ISBN (978-9

953-0-3084-5

Unique Among Nations

The past four years of war in Syria have taken a tollupon a people
and a nation, as well as upon an inordinately rich cultural heritage that
has come under attack also. Churches, mosques, historical neighborhoods
and monuments, archaeological sitesall have been hit, and in some cases
quite hard.
Syrias Endangered Heritage, scheduled for publication in early 2015,
looks at the past four years of war from two unique perspectives. It documents destruction at heritage sites throughout the country, the ruin and
devastation wrought by thieves, religious extremists and black marketeers, yet it also examines the resolve of the Syrian people, many of whom
have come together in concerted efforts to preserve the past. The book,
for instance, tells the story of a group of Syrian students, supervised by
two trained archaeologists, who worked to restore a 1400-year-old mosaic
hit by a mortar shell, and it relates also efforts by the courageous staff of
DGAM, the Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums, to safeguard
ancient artifacts in some of the most dangerous areas of the country. And
perhaps most importantly of all, the book outlines concrete steps the international community can, and must, takenay the very genuine obligation
it bearsto assist the Syrian people in curtailing the onslaught upon their
national heritage and identity.
War exerts more than a human cost. Since the outbreak of hostilities in Syria in the spring of 2011, the countrys cultural heritage
sites have sustained repeated attacks, depredations and deliberate
defacements. Museums have been pillaged, historical monuments
have been damaged or destroyed, while archaeological sites in areas
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of the country outside of government control have been gouged and

lacerated with illegal excavations, often carried out by m
afia-like
gangs using heavy equipment, resulting in the plunder of artifacts
artifacts that in turn are smuggled out of the country, ending up in
many cases in auction houses in places like London and New York.
Blatant violations of international laws occur, while officials in the
countries of transit o r final destination often turn a blind eye. The
result is a grievous and ongoing assault upon Syrias cultural heritage, which is the worlds cultural heritage.
So writes the books author, Dr. Franklin Lamb, in the opening chapter.
Syrias cultural heritage is indeed the worlds cultural heritage, and Lamb
himself a longtime resident of the Middle Eastnotes the rather exceptional, almost unique position the country holds among nations as keeper and
steward of humanitys collective past:
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For many centuries the people of Syria and their institutions of

government have been the protectors and custodians of much of
our worlds heritage. S ites exist throughout the country containing
antiquities, priceless treasures, from ancient Babylonian, Egyptian,
Persian, Greek and Roman civilizations, dating back millennia. But
today this rich heritage is under serious threat. In the view of Irina
Bokova, director general of UNESCO, damage to the heritage of a
country is damage to the soul of its people and its identity. Yet
heritage destruction in Syria affects us all. If we think of human
history collectively as a lepidopteron, drifting lazily from the flower
of the Neolithic past, into the age of proto-writing, and finally early
recorded history, then Syria and the Fertile Crescent stand out perhaps unique among regions of the e arth. And damage to its soul is
damage to our entire identity as a species.
In the ancient city of Palmyra, the Temple of Bel was hit by rocket fire,
collapsing two of its columns, while illegal archaeological digs have taken
place in Daraa, a city m
entioned in Egyptian hieroglyphic tablets dating
back to the fifteenth century BC- but perhaps nowhere in Syria has looting,
violence and destruction been more wanton than in Raqqa, where the terrorist army known as ISIS, or DAASH, took control in 2013.
Destruction of Umayyad Mosque in Aleppo

Table of Contents
Foreword ................................................................... by H.E. Besher Riad Yazji
Foreword ....................................................... by Dr. Maamoun Abdulkarim
Introduction ................................................................ by Dr. Franklin Lamb
Chapter 1................................................................ Years of War in Syria are

Destroying Our Cultural Heritage: an Overview
Chapter 2............................ National and International Legal Protections

for Syrias Cultural Heritage
Chapter 3.................................................................................. Paradise Lost?

