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Satellites Track Heritage Loss Across Syria and Iraq NEWS | IN DEPTH Houston, Texas, estimates that the study ARCHAEOLOGY will need to include about 700 children, at a cost of $5 million to $10 million—which the SmartTots leadership hopes will come from Satellites track heritage loss government sources in the United States and abroad. Planning the trial and navigating ethi- across Syria and Iraq cal concerns “has been daunting, to say the least,” says IARS Executive Director Vandalism, looting, and collateral damage erase history Thomas Cooper, who manages the Smart- Tots initiative. Despite the scientific ap- By Andrew Lawler, in San Diego, California ingly never-ending and disheartening,” says peal of a randomized study, investigators Michael Danti, a Boston University archae- are obligated to not place children into a ore than 4000 years ago, the ologist who helps lead the ASOR project. treatment group that may increase the risk Bronze Age metropolis of Mari on Shut out of a region plagued with compet- of harm, he says, or give care that deviates the banks of the Euphrates River ing armies, humanitarian crises, and hostile from what is already accepted as safe and bustled with trade and boasted a ideologies, archaeologists have largely been effective. half-dozen temples and a royal pal- distant and anguished bystanders to the Because dexmedetomidine hasn’t been ace. But for millennia since then, its wave of ruin. But by tracking the damage, widely used or studied in children, Smart- Meroding walls and buried artifacts remained the ASOR researchers hope they can help Tots collaborators are preparing a pre- undisturbed until French archaeologists be- raise a global outcry and lay the founda- liminary study in 50 kids to check that it’s gan excavating in the 1930s. tion for salvage and reconstruction when suitable for long surgeries; warning signs Today, this Syrian site just 10 kilome- the wars end. “Even if what we are doing is would include slowed heartbeat, low blood ters from the Iraqi border is once again a largely ineffectual, it is better than sitting on pressure, or a child who stirs too much busy place. A satellite image of Mari taken our hands,” Branting said at a special 23 No- while “under,” Andropoulos says. He also on 11 November shows alarming signs of vember session on the crisis. anticipates a nonhuman primate study to massive, orchestrated looting, according The Islamic State group has emerged as scrutinize the drug’s effects on the brain. to Scott Branting, an archaeologist at the a particular threat, making concerted ef- Warner, also an adviser on the project, Boston-based American Schools of Orien- forts to destroy the sacred sites of groups it notes that because the preliminary study tal Research (ASOR). Trucks and backhoes views as heretical. The group has publicized would be on a tightly controlled popula- traverse the site, systematically uncovering its intentional destruction of dozens of sa- tion—children getting urological proce- artifacts while destroying the ancient struc- cred sites online or in its glossy magazine, dures is one favored option—any findings tures. Looters have even built what may be Dabiq. “A soldier of the Islamic state clarifies might not apply to kids getting anesthesia a large storage depot for sorting and storing to the people the obligation to demolish the under other circumstances. “You would, in tombs,” states one caption in a recent issue theory, need to do a different trial in every that includes images of exploding shrines. group of kids, which nobody’s going to do.” “It is all very choreographed,” Danti says. With even this limited evidence years “It is all seemingly never- He adds that the biggest spike in destruc- away, SmartTots is crafting a short “con- ending and disheartening.” tion took place in May, with nearly 20 sites sensus statement,” planned for December demolished, followed by a half-dozen or so release, to convey current knowledge about Michael Danti, Boston University incidents each month thereafter. Almost risks of childhood anesthesia. A draft, un- half of the destroyed sites are associated like its 2012 predecessor, explicitly suggests the valuable goods before they are exported with Shia Muslims, while the remainder are delaying or postponing surgical procedures for sale abroad. places sacred to Sufis, a mystical branch of that require full anesthesia if possible. Such destruction is widespread across Islam, as well as Christians and Yazidis, an That suggestion sparked lively discus- Syria and northern Iraq, Branting and ancient ethnic group centered in northern sion among the FDA science board. “Post- other researchers lamented at ASOR’s an- Iraq. More than 15% are statues and build- ponement is really bad medicine,” argued nual meeting here. Part of the ancient ings predating Islam; images on the Inter- pediatric orthopedic surgeon Laura Tosi Fertile Crescent, the region holds archaeo- net, for example, show