by Islamic State show several sites bulldozed, blown up or battered with sledgehammers. Officials say priceless antiquities have also been stolen to help fund the militants' self-declared caliphate in Iraq and Syria.
Recovered artefacts are seen at the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad, Iraq July 8, 2015 [Credit: Reuters/Khalid al-Mousily]
Wednesday's collection of returned items, put on show at Baghdad's national museum, was modest compared to the suspected scale of the ongoing theft and destruction.
It included dozens of metal spearheads which officials said dated back to Iraq's Sumerian era between 4,000 and 2,000 B.C., tiny vases, pottery seals and fragments with cuneiform writing.
Some had been identified when they came up for sale at auction houses. Others were recovered from long-term loans to universities abroad, officials said.
Recovered artefacts are seen at the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad, Iraq July 8, 2015 [Credit: Reuters/Khalid al-Mousily]
The collection included nearly 200 items that went missing from Iraq's presidential palaces in the turmoil which followed the U.S.-led invasion to overthrow Saddam Hussein, they said.
Alongside the white china tea set - each item marked with an eagle to represent the Iraqi republic - was a large ceremonial sword, silver cutlery and two rifles.
Government ministers attending a ceremony to mark their return called for greater international help to protect Iraq's antiquities, saying the scale of the threat was unprecedented.
Recovered artefacts are seen at the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad, Iraq July 8, 2015 [Credit: Reuters/Khalid al-Mousily]
Islamic State, which rejects all but its own narrow interpretation of early Sunni Islam as heresy, has destroyed ancient temples, shrines, churches, manuscripts, statues and carvings in territory it has seized. Officials say it has also looted widely, selling artefacts to fund its rule.
"We are not dealing with smugglers but a group that calls itself a state, carries weapons and trades in antiquities," Tourism and Antiquities Minister Adel Shirshab said. "The world must pay attention to the new danger".
More than three months after Islamic State fighters released video footage of them smashing statues and carvings at Mosul museum and the ancient sites of Hatra, Nimrud and Nineveh, Shirshab told Reuters it was hard to assess the damage.
Recovered artefacts are seen at the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad, Iraq July 8, 2015 [Credit: Reuters/Khalid al-Mousily]
"The region is under terrorist control. We don't have precise, detailed information...The situation is fluid and unclear.
Shirshab said that footage showing destruction at the sites was deliberately put out to obscure Islamic State fighters' real aim. "Many of these antiquities were stolen to fund this terrorist group," he said.
The videos of Islamic State militants destroying ancient artifacts in Iraq's museums and blowing up 3,000-year-old temples are chilling enough, but one of Iraq's top antiquities officials is now saying the destruction is a cover for an even more sinister activity - the systematic looting of Iraq's cultural heritage.People observe ancient artifacts at the Iraqi National Museum after its reopening in the wake of the recent destruction of Assyrian archaeological sites by the Islamic State group in Mosul, as they visit the museum in Baghdad on March 15, 2015 [Credit: AP/Karim Kadim]
In the videos that appeared in April, militants can be seen taking sledge hammers to the iconic winged-bulls of Assyria and sawing apart floral reliefs in the palace of Ashurnasirpal II in Nimrud before the entire site is destroyed with explosives. But according to Qais Hussein Rashid, head of Iraq's State Board for Antiquities and Heritage, that was just the final step in a deeper game.
"According to our sources, the Islamic State started days before destroying this site by digging in this area, mainly the palace," he told The Associated Press from his office next to Iraq's National Museum - itself a target of looting after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein. "We think that they first started digging around these areas to get the artifacts, then they started demolishing them as a cover up."
While there is no firm evidence of the amount of money being made by the Islamic State group from looting antiquities, satellite photos and anecdotal evidence confirm widespread plundering of archaeological sites in areas under IS control.
Nimrud was also the site of one of the greatest discoveries in Iraqi history, stunning golden jewelry from a royal tomb found in 1989, and Rashid is worried that more such tombs lie beneath the site and have been plundered. He estimated the potential income from looting to be in the millions of dollars.
Experts speculate that the large pieces are destroyed with sledgehammers and drills for the benefit of the cameras, while the more portable items like figurines, masks and ancient clay cuneiform tablets are smuggled to dealers in Turkey.
The destroyed old Mosque of The Prophet Jirjis in central Mosul, Iraq, on July 27, 2014 [Credit: AP]
On Wednesday, Egypt, together with the Antiquities Coalition and the Washington-based Middle East Institute will be holding a conference in Cairo entitled "Cultural Property Under Threat" to come up with regional solutions to the plundering and sale of antiquities.
This isn't the first time, of course, that Iraq's antiquities have fallen victim to current events. There was the infamous looting of the museum in 2003 and reports of widespread plundering of archaeological sites in the subsequent years, especially in the south. U.S. investigators at the time said al-Qaida was funding its activities with illicit sales of antiquities.
What appears to be different this time is the sheer scale and systematic nature of the looting, especially in the parts of Syria controlled by the Islamic State group. Satellite photos show some sites so riddled with holes they look like a moonscape.
The G-7's Financial Action Task Force said in a February report that the Islamic State group is making money both by selling artifacts directly - as probably would be the case with material taken from the museums - or by taxing criminal gangs that dig at the sites in their territory. After oil sales, extortion and kidnapping, antiquities sales are believed to be one of the group's main sources of funding.
In February, the United Nations passed a resolution recognizing that the Islamic State group was "generating income from the direct or indirect trade," in stolen artifacts, and added a ban on the illicit sale of Syrian antiquities to the already existing one on Iraqi artifacts passed in 2003.
The face of a woman stares down at visitors in the Hatra ruins, 320 kilometres north of Baghdad, Iraq on July 27, 2005 [Credit: AP/Antonio Castaneda]
While Iraq contains remains from civilizations dating back more than 5,000 years, the hardest hit artifacts have come from the Assyrian empire, which at its height in 700 B.C. stretched from Iran to the Mediterranean and whose ancient core almost exactly covers the area now controlled by the Islamic State group.
The looted artifacts most likely follow the traditional smuggling routes for all sorts of illicit goods into Turkey, according to Lynda Albertson, head of the Association for Research into Crimes Against Art. From there, the most common route is through Bulgaria and the Balkans into Western Europe. Britain and the United States remain the biggest markets for antiquities, though wealthy collectors are emerging in China and the Gulf - especially for Islamic-era artifacts.
International bans make the ultimate sale of illicit antiquities difficult, but not impossible. So far, there have been no reports of major, museum-quality pieces from IS-held territory appearing in auction houses, so the artifacts must be going to either private collectors or they are being hoarded by dealers to be slowly and discretely released onto the market, said Patty Gerstenblith, Director of the Center for Art, Museum and Cultural Heritage Law at DePaul University.
