Damage to Syria’s heritage – 16 May 2015

The Times of Israel reports the seizure of as many as 6,000 articles of stolen goods by the Syrian DGAM here (May 9 2015), and also reported by PressTV here.

Syrians save seeds ‘dating back nearly to the dawn of agriculture in the Fertile Crescent’, protecting the invaluable genes and heritage of plant-seeds from the ravages of the war. See the report and photos by Lizzie Wade here.

The DGAM has published an English version of their interactive damages map on April 30, 2015, indexed by provinces. For the report and link, see here.

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• Ten countries from the Middle East and North Africa have signed a declaration in Cairo to prevent looting across the region. For more information, see here.
• UNESCO has posted the report of its December 2014 meeting in Paris, “Heritage and Cultural Diversity at Risk in Iraq and Syria” in pdf, here.
• See the video presentation offered by Markus Hilgert at the Culture in Crisis Conference under the title of “‘Protecting the cultural heritage of Iraq and Syria at home: current initiative at the Ancient Near Eastern Museum, Berlin” here.

Shirin has released a preliminary database of archaeological projects in Syria, which can be ordered by governorate, most recent season, director(s), and damage, with both free access and restricted access files. For full details, see here.

(Not covered in other sections)

• May 13, 2015: The New York Times hosts an article on the UN’s assertion that destroying heritage sites is a ‘War Crime.’
• The Huffington Post discusses the relationship between culture and the financing of terrorists in the Middle East here (May 12 2015).
• The Daily Star of Lebanon on May 8 2015 describes Lebanese attempts to ‘wage war on antiquities smuggling.’
• Further discussions posted on Conflict Antiquities about how much IS may or may not be earning from the  trafficking of antiquities can be found here, which builds on previous discussion here.
• The Archaeologik blog offers updates on cultural property in Iraq and Syria on May 1 2015 here.
• Foxnews.com on April 28 2015 covers Interpol’s efforts to recover stolen Syrian and Iraqi art here.
• On April 29 2015 The International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works reported that efforts to protect the famous mosaic museum at Ma’arrat al-Numan have been successful. For more details, see here.
• The illegal trade of artefacts is discussed by The Independent, in ‘The illicit art trade that is a major source of income for today’s terror groups is nothing new‘ (April 26 2015).
• The efforts of Syrian archaeologists and culture specialists to protect their heritage is considered in Al-Fanar (April 20 2015) here.