• The DGAM reports looting of “ancient stones” at Zain al Abdeen Palace (update on damage above) here.
• A report of illicit diggings at Deir Turmanin (480 AD) in the form of photos and a video was shared by Association to Protect Syrian Heritage here.
• A report of looting by ISIS at Tell Hamidiyah, Hasseke, was shared by the Association to Protect Syrian Archaeology on their webpage, here.

James Harkin, writing for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, discusses Syria’s looting situation. “Most of the merchandise, he told me, came from Apamea—an archaeological site further down the Orontes river in the Syrian province of Hama. Prices began at $100, for which the punter could have a Roman-era coin, and went as high as $100,000 for statues and rare manuscripts.  […] Amer’s new business, I discovered, was a lean, multinational enterprise. Small teams armed with metal detectors or brushes began by spreading out and searching an area. Some were skilled in archaeological excavation before the revolt, others had learned on the job. Another group of specialists was charged with certifying the authenticity of anything found, after which the objects were passed to polishers who’d get them ready to be sold. Then they were passed to the smugglers who moved them into Turkey. Only then would they make it to Amer. Just a few days previously, he boasted, he’d sold 18 coins just minutes after crossing the Syrian border […]” Read the entire article, Stealing Syria’s Past, here.

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The 35th RIMNI Meeting in Italy included sessions on Syria with a number of notable speakers. The Director General of the DGAM had the opportunity to discuss the risks of their work in protecting Syrian cultural heritage as the crisis continues, and provided an overview of their activity. Other speakers included discoverer of Ebla, Professor Paolo Matthiae, who emphasized more action is needed to preserve Syria’s heritage. Read the summary here.

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The British government has decided to prohibit Syrian antiquities from entering Britain, in an attempt to curb the illicit trade (see the article from the Pulitzer Centre, below). The ban came into force on August 8.

More details and links to the official document can be found on the SAFE website, here.

Minister of Culture Lubana Mshaweh met with a delegation from the French Society for Oriental Christians on efforts to preserve heritage sites. He also voiced society’s desire to rebuild St. George’s Church in Maaloula. Posted from Syrian Arab News Agency here.

International Conference in Rimni, Italy includes spotlight on Syria

The annual meeting in Rimini, in Italy (see above, or DGAM report here) held sessions on Syrian heritage. Participants include Giorgio Buccellati, Professor Emeritus of Ancient Near East and History at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), USA; Ziad Hilal, Coordinator of the Educational Service of the Jesuit Refugee Service in Homs, Syria; Paolo Matthiae, Archaeologist and Professor Emeritus of Archaeology and Art History of the Ancient Near East at the Sapienza University, Rome. The introductory address is posted online: ‘Archaeology in Syria nowadays: a project for peace’ led by Roberto Fontolan. The duration of the video is 1 hour 25 minutes.

(Not covered in other sections)

• The Chronicle of Higher Education article “Saving the Middle East’s Past With Twitter and Other Online Tools” (13 August 2014) offers a discussion of how archaeologists from different countries are responding to  the destruction to heritage taking place in the Middle East, including Syria. It was reprinted in the New York Times with slight changes as ‘’Academics and Archaeologists Fight to Save Syria’s Artefacts” (24 August 2014).
• In light of the above, are the lists of international monitors helping looting? ‘Iraq and Syria’s cultural heritage face new threat from fanatics’ (29 August 2014) in The Art Newspaper asks whether looting carried out by ISIS in Iraq and Syria is getting some of its information from social media. “I’m quite conscious of the fact that I moderate a resource that is most likely being read by some of the people causing the destruction,” says Charles E. Jones from the IraqCrisis listerv.
• A report by Al-Mayadyeen TV about systematic violation and looting of the archaeological sites in Aleppo can be found here (Arabic news report on video, 2.18 minutes), 18 August, 2014.
•  The Syrian Campaign created a page for BuzzFeed: 10 Reasons You Should Care About This Country’s Endangered History. BuzzFeed Community. 2014.