a yellow front loader of Children’s National Health System in logical riches spanning thousands of years. toppling and pulverizing two massive black Washington, D.C. With surgeries for con- Since 2011, however, it has also been a bat- stone lions dating to the 9th century B.C.E. genital defects, she said, any delay can lead tleground, fought over by the Syrian gov- in the Islamic State provisional capital of to worse outcomes. ernment and opposition groups, the radical Raqqa in northern Syria. Several advisers supported the idea of a Islamists of the Islamic State group, and But researchers say that even more dam- new FDA warning on the anesthetics that their various opponents including Iraqi, age to archaeologically important sites stems have been called into question. But others, Kurdish, and U.S. forces. from military action by all parties in the con- including Tosi, vehemently opposed adding In an initiative funded by the U.S. State flict, including the Syrian government and the most severe “black box” warning, which Department, ASOR is monitoring and as- perhaps Iraqi and U.S. forces. “There is a lot signifies a risk of serious adverse effects. sessing the damage. Recent satellite photos, of damage from military garrisoning,” says Some parents wary of cognitive damage as well as reports from observers on the Jesse Casana, an archaeologist at the Univer- are already resisting necessary procedures ground, indicate that the artifacts and sites sity of Arkansas, Fayetteville, who is part of for their children, Tosi noted. “We have to face multiple perils: Islamists who destroy the ASOR team and has been closely examin- be very careful about how we present that ancient sites for religious reasons, system- ing dozens of Syrian sites. Tells, remnants of data,” she said. “I think the fear of anesthe- atic looters like those threatening Mari, and ancient settlements that dot the Syrian and sia in the public is already out there.” ■ the collateral damage of war. “It is all seem- Iraqi landscape, offer high ground for mili- 1162 5 DECEMBER 2014 • VOL 346 ISSUE 6214 sciencemag.org SCIENCE Published by AAAS tary units, which wreak havoc with heavy a massive expansion In a December 2012 satellite equipment as they fortify the sites. Archae- in looting between image of Apamea in Syria, ologists also fear that the warring forces August 2013 and April holes dug by looters pepper are heavily mining strategic tells, creating a 2014 at Dura-Europos, the site of the ancient Roman daunting threat for future excavators. a sprawling Roman-era city (inset). In October, Kurds captured Tell Shair, a city on the Euphrates site near the hotly contested Syrian town of in Syria. But Bronze Age cities like Ebla in without on-the-ground intelligence. Sources Kobane. Images taken by the victors showed the west—damaged by a Syrian government told Science that Islamic State group forces that the ousted Islamic State group fighters military garrison—and Mari, which is under kidnapped and tortured at least one an- had dug trenches 2 to 3 meters deep on the the Islamic State group’s control, are not im- tiquities inspector in northern Iraq before mound, devastating the upper layers of the mune. “There are rumors that armed groups releasing him a few weeks ago. A 24 Sep- millennia-old settlement. The images also are undertaking the work,” ASOR’s Branting tember circular from the group declared showed signs of bomb craters, possibly from says about Mari. Other reports suggest that archaeology to be un-Islamic and closed the U.S. raids—in the first half of October alone, the Islamic State group is profiting from the archaeology department at the University of the U.S. military reported conducting more business, possibly by exacting a tax as well Mosul, effective 18 October. And the Islamic than 135 airstrikes in the area. A Defense as by overseeing looting operations. But State group’s forces now occupy the Mosul Department advisory group provides data to Danti adds that most looting appears to be Museum, which houses a collection of stat- the U.S. military on important cultural heri- the work of desperate Syrians attempting to ues, friezes, and inscriptions from the Assyr- tage monuments so it can limit bomb dam- survive in a devastated economy. ian capital of Nimrud and Hatra, a classical age. But whether such protection extends Massive looting, bomb craters, and dam- site 110 kilometers southwest of Mosul. One to smaller sites such as Tell Shair is unclear, age by military garrisons can be spotted source said the occupiers have emptied the several U.S. archaeologists say. on satellite images, but smaller thefts, kid- museum and smashed objects too large to Casana is also using satellite photos to napping, and violence against guards and move. Many Iraqi archaeologists in Islamic track another major source of damage: loot- inspectors at sites are difficult to confirm State group–controlled areas are in hiding or ing.
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