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Syrian experts shocked by damage inside Palmyra’s museum Retaking Syria’s Palmyra reveals more shattered antiquities
(about 3 hours later)
DAMASCUS, Syria — Syrian antiquities experts expressed shock Monday at the destruction the Islamic State group wrought inside Palmyra’s museum, where scores of artifacts were smashed before troops drove the extremists out of the historic town. DAMASCUS, Syria — The recapture of Syria’s ancient city of Palmyra from the Islamic State group has brought new revelations of the destruction wreaked by the extremists, who decapitated priceless statues and smashed or looted artifacts in the city’s museum.
Syria’s head of antiquities and museums, Maamoun Abdul-Karim, told The Associated Press that a team from his department will head to Palmyra later in the day to estimate the losses. Abdul-Karim said he would go himself once bomb squads finish removing explosives planted by the extremists before they lost the town. Experts say they need time to assess the full extent of damage in Palmyra, a UNESCO world heritage site boasting 2,000-year-old Roman-era colonnades and other ruins, which once attracted tens of thousands of tourists every year. Syrian troops drove IS out on Sunday, some 10 months after the militants seized the town.
The recapture of Palmyra by Syrian government forces on Sunday was an important victory over IS fighters who had waged a 10-month reign of terror there. It also marked the first major defeat for the extremist group since an international agreement to battle terrorism in the fractured nation took effect last year. The world knew through satellite images and IS videos that the militants destroyed the Temple of Bel, which dated back to A.D. 32, the Temple of Baalshamin, which was several stories high and fronted by six towering columns, and the Arch of Triumph, which was built under the Roman emperor Septimius Severus between A.D. 193 and A.D. 211.
During their rule of Palmyra, the extremists demolished some of its best-known artifacts and monuments, including two large temples dating back more than 1,800 years and a Roman triumphal archway. The sprawling outdoor site was one of Syria’s main tourist attractions before the civil war. But no one knew the extent of the damage inside the museum until a Syrian TV reporter entered on Sunday and found the floor littered with shattered statues. A sculpture of the Greek goddess Athena was decapitated, and the museum’s basement appeared to have been dynamited or hit with a shell.
IS also killed scores of people, including the archaeological site’s 81-year-old director, Khaled al-Asaad, who was beheaded in August after he reportedly refused to divulge where authorities had hidden some of the treasures before IS captured the town. The militants also demolished Palmyra’s infamous Tadmur prison, where thousands of government opponents were reportedly tortured. Some of the damage may have been caused by shelling, which would have knocked the statues from their stands. In the Syrian TV footage from inside the museum, a hole can be seen in the ceiling, most likely from an artillery shell.
The Sunni extremist group, which has imposed a violent interpretation of Islamic law across the territory it controls in Syria and Iraq, claims ancient relics promote idolatry and says it is destroying them as part of a purge of paganism — though it is also believed to have sold looted antiquities to finance its operations. Unlike in the Iraqi city of Mosul, where IS militants filmed themselves with sledgehammers proudly destroying ancient artifacts, no militant video was released from Palmyra’s museum.
Speaking to the AP over the phone, Abdul-Karim said experts still need “many days” to determine the full extent of the damage. Before Palmyra fell to IS, authorities were able to relocate more than 400 statues and hundreds of artifacts to safe areas, but larger statues couldn’t be moved, according to the head of antiquities and museums, Maamoun Abdul-Karim. He told the AP that about 20 statues were defaced and others had their heads chopped off. State media had earlier reported that a 2nd century lion statue, previously thought to have been destroyed by IS, was damaged but could be restored.
Before Palmyra fell to IS, authorities were able to rescue more than 400 statues and hundreds of artifacts that were moved to safe areas, he said, but larger statues couldn’t be moved. Abdul-Karim said he was relieved that many of the statues had only been disfigured and not demolished. “It’s like having a person whose face was burnt. He is not as good looking as he used to be but he is still alive,” he said.
On Sunday, state TV showed the rubble left over from the destruction of the Temple of Bel in Palmyra, as well as the damaged archway, the supports of which are still standing. He said officials have a list of all the statues that were left behind in Palmyra when IS captured the town, which will help in documenting the damage.
