This year has seen the deliberate destruction of a number of ancient cultural heritage sites in areas controlled by the extremist group Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria, including the demolition in March of the palace of Ashurnasirpal II in the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud in Iraq.
The deliberate destruction of historical monuments is not new, says Tim Stanley, a senior curator at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) and a Middle East expert, but it is now on the scale that it was during the second world war. “We really have to gear up again to that sort of level,” he says.
Speaking at Culture in Crisis, an event at the V&A last month that saw cultural heritage professionals from around the world gather to address this issue, Martin Roth, the director of the V&A, said that museums have a duty “not to close their eyes”.
But if those areas are inaccessible to the outside world what can be done? Very little in IS-controlled areas, Jonathan Tubb, the Middle East keeper at the British Museum, told the conference, but when those areas can be accessed, huge resources are going to be needed in terms of manpower and money. “We don’t know if it will be one, five or 10 years, but we have to prepare for that time, and we have to do something now,” he said.
Disaster training
To that end, the British Museum is working with the Iraqi authorities to set up a programme for Iraqi heritage professionals to specialise in museum and site disaster work, with training in emergency retrieval strategies, photographic training, architectural restoration and conservation.
But Stefan Simon, the director of the Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage at Yale University, said one impediment to training Iraqi and Syrian experts was the difficulty in obtaining visas for them to come to Europe, which could take months.
Cori Wegener, the cultural heritage preservation officer at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC, said her organisation was giving basic emergency training and equipment to Syrian colleagues working in affected areas.
It was possible to get access on the ground by working with partners in Syria and Iraq, she said, but efforts to do this could be better coordinated.
Unesco, which is perhaps best placed to be such a coordinator, is assisting in Iraq and Syria with advice and training to support governmental authorities and heritage professionals, helping to update and detail museum inventories, and develop and implement contingency plans for enhanced protection of sites and museums at risk.
Social media campaign
In response to IS’s use of the internet for propaganda purposes, Unesco has launched a campaign in Iraq, unite4heritage, targeting young people through social media with positive messages about their heritage.
The organisation is training police and customs officials in Iraq and Syria, as well as in neighbouring transit countries, to try and curb the illicit trafficking of cultural objects.
Peter Stone, a professor at Newcastle University and the former archaeological adviser to the British defence ministry, estimates that IS gets some of its funds from the sale of antiquities, but that this is a small percentage compared with what it receives from sales of oil and gas, kidnappings and tax.
It is the Saudis and Qataris who are primarily funding IS, says Neil Brodie, the senior research fellow at the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research, and who are by extension funding the destruction of heritage.
The implication is that practical help is all well and good, but without a political solution the destruction is likely to continue.
IS destruction in Iraq during 2015
January: Reports emerge that IS has blown up part of the ancient Nineveh Wall in Mosul.
February: IS releases a video depicting members using sledgehammers to smash ancient artefacts at Mosul Museum. The video also shows militants using a masonry drill to destroy a sculpture of an Assyrian bull, thought to date back to the seventh century BC, at the nearby Nergal Gate.
March: The ancient city of Hatra is destroyed. Unverified reports suggest that IS is also using bulldozers to destroy the Assyrian city of Nimrud.
April: Islamic State post video online purporting to show its members destroying Ashurnasirpal II in Nimrud with explosives.
The deliberate destruction of historical monuments is not new, says Tim Stanley, a senior curator at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) and a Middle East expert, but it is now on the scale that it was during the second world war. “We really have to gear up again to that sort of level,” he says.
Speaking at Culture in Crisis, an event at the V&A last month that saw cultural heritage professionals from around the world gather to address this issue, Martin Roth, the director of the V&A, said that museums have a duty “not to close their eyes”.
But if those areas are inaccessible to the outside world what can be done? Very little in IS-controlled areas, Jonathan Tubb, the Middle East keeper at the British Museum, told the conference, but when those areas can be accessed, huge resources are going to be needed in terms of manpower and money. “We don’t know if it will be one, five or 10 years, but we have to prepare for that time, and we have to do something now,” he said.
Disaster training
To that end, the British Museum is working with the Iraqi authorities to set up a programme for Iraqi heritage professionals to specialise in museum and site disaster work, with training in emergency retrieval strategies, photographic training, architectural restoration and conservation.
But Stefan Simon, the director of the Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage at Yale University, said one impediment to training Iraqi and Syrian experts was the difficulty in obtaining visas for them to come to Europe, which could take months.
Cori Wegener, the cultural heritage preservation officer at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC, said her organisation was giving basic emergency training and equipment to Syrian colleagues working in affected areas.
It was possible to get access on the ground by working with partners in Syria and Iraq, she said, but efforts to do this could be better coordinated.
Unesco, which is perhaps best placed to be such a coordinator, is assisting in Iraq and Syria with advice and training to support governmental authorities and heritage professionals, helping to update and detail museum inventories, and develop and implement contingency plans for enhanced protection of sites and museums at risk.
Social media campaign
In response to IS’s use of the internet for propaganda purposes, Unesco has launched a campaign in Iraq, unite4heritage, targeting young people through social media with positive messages about their heritage.
The organisation is training police and customs officials in Iraq and Syria, as well as in neighbouring transit countries, to try and curb the illicit trafficking of cultural objects.
Peter Stone, a professor at Newcastle University and the former archaeological adviser to the British defence ministry, estimates that IS gets some of its funds from the sale of antiquities, but that this is a small percentage compared with what it receives from sales of oil and gas, kidnappings and tax.
It is the Saudis and Qataris who are primarily funding IS, says Neil Brodie, the senior research fellow at the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research, and who are by extension funding the destruction of heritage.
The implication is that practical help is all well and good, but without a political solution the destruction is likely to continue.
IS destruction in Iraq during 2015
January: Reports emerge that IS has blown up part of the ancient Nineveh Wall in Mosul.
February: IS releases a video depicting members using sledgehammers to smash ancient artefacts at Mosul Museum. The video also shows militants using a masonry drill to destroy a sculpture of an Assyrian bull, thought to date back to the seventh century BC, at the nearby Nergal Gate.
March: The ancient city of Hatra is destroyed. Unverified reports suggest that IS is also using bulldozers to destroy the Assyrian city of Nimrud.
April: Islamic State post video online purporting to show its members destroying Ashurnasirpal II in Nimrud with explosives.
