The cultural heritage of Syria and Iraq is under siege, suffering collateral damage from years of war and deliberate assaults from the Islamic State and other religious extremists.
Preserving what’s left has become the mission of countless individuals in conflict areas and their supporters in the international community.
The players range from individuals secretly photographing precious relics, and sometimes hiding them away, to the United States and other governments clamping down on the trade of looted antiquities.
"A lot of brave men and women in Syria and Iraq are doing everything they can at the local level to try to save material culture. That isn’t enough," said Michael Danti, a Boston University assistant professor who is directing two archeology projects in Iraq and advising the U.S. State Department on preservation.
One project is in partnership with Mosul University, in Iraq’s second-largest city. A video released Thursday on Islamic State social media accounts purportedly shows men rampaging through the Mosul Museum, toppling ancient statues and attacking them with sledgehammers and drills.
The museum contained artworks primarily from the Assyrian Empire, dating to roughly 700 B.C., and from the ancient . Its holdings included "some of the best examples of Assyrian sculpture remaining in Iraq," Danti said.
While more choice pieces are held by the British Museum, the Louvre and other institutions, he added, "the loss is enormous."
The extremist Islamic State group and al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front practice a narrow brand of Sunni Islam that justifies purging what adherents regard as temptations for idolatry.
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But the extremists’ contempt for non-Muslim culture also gives way to desire for cash. Close observers say they traffic in looted items, or extort protection money, to help .
Others, too, have taken advantage of the chaos in conflict zones. The volume of illicit trade in items from Syria alone has surpassed $100 million a year, , attributing the estimate to U.S. officials.
A loose affiliation of equally determined preservationists and supporters is trying to counter the looting and decimation, with help from partners including Americans or people with U.S. ties.
The ground troops are the contemporary equivalent of World War II "monuments men," an undercover team of Allied curators and historians sent to rescue prized artworks from Nazi looters and censors. But, unlike protagonists in the 2014 Hollywood film, these are homegrown preservationists and volunteers risking their lives to safeguard precious antiquities and sites – or at least provide records of them.
"This is not a singular network of people who are under one leadership, all working together and organized. Most of it [the work] is done on an ad hoc, individual basis," said Amr Al-Azm, who for five years directed conservation laboratories for the Syrian General Department of Antiquities and Museums.
Now Al-Azm teaches at Shawnee State University in the American state of Ohio and chairs the Syrian Interim Government’s Heritage Task Force, trying to help some of those "little disparate groups" in his homeland.
The cultural brigades in both countries – mostly anonymous Iraqis and Syrians – take grave risks to document, protect and preserve historical treasures.
"We’ve seen how violent jihadi Salafist groups can be," said Danti, the Boston University archeologist, hinting at recent beheading and immolation deaths. "These individuals would be at high risk for kidnapping and atrocities."
Some assistance comes from Safeguarding the Heritage of Syria Initiative. The is an umbrella group of scholars, heritage specialists and other volunteers, Al-Azm said, that strives to "bring resources" and "see what needs the guys on the ground have."
Al-Azm and others working in cultural heritage plan a training session on emergency preservation strategies for the ground troops, perhaps as early as this spring.
An earlier one last summer, at an undisclosed location outside Syria, brought together about 20 heritage professionals from several of the country’s provinces for three days of strategizing.
"We’re trying to help our colleagues who are working in opposition-controlled areas to give them training and tools to protect and stabilize what they have left," said Corine Wegener, a for the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. She and Al-Azm were among the trainers.