Palmyra: Heritage Adrift

A special report on damage done to the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Palmyra between February 2012 and June 2015:

2017

Cultural heritage has fallen under the threat of being of damaged and/or erased due to armed conflicts, and destruction has increasingly become a major part of daily news all over the world. The destruction of cultural heritage has escalated in Syria as the ongoing armed conflict has spread to World Heritage Sites, such as Palmyra and the old city of Aleppo. The devastation of Syria's war has deliberately and systematically targeted archaeological monuments dating from the prehistoric, Byzantine, Roman, and Islamic periods, with no distinction being made of the cultural, historical, and socioeconomic significance of such sites. The violence of this conflict is not, of course, limited to the destruction of cultural property, and has first and foremost served to introduce non-state radical actors, such as Daesh, who targeted local people, archaeological site, museum staff and facilities. The destruction and re-purposing of monuments in Syria, such as Daesh's attempts to turn churches into mosques, are heavy-handed attempts to rewrite history by erasing physical evidence. In this paper, I explore the semantics of continuous attempts to reconstruct cultural heritage sites, destroyed by Daesh, during the ongoing war, and how the destruction and reconstruction of Syria's heritage have been deployed to serve political agendas.

2022

This module will explore Syrian archaeology through two key sites: Palmyra and Dura-Europos. Palmyra, the “Venice of the Sands”, is well known as a Syrian Oasis site and famous for its monumental remains and for stories of its Queen, Zenobia. Many of the monumental remains were infamously and spectacularly destroyed by ISIS during the Syrian conflict. Also justifiably famous is the site of Dura-Europos, the “Pompeii of the Syrian Desert”, at which were found nineteen ancient religious buildings including an early Christian house church and a synagogue, both decorated with elaborate paintings. Dura-Europos is famed as an ancient crossroads of culture, where many religions were practices and languages spoken, from Hebrew and Greek and Latin to Aramaic and Safaitic. Like Palmyra, Dura-Europos has suffered catastrophic damage since the start of the Syrian conflict, but at Dura this has largely been in the form of extensive, and often organised, antiquities looting. Tracing their excavation histories, this module will investigate both what is known of each of the sites and how we have come to know it. We will work with the primary records of the archaeological archives of the sites, and learn in detail about their material culture, textual, and architectural remains. Using those remains—things like papyri, inscriptions, architecture, ceramics, and sculptures—we will examine the economic and religious lives of people at the sites (all texts will be examined through their English translations). We will then examine how the sites have been used and displayed since their ‘discovery’, including how their objects are displayed in museum collections. We will study the recent destruction of the sites and consider why they have been targets, and the way their destruction links (e.g.) to the global trade in illicit antiquities. Museum and archive visits will be incorporated where possible. In this module, students will acquire a deep familiarity with the archaeological remains of Roman-period Syria, develop a critical knowledge of archaeological archives and how to use them, including in the digital archives. Students will also gain a broad survey of the history of archaeological practice in the Middle East, and the entangled relationship of archaeology and politics, particularly during the twentieth century. Finally, students will develop a knowledge of the global framework of cultural heritage protection that exists through national governments and international bodies such as UNESCO, through the case studies of the failures of those protections in Syria.

CHRONOS, 2019

For centuries, Palmyra and its ruins have fascinated archeologists, historians and artists. yet, Palmyra has been a terrain for struggles as well. The emergence of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) as a new actor in the Syrian conflict has pushed the damages of heritage monuments and sites to a greater extent, and has also added further ideological meanings to targeting cultural heritage. As a consequence, these atrocities have unleashed debates on a broader level. Several initiatives and projects worldwide have started to document the damages in Palmyra, and to prepare plans for its restoration. This paper focuses on the case of Palmyra, in the light of the atrocities committed by the ISIS militant in summer 2015. Destruction has become a part of Palmyra's long history, and reconstructing the damages cannot erase the event that inflicted the destruction.

Since 2011, the best preserved monuments o the unique antique city o Palmyra, Syria, were damaged or destroyed, either by "collateral" damage o war activities or by wanton destructive vandalism, especially executed by the so-called Islamic State (Daesh). Some o these destructions become visible especially on satellite pictures. Furthermore, several underground tombs were broken and robbed; many unerary sculptures were destroyed, damaged or stolen. Such illegally exported sculptures are o ered more and more in international art galleries, also in the Internet, with the provenance o "Syria" and ownership as "property o a gentleman". During the last years, the illegal trade in plundered arte acts especially also rom Palmyra did increase enormously. Several national and international projects have the aim to curb illegal trade in cultural heritage and to increase the consciousness that buying or dealing with illicitly exported antiquities is a crime and a the t o the historical heritage and memory o us all.

Militarization of Heritage - The Palmyra Example, 2025

The ancient city of Palmyra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has suffered both physical destruction and political manipulation during Syria’s protracted conflict. This article examines how the Assad regime exploited Palmyra’s cultural heritage to bolster its legitimacy, deflect accountability, and justify geopolitical alliances, particularly with Russia. Using methods such as propaganda concerts and selective narratives, the regime framed itself as a protector of civilization while downplaying its role in the site’s damage. The findings reveal the dangers of weaponizing cultural heritage, which strips it of its humanistic value and exacerbates humanitarian neglect, as seen in the plight of displaced Palmyrenes. The article concludes that future preservation efforts must prioritize community involvement and enforce international legal protections to prevent similar tragedies. This underscores the urgent need to safeguard cultural heritage as a universal legacy rather than a tool for political agendas.

The IS advance into the towns of Dabiq and Akhtarin north of Aleppo (Aug.13-15) threatens to cut o supply lines between Aleppo and Turkey vital to Syrian Opposition forces. IS expansion into this area endangers cultural resources and infrastructure over a vast area of northwestern Syria since IS systematically targets monuments for destruction and promotes the looting of archaeological sites. Further IS advancement westward would degrade transportation and communication routes to Turkey. In a signi cant shift in strategy, SARG responded to the IS territorial gains and threats with heavy airstrikes over a large area on Aug. 17, including Deir ez-Zor, Raqqa, Tabqa, Akhtarin, and Dabiq. The DGAM and opposition-aligned groups continued to report on heritage damage in the south and north of the country, respectively.

Safeguarding Heritage Sites in Syria." Weekly reports reflect reporting from a variety of sources and may contain unverified material. As such, they should be treated as preliminary and subject to change. 1) The UNESCO WHS Ancient City of Bosra shows evidence for extensive damage due to urban combat, vandalism, looting, and neglect. *SHI has already designated Bosra as a high priority site for monitoring and assessment. New satellite imagery is needed for much of the site. In the most recent image, dated August 4, 2014, much of the site is obscured by cloud cover. 2) Islamic State intentional destructions of historic buildings and modern places of worship continue in Syria and northern Iraq. * AS mentioned in previous Weekly Reports, SHI will continue to monitor and assess intentional destructions by Islamic State and all other combatants in Syria and Iraq.

Heritage at Risk, 2015