Antiquities trafficking is a booming business in Syria and Iraq, and not only ISIL is to blame. Syrian government forces have been filmed piling delicately carved funerary statues from Roman-era Palmyra into the back of a pick-up truck, and at the ancient site of Apamea, a capital of the successors to Alexander the Great, the sudden appearance of a vast, lunar landscape of over 4,000 illegal excavation holes indicate it was also looted while under the army’s control.
Raising money
Groups affiliated with the Free Syrian Army have also admitted to looting sites to raise money for weapons. It is now clear from satellite imagery and reports from Syria’s “Monuments Men” – a courageous network of informants risking their lives to report losses – hundreds of monuments and archaeological sites have been damaged, destroyed or dug up, in some cases using heavy machinery.
In Iraq, which has experienced a continuous loss of antiquities since the 2003 US-led invasion, nearly 4,500 archaeological sites are now under ISIL control. Looting of its archaeological riches is likely under way. The satellite study shows Syria’s heritage – which represents over 5,000 years of humankind’s foundational achievements in the cradle of civilisation – is literally being ground into dust.
Calling groups like ISIL “barbarians” makes for a fine sense of wartime superiority, but asking who they’re selling to is less pleasant. For many hand-wringing officials, that market is flourishing uncomfortably close to home. Germany has become the “El Dorado of the illegal cultural artifacts trade”, with Munich serving as Europe’s transit hub. Meanwhile, US imports of Syrian antiquities have risen by 133 percent. Objects labelled “handicrafts” have been brought through customs with little scrutiny.
The sale of illegal antiquities is now estimated to be ISIL’s second-largest revenue stream after oil. The recent naming of these looted goods “blood antiquities” or “conflict antiquities” and the adoption of the term “cultural cleansing” accurately reflect the bloody profit to be made. What, then, shall we call the sellers and collectors?
Call them what they are: war profiteers.
In olden days all these pre-Islamic artifacts would have simply been destroyed.
It is called Al-Fataawaa Al-Jaliyyah or the war against non-Islamic history.
We recall how al Qaeda blew up those fabled Buddhas.
But we might not be aware how often tombs and churches are destroyed, even very old ones.
The true shame is that there are lovers of history who, out of that love, will pay these terrorists for items that most Muslims would destroy…..just to save them.