"I do believe that dealers are willing to warehouse items for a long time and that they may be receiving some `financing' to do this from well-heeled collectors or other dealers operating outside of the Middle East," she said. "It is relatively unlikely that a major piece would be plausibly sold on the open market with a story that it was in a private collection for a long period of time."
Mesopotamian sculptures, jewelry and stelae sold legally have commanded stunning sums, up to $1 million in some cases, but the looters would be selling them to dealers for a fraction of that cost - with the profit margin coming from the sheer number of artifacts being sold.
A piece falls off from a curved face on the wall of an ancient building as a militant hammers it in Hatra, a large fortified city recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site, in Iraq on Friday, April 3, 2015 [Credit: AP/ISIS video]
Iraq has sent lists to the International Council of Museums, the U.N. and Interpol detailing all the artifacts that might have been looted from the museum in Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city overrun by IS last June. Harder to stop, however, is the sale of never-before-seen pieces that have been newly dug up and never registered.
There is new legislation going through the U.S. Congress to tighten controls on illicit trafficking of materials from the Middle East, though Albertson contends that the laws are less important than the manpower devoted to enforcing them.
"A new resolution is just another well-intentioned piece of ineffective paper," she said.
The Iraqi government is now rushing to document the remaining sites in the country, especially in the disputed province of Salahuddin, just south of the Islamic State stronghold in Nineweh province. Nineweh itself is home to 1,700 archaeological sites, all under IS control, said Rashid of the antiquities department.
As a number of experts point out, though, most sites in Iraq have not been completely excavated and there are likely more winged bull statues and stelae waiting to be found under the earthen mounds scattered throughout this country - assuming the Islamic State group and its diggers don't find them first.
Author: Paul Schemm | Source: The Associated Press [May 12, 2015]
Last month, terrorist group Islamic State (ISIS) released a video showing militants smashing artefacts in the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud and then blowing up the site. This is the latest in a string of attacks on Iraq’scultural heritage. In February, the group took sledgehammers and pneumatic drills to statues in Mosul Museum.A digital reconstruction in the works of the Lion of Mosul [Credit: Copyright: Project Mosul]
Archaeologist Matthew Vincent has started a technology initiative to counter ISIS’s destruction — and he says his approach could work in other fragile and war torn states too.
Vincent and his colleagues at the Initial Training Network for Digital Cultural Heritage, a programme focusing on the electronic documentation and protection of cultural heritage, have set out to create digital replicas of Mosul Museum’s relics through Project Mosul.
The project’s volunteers primarily use a technique called automatic photogrammetry. This relies on photographs of the destroyed objects, crowdsourced from people who have visited the museum. The team input a series of photos of each object taken from different angles into software that triangulates key points on the object’s surface to create a digital 3-D model. About a dozen pictures are needed to do this.
Vincent and his team have already digitally reconstructed a selection of the lost artefacts — including the ornate gate below.
Metal Riveted Gate by AD&D 4D on Sketchfab “This technique can in no way replace what was destroyed by the Islamic State, but it can help preserve the memory of that heritage,” says Vincent.
Vincent’s current focus is setting up an online museum, but he has also considered 3-D printing. This would enable the production of detailed replicas of the artefacts. The team would need more information to do this, such as data on the original measurements and materials, which is not always available.
Both the digital reconstruction of the artefacts and the prospect of 3-D printing are complicated by ownership issues. There is no clear legislation about who holds the ‘copyright’ to ancient cultural heritage, so deciding who owns it can be difficult.
Vincent says there are two general strands of thought about who owns the rights to ancient artefacts. One says that local authorities should be the custodians, the other sees the objects as having universal ownership.
“I feel the correct way to resolve these situations is to always work with the local authorities,” Vincent says. But he adds that there seems to be a sentiment coming from those in Iraq that Iraqi heritage should be accessible to the world. “As such, there seems to be a positive attitude towards this effort.”
Vincent now hopes to extend the endeavour to digitally restore objects destroyed not just at Mosul, but also at Nimrud and the UNESCO world heritage site of Hatra, an ancient fortified city in northern Iraq.
“We are working on expanding our tools to handle other sites,” Vincent says. “Really any site around the world that has been destroyed in conflict would be ideal for this platform.”
He adds that the preliminary work on the ‘digital museum’ of replicas from the Mosul Museum should be freely available to the public soon.
UN member-states on Thursday declared that the destruction by jihadists of Iraqi cultural sites may amount to war crimes and agreed to take steps to curb the trade of stolen ancient artifacts.An image made available by Jihadist media outlet Welayat Homs on May 28, 2015 allegedly shows a flag of the Islamic State in the ancient city of Palmyra, a 2,000-year-old metropolis and an UNESCO world heritage site [Credit: AFP]
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.
Islamic State militants overran the famed archaeological site at Palmyra early on Thursday, just hours after seizing the central Syrian town, activists and officials said, raising concerns the extremists might destroy some of the priceless ruins as they have done in neighboring Iraq.Smoke rises due to what activists said was shelling from Islamic State fighters on Palmyra city, Syria May 19, 2015. Islamic State fighters in Syria have entered the ancient ruins of Palmyra after taking complete control of the central city [Credit: Reuters]
The Islamic State's capture of the town of Palmyra late Wednesday was a stunning triumph for the militant group, only days after it captured the strategic city of Ramadi in Iraq's largest Sunni province.
As IS took Palmyra, government forces collapsed in the face of the attacks and Syrian soldiers were seen fleeing the area, activists said. In Damascus, state TV acknowledged that pro-government forces had withdrawn from the town.
Rami Abdurrahman of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the extremists overrun the archaeological site, just to the southwest of the town itself, shortly after midnight Wednesday.
An activist in Homs who goes by the name of Bebars al-Talawy also confirmed that IS now controls the ruins at Palmyra. Both activists said the militants had not damaged the site so far.
A Facebook page close to IS published a statement Thursday, purportedly from the group, saying "the soldiers of the Islamic State" completed their control of Palmyra as well as the town's airport and prison. The capture came after government forces collapsed, "leaving large numbers of dead whose bodies filled the streets," it said.
The ruins at Palmyra are one of the world's most renowned historic sites and there were fears the extremists would destroy them as they did major archaeological sites in Iraq. The UNESCO world heritage site is famous for its 2,000-year-old towering Roman-era colonnades and other ruins and priceless artifacts. Before the war, thousands of tourists a year visited the remote desert outpost, a cherished landmark referred to by Syrians as the "Bride of the Desert."
In Damascus, Maamoun Abdulkarim, the head of the Antiquities and Museum Department, said Palmyra's town museum had suffered "minor damages" during the IS onslaught.