A Silent Slaughter in RaqqaA Mosque

Restored in Damascus
Chapter 4.................................... This Never Happened in Our Country
Chapter 5...................... A Clarion Call to the International Community
Appendix ............................. Chart Listing Damaged Archaeological Sites

 In deference to our responsibility towards the people of Syria, we at the Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums (DGAM) in the Ministry of Culture find
ourselves racing against time in an attempt to minimize the impact of the crisis, to
lessen its r epercussions on our antiquities, in the face of this ongoing deterioration.
--Dr.Maamoun Abdulkarim

Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently

The books third chapter relates events in the city of Raqqa, which prior
to the war had a population of approximately 220,000, but which, since the
arrival of DAASH, has been under a reign of terror marked by public executions, beheadings, and c rucifixions. The chapter includes the transcript
of an interview conducted by Dr. L amb with Ayham al Fakhri, a DGAM

Destruction of National Museum in Raqqa

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staff member who was in Raqqa when armed g roups first began arriving in
the city and who describes the looting of the Raqqa Central Bank as well
as the plundering of the Raqqa Museum and its nearby warehouses. At the
start of the conflict DGAM had adopted a preemptive policy of trying
to secure museum artifacts by transferring them to safer locations, but in
Raqqa this strategy was circumvented by DAASH, as al Fakhri relates:
We immediately communicated with the DGAM, and they asked
us to pile the doors of (the) warehouses with sandbags, take all the important and precious pieces from the warehouses, and hide them in a
safe place. And the guards house in Herqla village was the best choice.
However in mid-November in 2013,

an armed group, estimated to be

about 100 armed fighters from DAASH, b roke in the museum and also
the guards house. They stole all the boxes except mosaic panels and
took them to unknown destinations. After that h appened, we closed all
doors and windows with iron bars.
From a cultural heritage standpoint, it was a disaster, with approximately
900 artifacts stolen from the museum and an additional six to eight boxes
of antiquities carted out of the warehouses. On April 25, 2014, DAASH
militants used a massive, G
erman-built Hydrema excavator to smash two
statues of Assyrian lions believed to date to around 727 BC. The lions were
regarded as being of pagan origin and an insult to Islam.

Damage to cultural heritage is a blow against the identity and history of the Syrian people it is a blow against the universal heritage of humanity
UNESCO Director Irina Bokova

Damage and Desecration of Religious Sites

The churchs massive golden dome was peppered with bullet and
shrapnel holes; its marble altar had been shattered. A tableau representing St. Elias had been torched, as had several icons. Across Yarmouk Avenue, a mosque also had been badly damaged, with half of its
minaret destroyed, the prayer hall covered with debris from bombardments, and the floor littered with shards of glass.
Churches and mosques, as the above passage relates, were both targeted
when armed rebels stormed into the Syrian village of Qusayr in 2012, with
Christians being forced to flee the area, as militants carried out deliberate acts of religious desecration. But in Qusayr, located near the Lebanese
border, it wasnt only Christians who suffered in this regard. A perusal of

Al-Nusra militants are being identified as some of the most active dealers of black
market antiquities of the Middle East. Lebanese media have reported that a great
number of ancient icons, crosses, reliquaries and statues have been smuggled from
Syria into L ebanon and then sent abroad. Local smugglers are said by INTERPOL to
be moving h undreds of Maaloulas artifacts, transporting them to European countries,
with the main destinations being Turkey and Italy.
from Syrias Endangered Heritage

Destruction of Um al-Zennar Church in Homs

Some of the staff and students are also involved in restoring other m
osaics, and
the team makes use of a classroom and workshop space set up for them at the Citadel
of Damascus, a large medieval fortified palace that is p art of the Ancient City of Damascus, a UNESCO World Heritage site. O
ther areas of the Great Mosque of Damascusalso damaged in the mortar b arragehave already been repaired.
from Syrias Endangered Heritage

vandalism reports shows that as radical Islamists invade an area in greater and greater numbers, their wrath is directed at Muslims they consider
to be heretics, Lamb notes, and damage also hit the Grand Mosque of
Qusayr, where a 200-year-old tomb was desecrated and broken to pieces.
BBC reporter Lyse Doucet reported from Qusayr in June of 2013 after the
village was retaken in a combined o ffensive mounted by government and
Hezbollah forces: The Church of Saint Elias was not just destroyed, it was
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desecrated, said Doucet, standing amidst the churchs s till smoldering ruins. The social fabric of this society has been ripped apart.
Throughout the war widespread destruction of religious sites has also
taken place in the Christian village of Maaloulawhere militants of Jabhat
al-Nusra destroyed monasteries, churches and archaeological cemeteries
and also Aleppo, whose famed, millennium-old Great Mosque became the
scene of intense fighting in early 2013, resulting in total destruction of
the mosques 148-foot minaret. These attacksupon the religious sites of
Maaloula, as well as the destruction visited upon the Great M
osqueare
documented and described at length in the book. The greatest sources of
discord and factionalism, more so perhaps than anything else in war, are
attacks upon religious sites, and in both Maaloula and Aleppo the social
fabric of the society has, in a very real sense, been ripped apart.