Artifacts inside the city’s museum also appeared heavily damaged on state TV. A sculpture of the Greek goddess Athena was decapitated, and the museum’s basement appeared to have been dynamited, the hall littered with broken statues. Amr al-Azm, a former Syrian antiquities official who is now a professor at Shawnee State University in Ohio, is less sanguine.
Amr al-Azm, a former Syrian antiquities official who is now a professor at Shawnee State University in Ohio, said the world was already aware of the damage to the archaeological site, which had been documented by IS in online videos, but was only now seeing the destruction wrought inside the museum. “The level of destruction and vandalism inside the museum is much more significant than we had realized,” he said. Smashing up statues’ faces “means that there is nothing left,” he added.
“What was unfortunate really was the damage inside the (Palmyra) museum, the many of the pieces that have not been saved, that they (Damascus officials) did not have time or the ability to move,” Al-Azm said via Skype. “It seems that a significant amount of damage was inflicted on them.” The Sunni extremist group, which has imposed a violent interpretation of Islamic law across the territory it controls in Syria and Iraq, claims ancient relics promote idolatry. But it is also believed to have profited from looted antiquities.
Still, state media reported that a lion statue dating back to the second century, previously thought to have been destroyed by IS militants, was found in a damaged but recoverable condition. That may explain why the militants killed the archaeological site’s 81-year-old director, Khaled al-Asaad, who was beheaded last August after he reportedly refused to say where authorities had hidden some of the town’s treasures.
Abdul-Karim said that IS fighters smashed the statues’ faces but didn’t totally destroy them. “We can renovate them,” he said. “Yes, we lost part of the original but we didn’t totally lose them.” Al-Asaad, who was among scores of people killed by the extremists after they seized the town, had devoted his life to studying Palmyra, and could have played an invaluable role in documenting the damage and restoring its antiquities.
“All smashed statues can be renovated as they were not totally destroyed,” he said. It will take time to assess the extent of the losses and determine if IS carried out excavations or smuggled artifacts out. But the initial findings suggest at least some of the damage is permanent.
Syrian military bomb squads worked Monday on removing mines and bombs planted by IS across much of Palmyra, including residential areas as well as the historic quarter, an official said on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. Martin Makinson, an archaeologist who lived and worked in Syria until 2011, said the Temple of Baalshamin “was pretty much obliterated,” along with three ancient tombs. He said the inner sanctum of the Temple of Bel was also destroyed.
The Lebanon-based Hezbollah TV stations — Al-Manar and Al-Mayadeen — which have both reported from inside Palmyra, showed videos of explosions inside the town on Monday, saying that Syrian troops are detonating explosives that are difficult to dismantle. “Unfortunately the damage that ISIS has caused to the site is pretty irreparable and it would be a sort of reconstruction in some sectors,” Makinson said, using another acronym for IS.
The government forces had the support of Iranian-backed Lebanese militias and Russian air power in the advance on Palmyra. Al-Azm said highly specialized teams will have to go into the hardest-hit areas “to start to document and record each and every stone to try and see what can be restored.” He said IS had specifically targeted the most important monuments.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday called Iranian leader Hassan Rouhani to discuss Syria. Both leaders described the retaking of Palmyra as a “true landmark event” according to the Kremlin’s website. Asked how bad the damage is, Al-Azm replied: “On the scale of one to 10 it is 10. The only other thing that causes that much damage to a city is probably some earthquake that struck at some time. It was pretty devastating.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that it was only a small, though important, part of the Russian air force that supported the operation.
During a Monday conference call with reporters, Peskov said that even though a large part of the Russian military has left Syria, the remaining air assets will continue to fight “terrorist groups” and help the Syrian army.
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Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue in Beirut and Katherine Jacobsen in Moscow contributed to this report.
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This story has been corrected to show that the first name of the antiquities official killed by militants is Khaled, not Riad.This story has been corrected to show that the first name of the antiquities official killed by militants is Khaled, not Riad.
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.