"The city is now totally controlled by gunmen and its destiny is dark and dim," warned Abdulkarim. "We are in a state of anticipation and fear" about what will happen to "the archaeological site and the remaining artifacts in the museum."
Before the fall, hundreds of "the most precious and beautiful" pieces from Palmyra were taken to safe houses in Damascus, he added.
Also Thursday, many Palmyra residents were fleeing the town toward the city of Homs and the capital, Damascus, according to Talal Barazi, the governor of the central province of Homs, which includes Palmyra.
The Syrian army is now outside the town, from where it is targeting Islamic State reinforcements, he said.
"We have not received any news about (the archaeological site's) destruction," Barazi told The Associated Press. "We hope that there will be no massacres in the city or damage to the ruins."
Palmyra has a population of some 65,000 people, according to Barazi. He added that 1,300 residents fled over the past days and more were trying to leave on Thursday.
On Wednesday, the head of the U.N.'s cultural agency called on Syria's warring factions to immediately end hostilities within the archaeological site.
"I am deeply concerned by the situation at the site of Palmyra. The fighting is putting at risk one of the most significant sites in the Middle East and its civilian population," UNESCO chief Irina Bokova said in a statement.
She urged all parties to respect international obligations to protect cultural heritage during conflict.
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said that following Palmyra's fall, thousands are at risk of arbitrary violent actions and more destruction of cultural sites might be perpetrated.
"Daesh's mass killings and deliberate destruction of archaeological and cultural heritage in Syria and Iraq amount to a war crime," she said, using an Arabic acronym to refer to IS.
Mogherini added that the EU has taken all the appropriate steps to prevent the illegal traffic of cultural artefacts that directly contributes to the financing of IS.
In taking Palmyra, IS also overran the town's notorious Tadmur prison, where thousands of Syrian dissidents have been imprisoned and tortured over the years.
An amateur video posted online showed IS fighters setting a giant poster of President Bashar Assad, allegedly inside the prison in Palmyra, cheering as flames rose around them against the night sky.
The video and its location could not be independently verified but appeared genuine and corresponded to other AP reporting of the events.
Al-Talawy, the Homs activist, said the government had recently transferred thousands of detainees from the Palmyra prison to a jail near Damascus.
But he added that IS extremists freed some of those who were still inside by the time they captured the prison. He could not provide any definitive figures but there were believed to have been thousands prisoners still there.
The Observatory said that with the capture of Palmyra and surrounding areas in recent weeks, IS now controls half of Syria - and most of the country's oil wells.
Palmyra's fall came at a deadly toll.
The Observatory said Thursday that according to its estimates, 462 people have been killed since IS began its offensive on Palmyra and nearby areas on May 13. It said the dead included 241 troops and pro-government gunmen, as well as 150 IS fighters. The rest were civilians, presumably killed by IS or in the crossfire.
Despite Islamic State's stunning victories in Palmyra and Iraq, the extremists suffered a setback in Syria's northeastern province of Hassakeh, where they have come under attack by Kurdish fighters.
The Kurdish fighters captured much of the Abdul-Aziz Mountain near the village of Tel Tamr on Wednesday, according to the Observatory and the Kurdish forces known as the People's Protection Units, or YPG.
The Observatory said YPG fighters were backed by airstrikes of the U.S.-led coalition, which has been bombing IS positions in Syria since September.
Authors: Albert Aji & Bassem Mroue | Source: The Associated Press [May 21, 2015]
Museum experts from around the world on Monday issued an "emergency red list" to help authorities identify Iraqi antiquities at risk of being looted and illegally exported as the country battles a surge in jihadist violence.
The list from the Paris-based International Council of Museums (ICOM) highlights objects that are popular on the black market such as sculptures, stone tablets, vases and coins, and tells customs and police officers how to spot stolen ancient treasures.
"In recent months we have witnessed massacres of minorities in Syria and Iraq but also the destruction of priceless works of cultural heritage," the head of Paris's famed Louvre Museum, Jean-Luc Martinez, said at a press conference presenting the new list.
"These are two parts of the same strategy that has been described as 'cultural cleansing' which seeks to erase entire segments of human history," he added.
Items on the list range from millennia-old Mesopotamian goods to 19th-century artefacts from the reign of the Ottomans.
ICOM's president Hans-Martin Hinz said that since 2000 the organisation has published red lists for over 25 nations.
"It is a solution with proven results," he said, adding that art dealers should "stop buying objects that come from Syria and Iraq."
Created in 1946, ICOM brings together over 35,000 members including museum professionals in 137 countries and cooperates with UNESCO, the World Customs Organization and Interpol to fight against the illicit trafficking of antiquities.
Iraq's cultural heritage is protected by national laws and international conventions.
As armed groups in Syria and Iraq destroy priceless archaeological sites, European authorities and dealers are on high alert for smaller, looted artefacts put on sale to help finance the jihadists' war.Looted funerary reliefs from Palmyra [Credit: AP/SANA]
Stolen-art expert Chris Marinello, director of Art Recovery International, said he has been shown photographs of items being offered from Syria that were "clearly looted right out of the ground".
"You could still see dirt on some of these objects," he told AFP.
They included cylinder seals, Roman bottles and vases, although Marinello said it was unclear whether the items were still in Syria, were in transit or had arrived in the key markets of Europe and the United States.
Concerns about looting during the Syrian war have increased following the advance of the Islamic State group through parts of Syria and Iraq, and recent propaganda videos showing their destruction of ancient sites such as Nimrud.
The UN Security Council in February demanded UN states act to stop the trade in cultural property from those two countries, amid warnings that they represented a significant source of funding for the militant group.
Experts say it is impossible to put a value on antiquities looted from Syria, which has been home to many civilisations through the millennia, from the Canaanites to the Ottomans.
The London-based International Association of Dealers in Ancient Art (IADAA) estimates the entire legitimate antiquities market in 2013 was worth between 150 and 200 million euros ($160-215 million).
Marinello said reputable dealers are "being very careful not to touch anything that could remotely be part of this recent wave of looting".
But Hermann Parzinger, an archaeologist and president of the Germany-based Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, said there was an "enormous market" from private buyers.
He warned that the cultural costs were huge, telling AFP: "The context which is so important to reconstruct the history of these civilisations is completely destroyed."
Italy has proposed that world heritage body UNESCO create a military taskforce to protect cultural sites in war zones, but many experts believe little can be done to stop the current destruction.
Instead, they are forced to wait until the conflict ends and watch in horror as priceless historic sites are destroyed and the spoils gradually emerge onto the market.
Vernon Rapley, a former head of the art and antiquities squad at London's Metropolitan Police, expects many Syrian items to be held back to avoid flooding the market, as occurred after the US-led invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.
The looted artefacts were likely to be "hauled up in warehouses either in the country or near the country, and only linked to the art trade in small pieces and at a later stage", he told AFP.
