Damascus-SANA
The Syrian heritage, in both its tangible and intangible parts, constitutes an important pillar within the World Heritage system, and is a key factor in strengthening the cultural identity of the Syrian people, in building the present and protecting the future.
And during the year 2022, the Ministry of Culture focused with its concerned institutions, specifically with the General Directorate of Antiquities and Museums and the Directorate of Intangible Cultural Heritage, on organizing a set of events and seminars and signing a set of agreements related to the importance and mechanisms of preserving this heritage with its various components, as its efforts culminated in cooperation with the Syrian Trust for Development and Society At the end of the year, local and specialized people will include the file (making and playing the oud) on the UNESCO Human Heritage List.
Among the most important Syrian activities and actions related to tangible and intangible heritage during the year 2022 are:
During the year, Syria held several discussions about lending Syrian artifacts that were damaged during the terrorist war against Syria for restoration and display in the Sultanate of Oman. It also signed a joint statement on cooperation in preserving cultural heritage with the People's Republic of China.
– Syria participated in the International Forum for the Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage in the Russian city of Kazan, and the scientific conference on archeology in the Hungarian capital, and participated in a virtual lecture within a global conference on (protecting the Syrian cultural heritage after the war).
Archaeological missions returned to excavations in 2022, including the joint Syrian-Italian archaeological mission, which began its work for the first season at the archaeological site of Amrit. A funerary burial and some archaeological finds and finds dating back to the Roman era were discovered in Amrit by the joint excavation team between the General Directorate of Antiquities and Museums and the Department of Antiquities. Tartous ruins.
The national expertise of the General Directorate of Antiquities worked to expand the work to discover the entire rare archaeological mosaic painting in the city of Rastan, which dates back to the Roman era, and reached a length of 20 meters and a width of 6 meters.
The completion of the restoration work of the Triumphal Arch in the ancient city of Palmyra, which was destroyed by terrorist organizations in 2015. The second phase of the restoration project began with the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the Directorate of Antiquities, the Syrian Secretariat, and the Institute for the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the Russian Federation.
– Holding a workshop on “Restoring Syrian Heritage and Reviving Local Communities” at Expo 2020 Dubai, in which local, Arab and international bodies specializing in antiquities participated.
– In the National Museum in Damascus, and in honor of the lives and sacrifices of nearly 27 martyrs who died during the terrorist war on Syria in defense of the Syrian cultural heritage, an exhibition of recovered archaeological treasures 3 was inaugurated, entitled (Tribute to the martyrs of the General Directorate of Antiquities and Museums) within the days of Syrian culture.
– The opening of a graphic exhibition entitled “Restoration of Syrian Heritage through Theo Vité’s vision” at the National Museum in Damascus, which is about artistic paintings of restoration and excavation works in Syrian archaeological sites, drawn by the Dutch artist and archaeologist Theo Vité in 2018 and 2021, and it had been shown in the Netherlands to introduce Western society What happened to the Syrian cultural heritage.
– In the Citadel of Damascus, during the year 2022, the first national screening of the film The Oath of Siriacus, directed by Olivier Bourgeois, was launched, in cooperation between the Ministry of Culture, the General Directorate of Antiquities and Museums, and the Syrian Trust for Development. The film, which won more than 17 international awards, talks about the solidarity of a small group of archaeologists and those in charge of The museum, with the escalation of the terrorist war on the city of Aleppo in 2015, to preserve the archaeological collections, which numbered about 50 thousand artifacts, from the holdings of the Aleppo National Museum.
The Directorate of Antiquities, in cooperation with the European Center for Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Monuments, and the Department of Archeology at Damascus University, organized a digital exhibition on historical mosaics in Syria, entitled “Syria is still the source of art.”
The beginning of the year witnessed the return of five Syrian Palmyra artifacts to the National Museum in Damascus, at the initiative of the Nabu Museum administration in Beirut. The pieces are various funerary Palmyra statues from the Nabu Museum’s possessions, previously purchased from European auction houses.
The second leg of the exhibition of Syrian antiquities, entitled “Magnificent Syria”, was inaugurated in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, southwest China, which lasted until May. During this period, special scientific seminars and cultural events were held related to the exhibition, in which the Directorate of Antiquities and Museums participated with 195 An important artifact and artifact from the holdings and collections of Syrian museums;
This exhibition will move between the most important and largest Chinese museums for two years.
– The Directorate of Intangible Cultural Heritage during the year 2022 had remarkable activity in most of the governorates, as it focused on monitoring, studying and documenting the national intangible heritage and preparing the necessary plans to search for, study, inventory and include the elements of this heritage in the national register, in cooperation with governmental and non-governmental institutions, local communities and concerned international organizations. In addition to its cooperation with the Living Heritage Program at the Syrian Trust for Development.
The Heritage Directorate organized a workshop on the Syrian intangible cultural heritage at the Al-Assad National Library, in preparation for developing a national strategy for the intangible cultural heritage in Syria.
The (Windows 5) project was organized, whose musical evenings varied between documentation and promotion of Syrian traditional songs, and many heritage festivals were held in the governorates.
During the year 2022, a project was launched to document the elements of the Syrian intangible heritage in Old Homs, which is implemented by the Ministry of Culture in cooperation with the Syrian Trust and the civil society, to preserve the elements of this heritage. Work also continued on a project to document the elements of the intangible heritage in Tartous Governorate.
– Within the framework of the implementation of the plan to preserve the element of the shadow play, Kargoz and Iwaz, after its registration on the Urgent Safeguarding List of the World Human Heritage of UNESCO, the Syrian Trust for Development continued the third professional training, after Damascus and As-Suwayda, for youth cadres in the city of Aleppo.
– The Syrian Trust for Development developed the “Living Heritage” program with the local community in Aleppo Governorate, the main axes for preserving the Aleppo pots, which were registered on the representative list of human heritage at UNESCO at the end of 2021, with the participation of a group of governmental and non-governmental organizations, artists, musicians, researchers, and those interested in musical and musical affairs and the art of pots.
And at the international level:
Syria was elected Vice-President of the ninth session of the General Assembly of the States Parties to the 2003 UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, for a period of two years 2022-2024.
Syria participated in the UNESCO World Conference on Cultural Policies and Sustainable Development Mondiacolt 2022 in Mexico.
– In 2022, a scientific research by the son of Aleppo, Antoine Makdis, related to how to recover from the effects of war through independent cultural production based on intangible cultural heritage, won first place in a competition for the Sangrata Foundation, which is specialized in the Italian cultural economy.
An integrated archaeological project in the Baal Shamin Temple in Palmyra was selected as part of the short list of nominated projects for the third round of the ICCROM Sharjah Award related to the preservation and protection of cultural heritage in the Arab region 2020-2022.
Rasha Mahfoud and Mays Al-Ani
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