Wilson Briefs | April 2016

Open ruins of ancient city Ebla, Syria

Preserving Cultural
Heritage in Armed Conflicts
by Yue Zhang

SUMMARY
The ongoing armed conflicts in the Middle East have caused severe damage
to the regions cultural heritage. Despite the challenges, great joint efforts
have been made between local heritage professionals and the international
heritage community. Such efforts demonstrate creative approaches to
preserving cultural heritage in conflict zones, and illuminate the future of
more efficient international cooperation.

From the demolition of Iraqi archeological sites during the recent Iraq War, to the
bulldozing of the Buddhas of Bamiyan by the Taliban in March 2001, to the recent
destruction of some ancient Syrian artifacts and the looting of others by the Islamic State
(ISIS), crimes against cultural heritage in armed conflicts pose a major challenge to the
humanities in the 21st century. Cultural heritage has become a target in the Middle East
because it represents a peoples history, memory, and culture, all of which are subject to
erasure. As Michel Foucault remarked in a 1975 interview on film and popular memory:

Since memory is actually a very important factor in struggle, if one controls

peoples memory, one controls their dynamism. And one also controls their
experience, their knowledge of previous struggles.1
Safeguarding an afflicted populations cultural heritage, by contrast, not only respects
human dignity by protecting their collective memory and way of life, but also lays a
foundation for a return to normalcy following a disaster.

International Institutions and Local Professionals

In response to crimes against cultural heritage, local heritage professionals and the
international heritage community have raised a great joint effort. Participants include
archaeologists, museum professionals, historic preservationists, historians, librarians,
archivists, and experts at major international cultural organizations concerned with heritage
preservation, such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO), the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), the International
Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM),
and the International Council of Museums (ICOM).
The Safeguarding the Heritage of Syria Initiative Project, known as SHOSI, is one of the
major humanitarian interventions. Created in spring 2013, SHOSI is a consortium of the
Penn Cultural Heritage Center at the University of Pennsylvania Museum; the Office
of the Under Secretary for History, Art, and Culture at the Smithsonian Institution; the
Geospatial Technologies Project at the American Association for the Advancement of
Science; the United States Institute of Peace; and the Day After Association (a Syrian
nongovernmental organization). In summer 2014, as ISIS advanced into Iraq, SHOSI
expanded its efforts to support Iraqi heritage professionals, and renamed itself the
Safeguarding the Heritage of Syria and Iraq Project.
In late June 2014, SHOSI conducted a three-day course on emergency care for Syrian
museum collections in Gaziantep, Turkey. Approximately 20 heritage professionals,
primarily from the provinces of Aleppo and Idlib, attended. The workshop taught
participants how to protect portable objects during emergencies and provided basic
supplies for packing and securing museum collections that could be put to immediate
use. More important, it created a dialogue among local heritage professionals about
emergency needs and responses. Following ISIS attacks in Iraq and the occupation
of Mosul in summer 2014, SHOSI brought a similar emergency heritage protection
workshop and a short course to an audience of Iraqi heritage professionals in Erbil, Iraq.
Training programs or e-training courses for affected regions heritage professionals
also have been offred by UNESCO, ICOMOS, and ICCROM. Emergency training has

Michel Foucault, Film and Popular Memory: An Interview with Michel Foucault,
Radical Philosophy 11, no. 11 (1975), 28.

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attracted participants from Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, and Turkey. The courses broadly
cover ways to combat illicit trafficking, provide emergency stabilization for built heritage,
protect moveable heritage, and record intangible heritage. In addition to training, SHOSI
is engaging emergency preservation projects for at-risk cultural heritage. One such
timely measure successfully protected the building and mosaic collection of the Maarra
Museum, located south of Aleppo, from the Assad regimes June 2015 air force attack.

Dangers and Other Obstacles

Many challenges hinder the preservation of cultural heritage in a conflict zone. First
and foremost, the conflict itself endangers heritage professionals in the region who
might otherwise act. The personal safety of those undertaking emergency preservation
efforts remains a paramount concern. Second, the international heritage community is
constrained not only by the difficulty of travelling to these areas but also by the legal
environment in which they must act. In Syria, for example, the United States and the
European Union have imposed sanctions against activities that involve the Syrian financial
system. For the United States, additionally, sanctions extend to collaboration with the
Syrian government and its instrumentalities, one of which is Syrias Directorate General
of Antiquities and Museums (DGAM). American heritage professionals, therefore, are
legally forbidden from working directly with the Syrian DGAM.
Brian Daniels, director of research and programs at the Penn Museum, divulged in a
conversation that all local partners of SHOSI have to be vetted by the U.S. Department
of State for participation in the Assad regimes unlawful activities or linkage to a terrorist
or extremist group. SHOSIs financial transactions have been subject to monitoring by
the U.S. Department of the Treasurys Office of Foreign Assets Control. Although such
scrutiny may be necessary, the multiple layers of bureaucratic oversight may impair
timely reaction to a crisis.

Maarra Museum curatorial staff preparing the mosaics for

sandbagging, December 2014. Photograph source and staff
members anonymous for protection.

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Reinforced and stabilized mosaics at the Maarra Museum,

December 2014. Photograph source anonymous for protection.

Roles for International Institutions, Local Professionals, and

Policymakers
The emergency heritage preservation projects in the Middle East have saved specific
historic sites and antiquities and demonstrated a promising model for protecting cultural
heritage when government capacity is destroyed in armed conflict. Recent experience
supports the following recommendations:
The international heritage community should actively assist heritage professionals
caught in armed conflict with information, dialogue, and supplies in order to
increase their capacity to respond to emergencies.
Local heritage professionals must take the lead in emergency preservation.
Only they are in a position to assess the risks involved in protecting sites and
implementing projects.
Policymakers should regularly include heritage protection among humanitarian
actions that directly support populations in crisis. With expanded policy support,
international heritage institutions and local heritage professionals can be better
integrated into the humanitarian and disaster response community and translate
their expertise into action.

Yue Zhang is an associate professor of political science at the University of Illinois at

Chicago, and a 201516 Wilson Center fellow.

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