Stephane Thefo, who leads an Interpol unit dedicated to fighting the illegal trafficking of cultural goods, agreed that many items may disappear for years -- but insisted that tackling the trade was the best way to combat looting.
The French policeman would like to see tougher national laws on trafficking of cultural goods, something Germany is currently considering.
"We have to act by seeking to narrow markets for the illicit trade, hoping that by curbing the demand, the supply would eventually decrease," Thefo said.
Identifying looted objects is no easy task, however, not least because cultural crime is rarely a police priority.
The law puts the onus on the authorities to prove an item is illegal and a long delay in an artefact being sold, or multiple owners, make it hard to establish provenance.
At a conference at the V&A museum in London this week on the destruction of cultural property in conflict areas in Iraq and Syria, Mali, Libya and Yemen, archaeologists stressed the need for proper inventories of heritage sites.
They noted that objects that have been photographed and digitally catalogued are more likely to be recovered.
Interpol is currently building a database of stolen objects, and James Ede, a London dealer and IADAA board member, urged cultural bodies to share their information with dealers.
"This material will necessarily surface on the open market sooner or later. The challenge therefore is to identify it and where possible to return it when it is safe to do so," he said.
Author: Alice Ritchie | Source: AFP [April 17, 2015]
The Islamic State released photos showing the destruction of six priceless artifacts from the ancient city of Palmyra. The photos show jihadis taking a sledgehammer and smashing the historic treasures, including one dating from the second century.
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, the Islamic State announced Thursday [Screenshots from Islamic State propaganda video]
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.
The statues were discovered and deemed icons under ISIS's radical interpretation of Shariah law [Screenshots from Islamic State propaganda video]
"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.
The Lion of Al Lat statue at the Temple of Allat in Palmyra [Credit: Alamy]
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]
The United States returned Wednesday hundreds of Iraqi artefacts its special forces recovered during a raid in Syria against a man described as the Islamic State group's top financier.Looted artefacts recovered by the US military during a recent raid in Syria are returned to the Iraqi authorities on July 15, 2015 at the National Museum in Baghdad [Credit: AFP Photo/Sabah Arar]
Some of the pieces were displayed at the Iraqi national museum during a repatriation ceremony attended by Antiquities Minister Adel Shirshab and US Ambassador Stuart Jones.
"These artefacts are indisputable evidence that Daesh (IS) -- beyond its terrorism, beyond its brutality and destruction -- is also a criminal gang that is looting antiquities from museums and historical sites," Jones said.
"And of course the purpose of this is to sell these items on the black market," he said.
The pieces on display in one of the recently reopened museum's main Assyrian halls Wednesday were small items, including coins, statuettes and jewellery.
"The coins for example are from the Islamic period. This is evidence that this terrorism that claims such heritage is blasphemous is trying to profit from it by selling it," Shirshab said.
The artefacts were retrieved by the US commandos who carried out a rare raid inside Syria on May 15 during which Abu Sayyaf, a top IS figure, was killed.
Abu Sayyaf was believed to be the jihadist organisation's top financier, and US officials said they were learning a lot by analysing what the raid had produced.
"These are very precious, priceless pieces," said Hakim al-Shammari, head of the exhibitions department at the national museum.
He could not estimate the black market value of the recovered artefacts but said they would have made a substantial contribution to IS finances.
"The revenue they get from selling such pieces is used to finance operations, buy weapons, recruit people and manufacture car bombs, for example," he said.
Officials at Wednesday's ceremony provided few details on exactly where and when the returned artefacts had been looted.
IS has captured much attention by posting videos of its militants destroying statues and heritage sites on the grounds that they are idolatrous.
But experts argue they have mostly destroyed pieces that are too large to smuggle and sell off, and kept the smaller pieces, several of which are already resurfacing on the black market in the West.
The US says it has repatriated more than 3,000 stolen artefacts to Iraq since 2005.
Archaeologists around the world feared for the spectacular ruins in Palmyra, Syria, after Islamic State militants took over the city and brutalized its population last week. The group had already looted and bulldozed another World Heritage Site, the city of Hatra in northern Iraq. However, after a preliminary examination of the latest satellite images from Palmyra, Michael Danti, the academic director of the Syrian Heritage Initiative at the American Schools of Oriental Research in Boston, reported that he saw no new damage to the stunning crossroads of Roman, Greek, and Persian cultures, whose ruins include the Roman emperor Diocletian’s camp.Roman funerary temple in Palmyra, dating to the 3rd century CE [Credit: Robert Preston Photography/Alamy]
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.
Some damage was reported at Palmyra long before the group took over. Combat injured the ruins, and Assad regime forces bulldozed earthen berms and created other fortifications in the ancient city. Satellite evidence also showed that ancient tomb entrances had been dug out and reopened. As Syria’s civil war dragged on, artifacts from Palmyra had been showing up on the illegal antiquities market, Danti says.
Although attacks on World Heritage Sites may get most of the attention, Danti points out that the Islamic State group has put much of its effort into destroying less well known places. “The majority of the damage has been to religious heritage that is being used by people on a daily basis,” he says. “What they are doing is tearing away the fabric of community’s cultural identity in a concerted, very overt form of cultural cleansing.” In Nineveh province, Iraq, where Danti has worked for much of the past 20 years, the group has destroyed more than 190 heritage sites, including churches, mosques, and schools. He estimates that 90% of those sites were connected with the day-to-day religious life of the local people. The Islamic State group recognizes “the power of heritage to essentially resist their message,” Danti says. “People turn to heritage all over the world as a way to define themselves … so [the group] tries to wipe that out.”
As a step toward curbing demand for these looted artifacts, a bill, H.R. 1493, has been introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives, which would ban importing Syrian antiquities to the United States. “It’s vital that minority religious sites continue to have a place to be,” says Katharyn Hanson, a specialist in protecting cultural heritage at the University of Pennsylvania, who testified in the bill’s favor. “If they’re all erased, there isn’t even going to be a place to lay flowers.”
Addressing a meeting of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on combating the destruction, smuggling and theft of cultural heritage, INTERPOL Secretary General Jürgen Stock reaffirmed the Organization’s commitment to tackle these crimes.This mosaic was stolen in 2011 from Afamya in Hama, Syria [Credit: Interpol]
The meeting, convened by the Permanent Missions of Jordan and France to the United Nations, co-presidents of the Security Council, was an opportunity for member countries to discuss and identify innovative and practical ways to protect and preserve cultural heritage following the recent adoption of UNSC Resolution 2199 (2015).
“In the eyes of criminals, cultural heritage often stands as an easy target,” said Secretary General Stock.
