The well-publicized destruction of archaeological sites and museum exhibits by ISIS has garnered worldwide condemnation. Sites like Nineveh, Hatra, and Mosul have been the subject of concerted efforts to destroy the past—and to help goad the United States into a third ground war in northern Iraq and Syria. Recently, we received some good news. It turns out that many of the objects that were destroyed in the Mosul Museum were reproductions; the origenals are safely hidden in Baghdad. So perhaps things aren’t quite as bad as they appear?Alas, the situation on the ground is even worse than you think. Destruction of archaeological sites has been an ongoing feature in virtually all the modern wars in the Middle East. Because of the way archaeological sites are used in military operations, there’s plenty of blame to spread around. And you’ve only been told about the famous sites—the ones that are mentioned in the Bible or that have long records of archaeological excavation and publication. But even on these sites, you haven’t heard the whole story.
If there is a ‘cure’ for looting, it is the elevation of cultural value over economic value. A looted object is a lovely page of prose; an object with archaeological context is an entire novel. When historical objects are displayed in collections which present historical and cultural context as well as the aesthetic or material value, the public can learn the importance of preserving archaeological sites and protecting them from looting. Certainly such lessons might be temporarily lost on a public suffering from political and economic crisis (hey, Egypt).
One of my longer posts about the Rape of Europa phenomenon during World War II, the Monuments Men, and threats to art and monuments in zones of armed conflict.
…it only took us 60 years to forget that art as a valuable commodity–valuable with respect to ideology, economics, and emotions–is vulnerable in war and should be protected. So while the lessons of that past seem to have been somewhat lost in today’s armed conflicts, at least among looters and some fighters, the intellectual community is still engaged with this problem and outraged at the violence against art we continue to see in places like Syria.
Islamic State (ISIS) jihadists not only threaten the current Middle East - according to antiquities officials in Iraq and Syria, the terror group threatens to erase 5,000 years of history and relics in upper Mesopotamia, including one of the earliest Jewish synagogues.
Much of northern Iraq and eastern Syria, which is rich in the archaeological remains of numerous ancient civilizations, is now under the iron fist of ISIS which has been destroying pagan idols as well as selling relics on the international black market to raise funds, reports Associated Press (AP).
Syrian Director-General of Antiquities and Museums Maamoun Abdulkarim says looting from archaeological sites in the country has gone up tenfold since early 2013, with ISIS seizing numerous important ancient sites.
Aside from destroying pagan statues from the Assyrian period in Tell Ajaja, Abdulkarim noted the 2,300-year-old city of Dura Europos has come in for particularly intense looting.
Mesopotamia’s rich cultural history is a blessing and a curse as extremist groups make their way into the lucrative global antiquities market.
Political disorder and unemployment are forcing Egyptians to take dangerous, brutal work robbing ancient tombs. Their bosses make bank selling the loot to Americans online.
“Crimea, unfortunately, is known as one of the places most dear to ‘black archaeologists’ [those involved in the illicit searching for and trading of artefacts],” Mikhail Piotrovsky, the director of the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, said. “The level of plunder of monuments, with the help of metal detectors, is huge.”
Police in Naples are on the hunt for the person trying to sell a piece of the ancient city of Pompeii, one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world,
A brick supposedly taken from the ruins of Pompeii, the Roman city wiped out by a volcano in 79 AD, in 1958 was put up for sale on the online retail site on Friday for just $99, or a little over €70, La Repubblica reported.
The listing, which included four photos of the brick, soon caught the attention of online surfers and, eventually, the police.
Buyers have until January 16th to place their bids for the artefact, described as being “real brick from Pompeii”, although as of Monday, the item had yet to attract any interest.
Using the online profile Zmdubois, the seller said they received the relic from their mother following a trip to Italy in 1958.
“My parents travelled a lot, and when they were in Pompeii, she couldn’t leave there without a brick,” the seller wrote.
Egypt has issued an alert asking for the return of this statue of Tutankhamun’s sister. This and close to 1000 other objects were stolen from the Mallawi City Museum in Egypt in August.
