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.
Syria's best-known mosaic museum in the northern rebel-held town of Maaret al-Numan has been seriously damaged in a regime barrel bomb attack, according to archaeological experts.The museum in Maaret al-Numan on June 16, 2015 following reported air strikes by Syrian government forces [Credit: AFP Photo/Ghaith Omran]
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.
Syrian rebel fighters at the museum in Maaret al-Numan on October 17, 2012 [Credit: AFP/Bulent Kilic]
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.
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]
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]
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.
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]
Islamic State militants have destroyed two historic mausoleums in Palmyra, Syria's top antiquities official said Wednesday, raising fears that the extremists could next target the town's famed Roman ruins.This undated photo released on June 22, 2015, by a militant website, which has been verified and is consistent with other AP reporting, shows the tomb of Mohammad Bin Ali before being blown up by Islamic State militants, in the historic central town of Palmyra, Syria. A Syrian official says the Islamic State group has destroyed two mausoleums in the historic central town of Palmyra. Maamoun Abdulkarim, the head of the Antiquities and Museums Department in Damascus, tells The Associated Press that one of the tombs belongs to Mohammad Bin Ali, a descendant of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad’s cousin Imam Ali [Credit: The website of Islamic State militants via AP]
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.
In this undated photo released on June 22, 2015, by a militant website, which has been verified and is consistent with other AP reporting, two of Islamic State militants stand on the wreckage of one of two mausoleums after blowing it up, in the historic central town of Palmyra, Syria. A Syrian official says the Islamic State group has destroyed two mausoleums in the historic central town of Palmyra. Maamoun Abdulkarim, the head of the Antiquities and Museums Department in Damascus, tells The Associated Press that one of the tombs belongs to Mohammad Bin Ali, a descendant of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad’s cousin Imam Ali [Credit: The website of Islamic State militants via AP]
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.
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.
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]
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.
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]
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.
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.
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.
The ancient city of Ephesus in western Turkey has been added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List following a vote in Bonn on July 5.Ephesus [Credit: DHA]
The move came just a day after Diyarbakir’s wall and its nearby Hevsel Gardens were added to the list as well.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Permanent Representative of Turkey to UNESCO Hüseyin Avni Botsalı – who headed the Turkish delegation at the session – described the unanimous approval of Ephesus as a great success.
“In fact, we have a great responsibility on our shoulders in terms of cooperation of the international community in this field. We will make significant efforts for the protection of civilizational values and cultural properties,” he added.
Turkish Culture and Tourism Minister Ömer Çelik celebrated the development in a series of Twitter posts.
“We have just received the second good news from Germany. Ephesus is now officially on the world heritage [list],” he said.
The minister said Ephesus had always been a key port city, as well as a cultural and commercial center, throughout history.
“A principal city of science, culture and art of its era, Ephesus had been a residential area starting from the pre-historic era and through the Hellenistic, Roman, Eastern Roman periods and also under the Ottoman Empire for about nine millennia without interruption,” he said.
Çelik also said Ephesus, which draws 2 million visitors a year, was a place that the whole world agreed was a site of global cultural heritage.
In a later interview with Anadolu Agency, Çelik noted the threat that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) posed to world heritage in neighboring countries like Syria.
“While a terrorist group called Daesh destroys cities, it is a significant message against this barbarism that Turkey as a Muslim country in the Muslim world managed to put its properties on the world heritage list,” he said, using the Arabic acronym for ISIL.
In May, ISIL militants seized the Roman ruins at the Palmyra World Heritage site in Syria’s Homs Governorate. Last week, members of ISIL destroyed a peerless statue of a lion at the site on the grounds that it is idolatrous, while it has also allegedly conducted executions at the ancient city’s famous theater.
Describing Ephesus, UNESCO said: “The Temple of Artemis, which was considered to be one of the Seven Wonders of the World, is situated on the edge of this small town. The city which was situated at the beginning of the Persian Royal Road has survived sufficiently enough to enable us to understand the ancient way of life in Ephesus. It is one of the cities which played an impressive role in the beginnings of Christianity and during the period of its proliferation (St. John Church and the shrine of the Virgin Mary). It contains one of the most spectacular examples of religious architecture of the Seljuk Period.”
Turkey first entered the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1985 with Göreme National Park and the Rock Sites of Cappadocia and the Great Mosque and Hospital of Divriği – both in central Turkey – and the historic areas of Istanbul.
The Hittite capital Hattuşa was added to the list in 1986, followed by Mount Nemrut in Adıyaman 1987, and Hierapolis-Pamukkale in Denizli and the ancient city of Xanthos-Letoon between Muğla and Fethiye in 1988.
In 1994, the city of Safranbolu was approved as a world heritage while the archaeological site of Troy was added to the list in 1998. In recent year, Edirne’s Selimiye Mosque and its social complex was added in 2011, as was Konya’s Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük in 2012.
The latest entries in 2014 were Bursa’s Cumalikızık village which witnessed the birth of the Ottoman Empire and İzmir’s ancient city of Pergamon and its multi-layered cultural landscape.
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.”
A section of the wall of the ancient citadel in Aleppo was destroyed by an explosion in a tunnel under the city, state media and activists reported on Sunday.Part of the citadel wall turned to rubble after the explosion [Credit: Reuters]
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.
A section of the wall was shown turned to rubble in footage posted online by Halab News Network, an activist outlet.
The Ancient City of Aleppo was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage in danger in 2013.
Aleppo was Syria's most populous city before the eruption of the civil war. It is divided into areas controlled separately by the government and insurgents who are battling to topple President Bashar al-Assad.
The two-story Germüş Church in the eastern province of Şanlıurfa has survived for centuries. Now, it will become a tourist attraction within the scope of the Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP) Action Plan.The church is estimated to have been built in the beginning of the 19th century [Credit: AA]
The church is located in the Dağeteği neighborhood on the outskirts of the Germüş Mountains, 10 kilometers away from the city center. But since it does not have an inscription, the exact date of its establishment is unknown.
Estimated to have been built with cut stones in the beginning of the 19th century, the church has three lancet windows at the entrance.
The historic church, which has partly lost some of its features during previous restorations done, is located close to Göbeklitepe, one of the world’s oldest temples located in the city.
Şanlıurfa Regional Tourist Guides Chamber Chairman Kamil Türkmen said that the city had recently gained momentum in tourism. He said that foreign tourists came to the region especially for Göbeklitepe and also visited the Germüş Church.
Türkmen said that Armenians lived in the Germüş village during the Ottoman era and that the area was a protected site.
The neglected interior of the church [Credit: AA]
“The church draws attention mostly from foreign tourists. They come here but the church is not completely ready. This is why it should be restored as soon as possible,” he said.
Culture and Tourism Deputy Director Aydın Arslan said that work had been initiated for the church to promote its tourism, adding, “The surveying, restitution and restoration projects have been finished. The restoration project was included in the GAP Action Plan and will start in the coming days. We will also carry out archaeological work in the area.”
The former village head of the neighborhood, 85-year-old Mansur Özdemir, said that they had been trying to protect the church and structures in the vicinity but treasure hunters had done excavations and damaged the church. He said some Armenian families used to live in the region in the past, and later moved to their relatives in Syria.
Özdemir said that his father told about the stories from the World War I and explained:
“In the final years of the Ottoman state, young people from neighboring villages joined the war and only old people and women remained in the houses. Since the Armenians did not join the war, they continued living here. But the French and Russians took advantage of this and made them massacre people in the neighboring villages. When they heard our soldiers were returning, they left their houses and escaped the village.”
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.
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]