“The current situation in Syria and Iraq presents a significant challenge as sites vulnerable to destruction are often out of effective government control and illicit excavations dominate the picture,” added Mr Stock.
The INTERPOL Chief said lessons had been learned from the first Gulf War, after which just one item was inserted into the world police body’s Stolen Works of Art database. The implementation of UNSC Resolution 1483 (2003) resulted in the successful collection of around one quarter of the 2,700 Iraqi records now contained in the database.
In the context of UNSC Resolution 2199 (2015) information on more than 1,300 items removed from the Deir Atiyah Museum and other sites in Syria is currently being added to the database to be made available to more than 2,000 users from law enforcement, customs, partner organizations and private dealers.
UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova highlighted the extent of the tragedy underway, especially the loss of humanity’s millennial history.
“Heritage must be at the frontline of peace building, as a way to build back dignity and confidence. It is imperative to curb radicalization and counter the narrative of hatred and division. The fight against illicit trafficking of cultural objects must be strengthened throughout the world,” said Director General Bokova.
Previous successes include the deployment of a multi-disciplinary team to Iraq under the auspices of UNESCO and the creation of a dedicated INTERPOL Tracking Task Force bringing together key authorities for direct information exchange.
Raising public awareness and support through vehicles such as the UNESCO #unite4heritage campaign, which is backed by INTERPOL, and also engaging Internet Service Providers and online marketplaces to report suspected sales of Syrian and Iraqi cultural heritage were also highlighted as ways to strengthen the fight against illicit trafficking.
Syria’s state news agency quoted an archaeology official as saying that authorities have confiscated and reclaimed 6,000 looted antiquities trafficked by smugglers outside the country.Some artefacts retrieved from Lebanon [Credit: Credit: AFP/Joseph Eid]
The head of the General Directorate of Antiquities and Museums, Ahmad Deeb, said Friday that the materials include 69 antiquities and eight mosaics that were retrieved from Lebanon.
Thousands of antiquities have been looted or smuggled outside Syria since its crisis began in March 2011.
In December, UNESCO called on the United Nations to curb multi-billion dollar artifact trafficking from Syria and Iraq, where Islamic State group terrorists destroyed archaeological sites.
Deeb said Friday that authorities have closed some museums after taking antiquities to safe areas for fear they might be looted or destroyed.
A human rights monitoring group says Islamic State forces have been pushed from northern Tadmur, a Syrian city containing the ancient ruins of Palmyra.Ancient Aramaic city of Palmyra in the Syrian desert. An Islamic State advance into the city of Tadmur, where the ruins are located, was reversed in the city's northern neighborhoods by Syrian regime forces on Sunday, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights [Credit: Linda Marie Caldwell/UPI]
Bolstered by allied militias and airstrikes, the Syrian military pushed IS forces out of Tadmur's northern neighborhoods in a 24-hour period, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported Sunday, though the Sunni militants still hold a village north of the city.
Tadmur is adjacent to the ancient ruins of Palmyra, which comprises Roman temples and colonnades dating back over 2,000 years. UNESCO regards the ruins as a World Heritage Site.
The IS attack began Wednesday and was aimed at the cities of al-Sikhni and Tadmur. At least 295 people have been killed in the assault, including 123 regime troops and allied militiamen and 115 IS militants (including three "leading figures"), SOHR reports.
Fifty-seven civilians in and around the area were also killed, according to SOHR, a handful by airstrikes and shellfire and most by IS execution.
Aside from being near gas fields and a major airbase, Palmyra lies on the road between Deir al-Zour, the city of Homs and Syria's capital, Damascus.
The IS advance toward the ancient ruins has stoked anxiety stemming from the group's destruction of other archaeological sites under the charge of "idolatry," including the dismantling of 3,000-year-old artifacts at Iraq's Mosul Museum earlier this year. Officials say the group sells some artifacts on the black market to fund operations.
Meanwhile, advances by allied Islamic militants -- including al-Qaida's Nusra Front -- in Syria's northwest, near the Turkish border, have put forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on the defensive. The Syrian military last month lost all of its major urban strongholds in Idlib province, which is seen as a stepping stone toward Latakia province in the west. Latakia is home to the country's Alawite community to which Assad belongs.
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER Heartbroken: Bam Margera returns to the spot where his best friend and Jackass co-star lost his life in a horrific car smash in the early hours of Monday morning in Philadelphia Autopsy results reveal the crash was so violent it's impossible to determine if Dunn and passenger died from impact or from the fire that resulted Photo emerges showing stuntman in high spirits whilst he partied at a bar shortly before crash Co-star and best friend Bam Margera overcome with emotion as he visits crash scene Ryan Dunn's Jackass co-star Bam Margera broke down into floods of tears as he visited the spot where his best friend lost his life in a horror 130mph car smash. An inconsolable Bam spoke to a local news station and was so distraught he could barely put his loss into words. 'It was the worst phone call I ever got in my life waking up to that,' the 31-year-old wept. Raw grief: Bam could barely hold it together as he gave an interview to a local news station Margera, who was in Arizona at the time of the crash, visited the crash scene in Philadelphia on Tuesday evening. He was visibly overcome with emotion, rocking back and forth in agony at the guardrail that the car crashed through. 'I've never lost anybody that I cared about. It's my best friend,' he told local TV station WPXI, weeping. 'Worst phone call of my life': He paid tribute to his childhood friend and asked how he would cope with the loss he wept: 'I can't, I can't' 'He was the happiest person ever, the smartest guy. He had so much talent, and he had so many things going for him. This is not right, not right.' Margera stood at the guardrail that Dunn pierced with his Porsche Monday morning with such force that the car slammed through about 40 feet of trees before exploding into flames. When asked how he'd get through this ordeal, Bam replied: 'I can't. I can't.' Dunn's brother, Eric Dunn, said in an emailed statement to the AP that his family was 'devastated'. Memories: The cast of Bam's show Viva La Bam, a spin-off from Jackass, featuring Bam, front centre, his father Phil, far left, mother April and Dunn, back centre which ran for five seasons between 2003 and 2005 Emotional: Close friends of Dunn visited the spot where his car smashed into a guardrail before careering off the road and into woodland and exploding into flames In good spirits: A new picture shows Jackass star Ryan Dunn in high spirits as he parties at a bar with friends and fans shortly before he crashed his Porsche yesterday morning, killing himself and another passenger Childhood friends: Ryan and Bam, pictured back in November 2003 Wreckage: The charred remains of the Porsche 911 GT3 is towed away as police survey the scene Investigation: Dunn's Porsche was found engulfed in flames in woods beside the road Margera, who appeared in her son's MTV show 'Viva La Bam' with Dunn, says he was not the type of person to get behind the wheel while drunk. 'He is going to be missed by everyone,' April tearfully told the NBC Today Show. 