Director General of Antiquities and Museums: The destruction of our archaeological sites and looting disaster against humanity

Damascus-Sana

Director General of Antiquities and Museums Dr. Mahmoud Hammoud gave a panoramic presentation on the reality of the Syrian antiquities in the various governorates and the situation reached as a result of the aggressive war launched on Syria and the status of these sites of historical buildings and archaeological hills and the long sabotage, looting and theft.

Hamoud stressed during a lecture titled “Syrian Antiquities in Time of War” held within the activities of the 31st Book Fair at the Assad National Library that what happened to our antiquities is a great loss and a catastrophe at the level of the Syrian World Heritage. ISIS terrorists lost about 3450 archaeological sites, while the Directorate's staff managed to save about 400 sculptures. The archaeological area of ​​Palmyra, about 10 square kilometers, was exposed to illegal excavations.

Regarding the National Museum of Raqqa, the Director of Antiquities pointed out that he was systematically looted by terrorist organizations, where he lost at least 6000 artifacts, stressing that the Directorate does not have accurate information about the number of artifacts stolen from its warehouses in the Euphrates, Hasaka and Aleppo countryside.

He described what happened at the National Museum of Idlib at the hands of terrorist organizations as a major disaster, where thousands of artifacts were looted in addition to the archive of the Ebla Library discovered in 1974, which contains 16 thousand artifacts, stressing that the effects of Idlib are priceless and not like any antiquities.

Hammoud stopped at Tel Mary and the Ebla site, which were looted and robbed by terrorists, in addition to the looting of many cemeteries and their contents.

The Director of Antiquities talked about the reality of the Bosra al-Sham Museum, where the teams of the Directorate discovered after the liberation of the city from the terrorists that 1074 antiquities were looted, while the Apamea Museum stole from them the mosaic paintings displayed in some international auctions, noting that the staff of the Directorate of Antiquities of Hama managed to recover at least About 300 pieces.

As for the Ghouta of Damascus, according to the director of antiquities, there was a revelation of the archaeological sites, including Tal Salhia, stressing that our army has recovered hundreds of pieces, in addition to many sites that have been subjected to illegal excavations funded by Zionist and Turkish.

Among the archaeological sites that are still subjected to systematic sabotage by terrorist organizations, according to Hammoud, the site of the tower of Abdo Dalu in Afrin, where it was not touched at all by archaeologists and a height of 25 meters and consists of archaeological layers placed on top of each of the third millennium to the Roman period, which is exposed to excavation Heavy machinery.

Hammoud presented several new photos that arrived to the Directorate showing the extent of the destruction of the archaeological sites and some need to make a lot of efforts in cooperation with international organizations for the restoration, especially the old city of Aleppo and its archaeological castle and the minaret of the Umayyad Mosque. The city has distinctive Syrian experiences.

Hammoud reviewed the plans carried out by the Directorate of Antiquities for the protection and restoration of these archaeological sites and the recovery of looted, in addition to the presence of ambulance plans to save buildings in danger and cooperation with international organizations in the protection and restoration.

Shatha Hammoud