A Chat With Syrian Students

Yet there are also signs of a remarkably positive and hopeful nature,
and one of these is the way many Syrians of varying backgrounds and
from different regions of the country have come together with the common
purpose of preserving their national heritage. One of the most inspiring

The country of Syriait is, in the view of some travelers who come here, a giant
museum, and in reality that might not be a bad way of looking at it. For this land, in
addition to its people, is also inhabited by a rather sizeable populace of ancient monuments, some of them stretching back some twenty civilizations into the past.
H.E. Besher Riad Yazji
Minister of Tourism
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examples of this is a group of students from D

amascus University and the
Institute of Archaeology who have worked to restore a large mosaic damaged by mortar fire at the Umayyad Mosque in Damascusand in chapter
four of the book the students give their thoughts on the work they are doing a nd the conflict in their country. Dr. Lambs interview with them took
place in May of 2014.
With Allah as my witness, I feel secure, somehow, being deep inside these
ancient w alls, and I wish my family were here with me, said Jilan, an English
literature student at Damascus University. I feel that I am doing something useful during this terrible time, and that I am showing confidence in my beloved
country, that we will s omehow get through this and eventually rebuild what has
been damaged.
Another student working on the project is Abed, who is studying engineering. The Obama administration should seriously consider hiring Abed
as a political advisor, for doubtless he would give them better advice than
what they currently are getting:

Mr. Lamb with syrian students in Damascus citadel

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Most of my friends believe that outsiders are keeping the war going
because they think they can win it. Does the USA really know or understand who they are arming and what the fighters will do after you
give them training? Do you think these jihadists love you because you
helped them against a nationalist Arab regime which rejects the Zionist
occupation of Palestine? We worry a bout when it will end. Who can
stop it if other countries keep feeding the k illing?
Abeds remarks, keep in mind, were made in May of 2014three months
before ISIS began releasing videos of beheaded Westernersgiving an almost prescient quality to the young students words.

A Clarion Call to the

International Community
Syrias Endangered Heritage provides a comprehensive analysis of existing laws, treaties and international agreements on cultural heritage protections now in placeand finds that, without exception, they are inadequate.
None have achieved their hoped-for potential.
Lootings, thefts, illegal excavations and smuggling of irreplaceable
antiquities h ave continued, even in the face of public outcries in past
decades over reports of cultural heritage destruction in Afghanistan,
Bosnia, Serbia and Iraq. What is missing is a widespread, transnational governmental commitment to cooperate. Political leaders, along with
elements of power structures residing in certain countries, including
some business interests h arboring criminal intent, have far too often
turned a blind eye to u nprovenanced archaeological artifacts in the
marketplace. This amounts to implied consent to the selling of our past,
and it has diluted and undermined the legal mechanisms and the enforcement of applicable national and international laws. The result of
this is that our global cultural heritage in S yria remains under serious
threat.
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To remedy this, the book proposes a slate of recommendations that include:

A more precise legal definition of what constitutes cultural
property
Creation of a UN regime to establish defined intensities of
protection
Give the International Criminal Court jurisdiction, under Protocol I of the 1954 Hague Convention, to prosecute those who destroy or deliberately target heritage property
Mandatory international trusteeship legal standards applied to
all global cultural sites, irrespective of location
A grassroots campaign, undertaken globally, to pressure governments to ensure strict application and enforcement of available laws
Especially key to the strategy is the last item, the global grassroots campaign, which s hould have as a central part of its focus the worldwide ratification, by all governments, of Protocol II of the 1970 UNESCO Convention
as well as the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported
Cultural Objects.
It is the duty of every
person of good will to offer
assistance and support for
efforts b eing undertaken in
Syria and elsewhere to preserve and protect the global
cultural heritage of humanity. Working together, we can
achieve this.
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