'I have yelled at him for lots of things but he was not a big drinker and he was always responsible as far as I know, so I cannot believe he would do that. 'I am sick because it is a waste, sick because I loved him, sick because he was talented and sick because he is gone.' Meanwhile the passenger killed in Dunn's fatal car crash has been identified. Police have confirmed Zachary Hartwell, 30, perished in a fireball car crash in the early hours of yesterday morning. Hartwell, from West Chester, Philadelphia, had been with Dunn at Barnaby's and appeared in one of the last photographs to be taken of the daredevil before the accident. The two were drinking with a third unidentified male in a Twitter picture, which was posted hours before the accident. Speaking out: Bam Margera's mother April says she does not believe Dunn was driving drunk at the time of his death While Hartwell was not a member of the Jackass crew, he is listed as a production assistant on the second Jackass movie. He is also credited on IMDb as a 'car stunt driver' in Bam Margera's film Minghags. He was reportedly a recently married Iraq war veteran Dunn who was famous for his vulgar stunts in the multimillion-dollar TV and movie franchise Jackass, was driving his 2007 Porsche on a highway when it left the road, flipped over a guardrail and crashed into woods before bursting into flames. Speed may have been a factor in the crash, West Goshen Township police said. The force of impact shattered the vehicle into several twisted and blackened pieces, leaving the Porsche 911 GT3 unrecognisable except for a door that was thrown from the crash and not incinerated. A 100-foot-long tyre skid marked where the car left the road. Police said they were able to identify Dunn through his tattoos and hair. Dunn appeared on MTV shows Jackass and Viva La Bam and the three Jackass big-screen adaptations. He also was the star of his own MTV show, Homewrecker, and hosted Proving Ground on the G4 cable network. G4 spokesman Dave Welch said Proving Ground, which premiered on June 11 with the second episode due to air today, was being shelved until the network could discuss its future. Dunn's long-time friend and fellow Jackass daredevil Johnny Knoxville tweeted last night: 'Today I lost my brother Ryan Dunn. My heart goes out to his family and his beloved Angie. RIP Ryan, I love you buddy.' Passenger: Zachery Hartwell (right) was killed in Dunn's fatal car crash yesterday. The pair were at a bar with an unidentified friend in Philadelphia before the accident Dunn also starred in the yet-to-be-released film Living Will. The film's website describes Dunn's character as a 'party bum slacker (who) returns from the dead as a mischievous and perverted ghost'. MTV praised Dunn's tireless humour and enthusiasm and said he would be missed. 'We are devastated by the tragic loss of Ryan Dunn - a beloved member of the MTV family for more than a decade,' said Van Toffler, president of MTV Networks Music/Films Group. 'The Jackass brotherhood will never be the same.' Dunn was born in Ohio and moved at 15 to Pennsylvania, where he met Bam Margera on his first day of high school, according to a biography on his website. Dunn, Margera, Christopher Raab (known as Raab Himself) and Brandon DiCamillo, under the moniker CKY for 'Camp Kill Yourself', started making videos that featured them skateboarding and performing stunts. Where the night started: Dunn and Hartwell were both at Barnaby's in West Chester hours before the accident Dunn was working as a welder and petrol station worker when Knoxville, a friend of Margera's through the skateboarding circuit, asked the crew to allow their videos to be part of the series Jackass, which became a hit on MTV and ran from 2000 to 2002. Perhaps his most famous stunt, in 2002's Jackass: The Movie, involved inserting a toy car into his bottom and going to a hospital casualty unit, where he made up a story that he was in mysterious pain after passing out at a fraternity party. Dunn's X-ray from the hospital became a popular T-shirt for Jackass fans. In a 2000 stunt, he dived into a tank at a raw sewage plant wearing flippers, a mask and a snorkel. Crash scene: Black marks on the road show where Dunn's car skidded out of control Devastation: Dunn's car span off the road, through a guardrail and into the woods Bam Margera Breaks Down After Hearing About Ryan Dunns Death
An exquisitely sculpted ancient bust of a woman from Palmyra, Syria, is returned to view for the first time since 2006 at the Smithsonian's Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. Named "Haliphat," it will be accompanied by images of 18th-century engravings and 19th-century photographs of ancient Palmyra selected from the Freer|Sackler Libraries and Archives. A newly created 3-D scan of the bust will also be released for viewing and download at a later date as part of the Smithsonian X 3D Collection.Funerary Bust from Palmyra, Syria, 231 BC [Credit: Smithsonian's Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery]
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 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]
Ankara refused to cooperate with Damascus on returning of ancient artifacts smuggled by the Islamic State (IS) militant group from Syria through Turkey, the head of Syria's Directorate-General for Antiquities and Museums (DGAM) told Sputnik on Friday.
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.
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER Barack Obama and David Cameron serve food from a barbecue as they entertain British and American service members and veterans at 10 Downing Street today Taliban must make 'decisive split' with al Qaida, says Cameron in joint press conference with Obama after garden party Forget table tennis - this is the ultimate photo opportunity for Barack Obama and David Cameron. The UK and U.S. leaders forged a special culinary relationship today as they manned the grill at a barbecue in honour of servicemen in the garden at No. 10. It was a moment of fun after this morning's in-depth talks on issues ranging from military campaigns in Libya and Afghanistan to global economic reform. Obama and Cameron diligently serve a burger to a soldier wounded in service during the garden party U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama and Samantha Cameron, wife of the Prime Minister, serve food at the barbecue for British and American service members and veterans The pair gamely served the cooked meat at the lunch party while their wives, Samantha and Michelle, spooned side dishes onto the plates of 150 American and British service members. The Prime Minister and the President appeared at ease as they performed their catering duties in shirt sleeves, chatting and laughing while they worked. Servicemen and their partners arrive at the Downing Street garden party, which was attended by 150 American and British military personnel The Prime Minister, left, and the President appeared at ease as they entertained military personnel in shirt sleeves Both leaders worked together to pile food on to one wounded soldier's plate, as other guests queued at the food-laden tables. Following the barbecue, Obama and Cameron gave a joint press conference in which the Prime Minister said Taliban must make a 'decisive split' with al Qaida if a political settlement in Afghanistan is to be brokered. Speaking outside Lancaster House in London, Mr Cameron said the U.S. operation against Osama bin Laden represented a 'strike right at the heart of international terrorism'. Mr Cameron said the next 12 months represented a 'vital year' in Afghanistan, while British and American troops had 'broken the momentum of the insurgency' in the country. Mr Obama speaks during a joint press conference with David Cameron at Lancaster House today. The Prime Minister said the next 12 months represented a 'vital year' in Afghanistan In the Taliban heartland of Kandahar and central Helmand, the insurgents were 'on the back foot', the Prime Minister said. Calling for a