Sometimes chaos rides roughshod through history and culture. But the monuments of civilization can live on for the sake of posterity.
Roman commercial center, cultural melting pot, symbol of peace: Among the historic places in the Middle East, the ancient oasis city of Palmyra is one of the most impressive. For that very reason ISIS demolition squads were determined to wipe it off the map. What they were not expecting: a handful of dedicated archeologists determined to impart immortality to this priceless cultural site…
Muffled explosions echo throughout central Syria. For weeks now, the fighters who are trying to establish the Islamic State have been engaged in a bitter battle against the Syrian Army. Their target: the metropolis of Homs. The pathway there leads through the ancient city of Palmyra, and it is only a matter of time before the fighting reaches the ruins of the age-old oasis, with all its magnificent cultural monuments. A handful of residents have been trying to brave the impending assault, and one of them calls himself Jamal. His true identity remains secret. Jamal is here for a special reason, and if ISIS were to get wind of it, it would be his death sentence. He frantically paces off the historic sites, from time to time taking out a small camera to record what he sees. It’s no regular camera: This one was custom-built to capture three-dimensional images. Jamal takes a deep breath before pointing the camera at the towering Arch of Triumph and snapping a photo. His hand clenches into a frustrated fist. He is well aware that soon little will remain of these glorious monuments apart from dusty rubble, and there’s nothing he can do to prevent it. But with these photos he’s making sure that the Arch of Triumph will soon be “standing” somewhere else…
Jamal is one of hundreds of Syrian volunteers who’ve been working to preserve the country’s great cultural heritage. They’re the very last line of defense against the ISIS demolition squads. They can’t prevent the acts of terror, but they can help undo some of the damage. The work has been made possible by the UK’S Institute for Digital Archeology (IDA) in Oxford. Established in 2012 by archeologist Roger Michel, the IDA is building up a digital archive of historical places. In conjunction with imaging experts,
Michel developed a 3-D camera that transmits the digital images it takes to the IDA’S server. In late 2014 the camera was still being tested, but the reality of the events in the Middle East forced the institute to take immediate action. The civil war that was raging in Syria increasingly threatened the country’s historical monuments, and it seemed likely that many of them would be destroyed in the fighting. Michel made the decision to launch the mass production of his camera in order to preserve as many cultural sites as possible in virtual form before they could be obliterated in real life. “I didn’t want to have people saying: ‘Gee, why didn’t you begin in 2015, when ISIS controlled only 3 percent of the sites,’” says Michel. He started distributing 5,000 3-D cameras to activists in the Middle East, hundreds of them in Syria. A secret network of local volunteers began photographing threatened cultural sites and sending the photos to the institute’s server.
THE SAVIORS OF SYRIA’S MONUMENTS
The IDA sought to protect the identity of its numerous volunteers just as an intelligence agency shields its agents. Every contact was kept anonymous, and the institute’s archive was closed to public view in an effort to prevent people from drawing any conclusions about where the work was under way. Time was of the essence for all those working to save the monuments: They sometimes had just a few hours after arriving at an endangered site to take photos of the most crucial structures and vanish before anybody noticed. Not all of them survived.
The militias of ISIS were not just destroying Syria’s cultural treasures for ideological reasons; they were also plundering archeological sites in order to sell the looted objects on the black market and finance their struggle. The work of those trying to capture images of the monuments threatened this illegal activity: The photos are marked with GPS data and the date. Thus, even years later, the specific origin of an object can be identified, so the information creates a nightmare for the black marketeers. ISIS put a bounty on the heads of the IDA volunteers, but still they were not deterred. In only a few months’ time the IDA server contained more than 10 million photos of endangered ruins and art treasures. When ISIS finally reached Palmyra, the full importance of the project became evident.
IN THE FACE OF TERROR
Jamal has been pacing the ruins of Palmyra for almost three hours and has taken photos of most of the site. Now exhausted, he sits down in the shadow of a column as he checks the display on his camera: “Upload 86% complete.” Then he sees a white pickup approaching. After taking another quick glance at the display (“91%”), Jamal stows his equipment away. The truck stops nearby, and four hooded men with Kalashnikovs jump down from the back. Could they be ISIS fighters? Jamal’s blood runs cold. If he can’t complete the upload, Palmyra may be lost forever. It’s clear to him that ISIS intends to demolish the monuments. The men approach him. “What are you doing out here? You’ve got to leave. ISIS is getting close,” yells one of them. Jamal is in luck: These are soldiers from the Syrian Army who are trying to defend the city. Jamal takes one last look at his camera: “100%.” He breathes a sigh of relief. Palmyra will live forever on the IDA server.
Palmyra was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980 as “one of the most important cultural centers of the ancient world. Standing at the crossroads of several civilizations, Palmyra married the Greco-roman techniques with local traditions and Persian influences.” And that history made the city a thorn in the side for the fundamentalist ISIS militias. “The true intention of such destruction is to deprive the Syrian people of its knowledge, its identity, and history,” says former UNESCO Director-general Irina Bokova. “This destruction is an immense loss for the Syrian people and for humanity.”
ISIS reached the city in May of 2015, driving out Syrian government forces. However, in their search for antiquities to loot and sell, they soon realized some of the most important ones were no longer there. That was thanks to the efforts of archeologist Khaled al-asaad, head of antiquities in the city of Palmyra, a position he’d held for more than 40 years. As ISIS approached the city, al-asaad helped evacuate and hide the contents of its main museum. After he was captured by ISIS militants, he refused to reveal the hiding place despite having been interrogated and tortured for a month. An ISIS executioner then beheaded the 83-year-old scholar, and his body was hung up from a pole for public display. ISIS had murdered Palmyra’s custodian and destroyed much of the historic city. But what they could not destroy was the cache of 3-D images on the IDA server.
HOW DO YOU REBUILD A WORLD HERITAGE SITE?
When Roger Michel and his team at IDA heard of the horrific murder and destruction, they’d sought to send a clear message to ISIS: “Your barbaric action is meaningless. We will rebuild what you have destroyed!” In April of 2016, IDA erected a scale model of Palmyra’s Arch of Triumph in London’s Trafalgar Square. Two-thirds the size of the original, it was based on IDA photos of the original monument. Using 3-D printing technology, it was made of Egyptian marble by an Italian company. Thus less than a year after militants had destroyed the original, people could once again admire the ancient structure. Later in the year it was erected in New York City before traveling to other destinations around the world. Until peace returns to Syria it will be too dangerous to take the replica to its original home, but there are plans to rebuild the Arch along with the Temple of Baalshamin and the Temple of Bel using the surviving remains. IDA’S director of technology, Alexy Karenowska, says: “The arch is not a physical replacement, but when cultural monuments are destroyed in a wanton act, it is vital to reconstruct them.” A French company called Art Graphique et Patrimoine, which has worked on 2,000 or so monuments in 18 countries, has scanned the rubble of Palmyra to create a plan for partial restoration. Some archeologists and historians have suggested leaving Palmyra as it is now, as a memorial to the brutality of the civil war. Others would like a rebuilt Palmyra to stand as a monument to Khaled al-asaad and the others who risked and lost their lives trying to protect the city. But regardless of what Syria decides to do about Palmyra in the end, the ancient oasis city will remain alive on the server of the IDA.