To their enormous credit, Syrian archaeologists have themselves anonymously catalogued the destruction of their native country's historical sites. They include government shelling of villages that exist within ancient cities; rebels have apparently been sheltered, for example, in the small civilian township built inside the wonderful ruins of Bosra which contains one of the best-preserved Roman theatres in the world – which did not prevent several buildings from being destroyed. Similar bombardments have smashed the fabric of Byzantine-era buildings in al-Bara, Deir Sunbel and Ain Larose in northern Syria.I am late to this story (the article was published on 6 August). But you can find ongoing updates at the Facebook site Le patrimoine archéologique syrien en danger الآثار السورية في خطر.
In the monastery of Sednaya, apparently founded by the Emperor Justinian – the people of the village still speak Aramaic, the language of Jesus – shellfire has damaged the oldest section of the building, which dates back to 574. The Umayyad Mosque in Deraa, one of the oldest Islamic-era structures in Syria, built at the request of the Caliph Omar Ibn al-Khattab, has also been damaged. Dr Bassam Jamous, the government-appointed director general of antiquities in Syria, says that "terrorists" – ironically, the Western world's own nomenclature for state enemies – have targeted historic buildings in Damascus, Aleppo, Bosra, Palmyra and the Citadel of Salah al-Din (Saladin), a crusader fortress seized by the Kurdish warrior hero in 1188, the year after he recaptured Jerusalem for the Muslims from Balian of Ibelin.
Several months ago the Syrian authorities reported the theft of the golden statue of an 8th century BC Aramaic god – still unfound, although it was reported to Interpol – and admitted thefts at government museums at Deir ez-Zor, Raqqa, Maarat al-Numan and Qalaat Jaabar. Hiba Sakhel, the Syrian director of museums, has confirmed that items from the Aleppo museum have been transferred to the vaults of the central bank in Damascus for safekeeping.
"Syrian Archeological Heritage in Danger", a group of Syrian specialists who list the destruction and looting of the country's treasures on their own website, has revealed that Syria's Prime Minister, Adel Safar, wrote to fellow ministers on 11 July last year warning that "the country is threatened by armed criminal groups with hi-tech tools and specialised in the theft of manuscripts and antiquities, as well as the pillaging of museums". The archaeologists find this note "very odd" because it appears to warn of looting which had not yet occurred – and thus suggests that officials in the regime might be preparing the way for their own private theft and re-sale of the country's heritage, something which did indeed occur under President Assad's father Hafez al-Assad.
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UPDATE: Alex Joffe asks an important question: Are we willing to die to save the past?
But is the past worth killing and dying for, especially if these are the only means of saving it? Bamiyan has shown that willingness to destroy antiquities, in the name of ideology or profit, foreshadows a willingness to destroy people for the same reasons. But any intervention in Mali, even on behalf of its people, will be likened to imperialism and inevitably accused of being (another) ‘war against Islam’. Military intervention is obviously inconceivable in a place like Egypt. What leverage remains? Economic sanctions that starve an already desperate population? Political sanctions on Islamist leaders who regard themselves as divinely guided?The West could supply the anti-Islamist and anti-Baathist resistance movements with weapons, which might help in the short term with these current crises. For all I know, maybe we already are. I wouldn't like to guess whether pouring more weapons into Mali and Syria would make for more stability in the long run. If Egyptian Islamists actually takes steps to destroy the Pyramids, that just might provoke the West into waking-the-sleeping-giant territory, which has not turned out well for the provokers in the past.
The Arab Spring has brought another phase of a twenty-first-century mass archaeological extinction event that is transforming the Old World. But once we go beyond the level of self-satisfying outrage, the choices for action to preserve the past are far from clear. Salvaging fragments in the future may be the only practical and moral options.
UPDATE: Alex replies on Facebook, quoted here with his permission:
The West is already supplying weapons to various 'rebels,' which will guarantee that the slaughter will be multilateral and protracted rather than one sided and of short duration. And if there are any Western-style liberal rebels, they will be pushed out or murdered by Islamist rebels in the end. The West will then rationalize, equivocate, and try to reach an arrangement based on the deep, unstated belief that human rights really don't apply in some places, as well as the instinct to pay danegeld. Any intervention to save people will, after approximately five minutes, unite all rebels against the imperialists. When pyramids are torn down, or whatever, there will be howls and laments only. Besides, the the UN is correct that Egypt's population will reach 123 million by 2100, then there won't be a single square inch that hasn't already been ground into dust.I wish I could say he's wrong, but I'm not all that optimistic myself. In any case, I'm glad I've already been to the Pyramids.