political settlement, he told the press conference: 'Now is the moment to step up our efforts to reach a political settlement. Obama arrived at Downing Street before 10am this morning for discussions with Cameron as he got down to the real political business of his state visit. Obama and Cameron, right, were joined by Nick Clegg, left, for today's talks at Downing Street. Mr Clegg, gesturing to the sunlit windows, said to the U.S. leader: 'You've brought the sun today' Mr Obama shares a joke with Nick Clegg at 10 Downing Street. Shaking hands with the Deputy Prime Minister, the U.S. leader said: 'Wonderful to see you' During the talks, the U.S. President insisted the alliance between America and the UK is key to providing global security after a 'difficult decade'. Nick Clegg proved that three isn't always a crowd as he joined the leaders and was seen sharing a joke with the President. Mr Obama was smiling broadly after making the short journey in Cadillac One - his bombproof limousine known as 'The Beast' - from Buckingham Palace. The leaders greeted each other with a handshake before Mr Obama patted the Prime Minister on the shoulder. They then shook hands again on the steps of No. 10 but they were no Obama smiles before today's meeting with Cameron. The U.S. President and the Prime Minister are to spend the morning holding talks before a joint press conference in Downing Street Commander-in-chief: Barack Mr Obama takes a seat across from David Cameron (second left) in the Cabinet Room for today's talks on security with other ministers, advisers and officials Barack Obama is greeted by the Prime Minister outside 10 Downing Street this morning. The pair are discussing issues ranging from military campaigns in Libya and Afghanistan to global economic reform He is expected to tell MPs and peers that even though the world has changed significantly since the Second World War, the UK-US relationship and the broader transatlantic alliance is still the 'cornerstone of global security'. The 'Arab Spring' in the Middle East and North Africa reinforce that the allies' shared beliefs are 'not just relevant but essential', he is to say. The president will also strike an optimistic note by claiming that the world is 'turning a corner' following a 'difficult decade'. As well as operations winding down in Iraq, the shift to Afghanistan taking control of its own security has begun, and al Qaida has been 'weakened' by successes such as the recent killing of Osama bin Laden. Yesterday, large parts of central London were brought to a standstill as crowds gathered to welcome the president for his first state visit. Obama and Cameron wave to members of the media outside the Prime Minister's official residence, prior to their meeting Mr Obama made the short journey in Cadillac One - his bombproof limousine known as 'The Beast' - from Buckingham Palace Police marksmen take position on rooftops along Whitehall as the Presidential motorcade arrives at Downing Street this morning. Helicopters were seen whirring overhead, as part of the major security operation After being greeted by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh at Buckingham Palace, the president and first lady met newlyweds the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge before Mr Obama laid a wreath at the Grave of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey. Mr Obama and Mr Cameron then dropped in on a south London school where they took off their jackets to play two schoolboys at table tennis. But the Anglo-American team took a sound beating at the hands of 16-year-olds Jason Do and Jamiyu Mojaji at the Globe Academy in Southwark. Mr and Mrs Obama then attended a star-studded state banquet in the president's honour at Buckingham Palace last night as the Queen hailed the US as Britain's 'most important ally'. Cameron and Obama pose for the army of press photographers gathered outside 10 Downing Street U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton walks with British Foreign Secretary William Hague to join Obama at 10 Downing Street The smartly dressed driver of the President's vehicle brushes down its shiny exterior as she waits for him outside the Prime Minister's residence She insisted the relationship was 'tried, tested and, yes, special' and the two nations together contributed to security and prosperity of the world. 'I firmly believe that the strength of our links and many shared interests will continue to ensure that when the United States and the United Kingdom stand together, our people and other people of goodwill around the world will be more secure and more prosperous,' the Queen said. Responding with his own toast, Mr Obama spoke of the 'rock-solid foundation' between the two countries. Mr Obama's motorcade travels along the Mall as it leaves Buckingham Palace to go to Downing Street this morning 'From that day to this, you have been our closest partner in the struggle to protect our people from terrorism attacks and violent extremism from around the world despite very heavy sacrifices here,' the president said. 'As we confront the challenges of the 21st century together we have can confidence in the partnership our two countries share, based on a rock-solid foundation built during Queen Elizabeth's lifetime of extraordinary service to her nation and to the world.' Mr Cameron and Mr Obama sat down for talks in the White Room of No 10 shortly before 10am this morning. 'Okay. Enough about Ryan Giggs. What's the latest on Arnold Schwarzenegger?' As about a dozen photographers took pictures at the start of the meeting, the president joked: 'All right guys, one of those must have worked.' Foreign Secretary William Hague and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton followed the two leaders into Number 10 half an hour later. Mrs Clinton waved briefly and smiled as she entered. Michelle Obama, the wife of the U.S. President, and Samantha Cameron, wife of the Prime Minister, pose with their husbands on the steps of 10 Downing Street yesterday Earlier, the smartly dressed driver of the president's vehicle brushed down its shiny exterior as she waited for him outside the Prime Minister's residence. Mr Obama and Mr Cameron were joined by Nick Clegg at about 10.15am. Shaking hands with the Deputy Prime Minister, the US leader said: 'Wonderful to see you.' Mr Clegg, gesturing to the sunlit windows, said: 'You've brought the sun today.' At about 10.40am, the President, Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister moved to the Cabinet Room for talks on security with other ministers, advisers and officials. Mr Cameron and Mr Obama sat opposite each other in the centre of the coffin-shaped Cabinet table, the Prime Minister flanked by Mr Clegg and Mr Hague, and the President by Mrs Clinton and the U.S. Ambassador to London, Louis Susman. Other British ministers attending included Chancellor George Osborne and Home Secretary Theresa May. Special relationship 'stronger than ever'
Palmyra is in danger. As Islamic State fighters clash with Syrian government forces around the historic site, it is worth considering what the loss of this wonder, dubbed the "Venice of the Sands", would mean for the world's cultural heritage.Palmyra is one of the best-known ancient sites in the world [Credit: EPA]
Palmyra is the last place anyone would expect to find a forest of stone columns and arches. Travellers in the 17th and 18th centuries were repeatedly astonished by what they saw: a vast field of ruins in the middle of the Syrian desert, roughly half-way between the Mediterranean coast and the valley of the River Euphrates.
For anyone visiting, however, the key reason for the site's prosperity is immediately apparent: ancient Palmyra sits at the edge of an oasis of date palms and gardens.
It was as a watering place on a trade route from the east that Palmyra's story begins, and the very name Palmyra refers to the date palms that still dominate the area (the origin of its Semitic name, Tadmor, is less certain; a derivation from tamar - date palm - is favoured).
