LONDON: Across Syria, looters are disturbing ancient graves and buried treasures, tearing through layers of history to steal artifacts hidden for thousands of years. Day and night, the earth trembles not from bombs or shellfire but from the strikes of pickaxes and jackhammers.
Since the collapse of Bashar Assad regime’s control last December, Syria’s cultural heritage has come under increasing threat. Looting has surged across the country, from the famed ruins of Palmyra to remote coastal regions, as economic desperation and lawlessness take hold.
In January, images circulating on social media showed looting and vandalism at the museum on Arwad Island, off the coast of Tartus. At least 38 artifacts were reportedly stolen — pieces that told the story of a civilization now at risk of being erased.
Local news media in Syria and Lebanon, citing unnamed sources, reported that unknown individuals raided the museum following the regime’s loss of security control on December 8.
Visitors tour the antiquities museum in the Syrian capital Damascus on October 28, 2018. Syria reopened a wing of the capital's famed antiquities museum on that date after six years of closure to protect its exhibits from the civil war. (Louai Beshara / AFP)
