Academics and Archaeologists Fight to Save Syria’s Artifacts

[Sally]

All civilized people would be happy to see all these ancient artifacts saved so that generations after us will still have the opportunity of viewing many of them if they desire.

Academics and Archaeologists Fight to Save Syria’s Artifacts
By URSULA LINDSEY | THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATIONAUG. 24, 2014

Photo

Syrian rebel fighters in a damaged section of the Umayyad Mosque, a Unesco world heritage site in Aleppo that has been heavily damaged in fightingCreditDimitar Dilkoff/Agence France-Presse —

• CAIRO — In 2011, after three decades of working in Syria, the archaeologist Glenn M. Schwartz was unable to return to his dig at the Bronze Age city of Umm el-Marra. The intensifying civil war had made work in the country impossible.

Like many archaeologists of the Middle East, Mr. Schwartz, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, is watching the news from the region with deep concern and, he said, a feeling of impotence.

“It’s heartbreaking to see what’s happened in Syria in terms of cultural heritage and more so for the country at large,” he said.

The upheavals and conflicts sweeping the Middle East in recent years have caused untold human suffering, and they have resulted in deep losses to the heritage of the region.

Continue reading at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/25/w...sts-fight-to-save-syrias-artifacts.html?&_r=0

 

[aris2chat]

so much history, it is such a shame.