Palmyrene power
For such a remote city Palmyra occupies a prominent place in Middle Eastern history. From modest beginnings in the 1st Century BC, Palmyra gradually rose to prominence under the aegis of Rome until, during the 3rd Century AD, the city's rulers challenged Roman power and created an empire of their own that stretched from Turkey to Egypt.
Palmyra was once a thriving trade hub to rival any city in the Roman Empire [Credit: AFP]
The story of its Queen Zenobia, who fought against the Roman Emperor Aurelian, is well known; but it is less well-known that Palmyra also fought another empire: that of the Sasanian Persians.
In the middle of the third century, when the Sasanians invaded the Roman Empire and captured the Emperor Valerian, it was the Palmyrenes who defeated them and drove them back across the Euphrates.
For several decades Rome had to rely on Palmyrene power to prop up its declining influence in the east.
Unique attributes
Palmyra was a great Middle Eastern achievement, and was unlike any other city of the Roman Empire.
The remains, like the ancient theatre, drew throngs of tourists before the war [Credit: AFP]
It was quite unique, culturally and artistically. In other cities the landed elites normally controlled affairs, whereas in Palmyra a merchant class dominated the political life, and the Palmyrenes specialised in protecting merchant caravans crossing the desert.
Like Venice, the city formed the hub of a vast trade network, only with the desert as its sea and camels as its ships.
Even so, archaeology has revealed that they were no strangers to the sea itself.
Palmyrenes travelled down the Euphrates to the Gulf to engage in seaborne trade with India, and even maintained a presence in the Red Sea ports of Egypt.
The wealth they derived from the eastern trade in exotic goods they invested in imposing architectural projects in their home city.
The well-preserved remains of edifices such as the great sanctuary of the Palmyrene Gods (generally known as the Temple of Bel), a grand colonnaded street and a theatre stand to this day.
Historical threat
What has been excavated has revealed a vibrant Middle Eastern culture with its own distinct sense of identity.
UNESCO describes Palmyra as a heritage site of "outstanding universal value" [Credit: AFP]
The Palmyrenes were proud to adorn their buildings with monumental writing in their own Semitic script and language rather than relying exclusively on Greek or Latin (which was the norm elsewhere).
Palmyra developed its own artistic style, and its own take on Classical architecture. Decorative patterns on its buildings and its inhabitants' styles of dress speak of widespread connections with east and west.
Chinese silks have been found adorning mummies in Palmyrene tombs. Theirs was a cosmopolitan culture with an international outlook.
Yet we still know comparatively little.
Only small parts of the site have been excavated. Most of the archaeology lies just beneath the surface rather than deeply buried, and it is particularly vulnerable to looting.
Like other sites in Syria Palmyra has undoubtedly been plundered during the present conflict. But given the track record of ISIS in Iraq there are reasons to fear systematic looting and destruction should Palmyra fall into their hands.
If that happens, a major chapter in Middle Eastern history and culture will be yet another casualty of this tragic conflict.
Author: Prof Kevin Butcher | Source: BBC News Website [May 15, 2015]
An international archaeological team is investigating an historic site devastated by conflict in Lebanon. They have demonstrated it is possible to obtain original and important information from heritage sites that have been devastated by conflict.Standing remains of the large 2nd century CE Graeco-Roman temple at Hosn Niha, unchanged since first recorded in the early 19th century CE. The walls still stand to a height of 10 metres [Credit: University of Leicester/ American University of Beirut]
Working at the Graeco-Roman temple and village site of Hosn Niha, high in the central Biqa' Valley of Lebanon, the team led by Dr Paul Newson (Department of History and Archaeology, American University of Beirut) and Dr Ruth Young (School of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester) have described the value of exploring conflict damaged sites in the archaeological journal Antiquity.
Dr Newson said: "Shocking recent footage showing apparent damage to world heritage and archaeological sites at Hatra and Nimrud in Iraq include scenes of the bulldozing of irreplaceable buildings. Aerial photographs of living ancient cities such as Homs and Aleppo in Syria taken before the war have been compared to images from the last few months, and the extent of damage to houses, mosques, and heritage structures is brutal and widespread.
"Of course the human cost in any conflict is the first and highest priority; however, archaeology and heritage are extremely vulnerable to attack and damage during conflict and conflict continues to inflict damage on numerous sites, both large and small, around the world today."
Dr Young added: "Rather than simply ignoring sites that have been badly damaged by conflict, we have taken on the challenge of investigating a site previously considered too badly damaged by conflict to warrant systematic archaeological investigation.
"Our research at the Graeco-Roman temple and village site of Hosn Niha in Lebanon has shown that with the right methods and questions, it is possible to obtain a great deal of original and important information from sites that have suffered badly through conflict.
Part of the central area of the Graeco-Roman settlement at Hosn Niha showing extensive damage from bulldozing and other illegal excavation activities [Credit: University of Leicester/American University of Beirut]
"Using a range of up-to-date surface survey methods we were able to answer some important questions about the site. The first of these was an accurate assessment of site damage, what had been done and where, and the effects of various actions, be it bulldozing or clandestine looting of the site. Through this exercise, we learned that bulldozing and other damage actions had effectively erased the heart of the settlement, but significantly sized sections of settlement beyond remained quite well preserved. From recording and collecting surface finds from across the settlement area as a whole we were able to begin to understand both the morphology and development history of the settlement."
The authors suggest the settlement was firmly established by the 1st century CE with a dense core area and more dispersed courtyard dwellings on the periphery. By the early Islamic period the settlement appears less robust and permanent occupation may have ended for a time. Surprisingly, they also recovered some evidence for an early medieval re-occupation of the site, perhaps a fortified farmhouse. They acknowledge the initial results are preliminary and that more research and analysis of the results is on-going.
Hosn Niha, along with many other sites in Lebanon was severely damaged as a consequence of decades of civil war and the associated unruliness and accelerated looting that went with this.
The authors state: "Sites that have been badly damaged by various causes may be disregarded by professionals who consider that their archaeological or heritage potential has been too badly affected to warrant any investigation. Instead, as demonstrated by the Hosn Niha project, the opposite should become automatic: archaeologists should view conflict-damaged sites as opportunities to gain information and explore sites and regions with new agendas.
"Conflict is impacting the lives of many millions of people, and the archaeology and heritage of many nations. All conflict-damaged archaeology and heritage can play a vital role as resources to help re-build damaged communities and offer hope of employment and reintegration to those impacted by war. Being able to offer ways of thinking of how to deal with damaged sites, gain as much information from them, and consider them a valuable resource rather than an inevitable casualty of war is critical to moving forward, and regaining control over land and identity."
The Central Biqa' Archaeological Project is based at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon (AUB). The project has been supported by the Department of Antiquities, Lebanon and the University of Leicester, and is funded by the American University of Beirut through its University Research Board (URB).
