The Illegal Excavation and Trade of Syrian Cultural Objects

JOURNAL OF FIELD ARCHAEOLOGY, 2018 VOL. 43, NO. 1, 74–84 https://doi.org/10.1080/00934690.2017.1410919 The Illegal Excavation and Trade of Syrian Cultural Objects: A View from the Ground Neil Brodiea and Isber Sabrineb aUniversity of Oxford, Oxford, UK; bUniversitat de Girona, Girona, Spain ABSTRACT KEYWORDS The illegal excavation and trade of cultural objects from Syrian archaeological sites worsened Syria; looting; cultural markedly after the outbreak of civil disturbance and conflict in 2011. Since then, the damage to objects; coins; policy archaeological heritage has been well documented, and the issue of terrorist funding explored, but hardly any research has been conducted into the organization and operation of theft and trafficking of cultural objects inside Syria. As a first step in that direction, this paper presents texts of interviews with seven people resident in Syria who have first-hand knowledge of the trade, and uses information they provided to suggest a model of socioeconomic organization of the Syrian war economy regarding the trafficking of cultural objects. It highlights the importance of coins and other small objects for trade, and concludes by considering what lessons might be drawn from this model to improve presently established public policy. Introduction conflictantiquities.wordpress.com/). Nevertheless, most of what is known about illegal excavation and trade inside Like that of many countries in the Middle East and North Syria comes from some of the better media reporting, Africa (MENA) region, for the past few decades the archaeo- which has on occasion managed to access people with first- logical heritage of Syria has been robbed of cultural objects for hand knowledge or experience of the problem. Unfortunately, sale on the international market (Abdulrahman 2001) much of the media coverage has been biased in its inquiry. (FIGURE 1). The problem worsened markedly after the onset The involvement of fighters, traffickers, and hard-pressed of civil disturbance and then open conflict in 2011 (Cunliffe civilians has been well documented, and the main trade 2012; Al Quntar 2013; Casana 2015)(FIGURE 2). Since that routes out of Syria mapped, but a lot of reporting has been time, a lot of academic effort has gone into documenting driven by the desire to establish a monetary link between traf- the damage caused by illegal excavation (and other agencies), ficking and armed insurgent or terrorist groups, particularly making good use of satellite imagery, a technique that for after the 2013 eruption into Syria of Daesh (Daesh, a term archaeological purposes might be said to have come of age with derogatory overtones in Arabic, is being used increas- during the Syria conflict. See particularly the work of the ingly to reference the terrorist group otherwise known as American Schools of Oriental Research (http://www.asor- ISIS or ISIL). Presumably, terrorist funding is a matter of syrianheritage.org/) and the American Association for the international security and thus a subject of acute public and Advancement of Science (https://www.aaas.org/). Civil political concern. So although this reporting does contain society groups, particularly those comprised of expatriate Syr- useful information, it falls far short of comprising a systema- ians, have similarly focused on documenting damage, though tic analysis of the organization and operation of theft and closer at hand and using cell phones and other digital cam- trafficking inside Syria. eras, as well as on identifying and recording stolen objects. To rectify this investigative shortfall, we present here the See, for example, the work of the Association for the Protec- synthetic texts of seven interviews conducted in 2016 with tion of Syrian Archaeology (http://apsa2011.com/apsanew/) people either directly engaged in or with first-hand knowl- and Heritage for Peace (http://www.heritageforpeace.org/). edge of the illegal excavation and trade of cultural objects Inside Syria, the Directorate-General of Antiquities and inside Syria. We conduct a critical study of the texts, with Museums of the Ministry of Culture (DGAM) (http://www. due concern for the circumstances of their production, and dgam.gov.sy/) has also been working to document damage discuss their contents in relation to Jonathan Goodhand’s and restore sites. (2003, 2005) tripartite typology of a war economy. We com- There has been rather less investigation of the organization plete our study by considering the implications of our find- and operation of illegal excavation and trade, perhaps because ings for presently established cultural heritage protection of difficulties accessing criminal actors in a conflict zone, ethi- policy. cal qualms about engaging in such work, or even a simple lack of expertise or interest. What information is available derives largely from media reporting, though this reporting has been Ethics and Methodology patchy in its reliability and quality. At its best the journalism has been good, but Sam Hardy (2015) has cautioned of Seven people residing in Syria agreed to participate in this “churnalism” and provided other usefully critical commen- research by being interviewed. Each person was either directly tary on his Conflict Antiquities blog (https:// involved in illegally excavating archaeological sites and/or CONTACT Neil Brodie [email protected]; [email protected] School of Archaeology, University of Oxford, Hayes House, 75 George St., Oxford OX12BQ, UK © Trustees of Boston University 2017 JOURNAL OF FIELD ARCHAEOLOGY 75 Figure 1. Map of Syria, showing locations of archaeological sites and modern settlements mentioned in text. trading excavated objects, or else was in a position to report to photograph or to engage directly with any illegal activity, first-hand on such activities. The safety of participants was though it is clear that some of them had previously been uppermost in our minds, as we were asking them to report photographing stolen objects. Finally, we questioned the upon illegal activity in a conflict zone. We decided to proceed potential benefit and impact of the research. At first, we only after some discussion with each other, and with col- doubted there was much to be learned about illegal exca- leagues, including the head of research management at a vation and trade that was not known already from compar- major UK university. Several considerations influenced our able studies in other parts of the world. We soon came to decision. First of all, at the time of interview, all participants realize, however, that the information contained in the inter- resided in areas controlled by what would be considered views could help shape a more realistic understanding of the “moderate” opposition groups or by the Salafist Jabhat al problem inside Syria, and thus be important for any future Nusra (JAN), now Jabhat Fateh al Sham. Although JAN policy formulation or action. shares the jihadist ideology of Daesh, at the time of the inter- The interviews were conducted by Sabrine in Arabic over views it did not exert absolute control over the daily life of any the period of June–July 2016. The interviews were semi-struc- of the participants. Thus, we did not believe our participants tured with a series of initial questions, but with room for the to be in imminent danger of discovery and retribution. We participants to express their own views. We considered it inap- could not have justified such research in areas controlled by propriate to circulate written consent forms, outline question- Daesh, with its record of vicious reprisal. Second, the research naires, or any other material evidence of their participation. was primarily concerned with the socioeconomics of illegal Sabrine transcribed the interviews and translated them from excavation and trade, and so the interviews intentionally Arabic into English. Brodie edited the English translations avoided any questioning about the participants’ political and produced the synthetic texts published here. He attempted affiliations and actions, or about knowledge they might to keep the texts faithful to the original translations as received have possessed about the identities of criminals. Third, we from Sabrine, and Sabrine checked and approved the final ver- were aware that the participants were communicating with sions before publication. All personal identities have been other people outside Syria, so that our own inquiries did anonymized and an impersonal system of participant number- not initiate contact or trigger a previously non-existent risk, ing deliberately chosen to reinforce anonymity. At the time of and might even have moderated already-existing hazardous interview, all participants were resident in Idlib Governorate, behavior. So, for example, we did not encourage participants but more precise information about their locations of 76 N. BRODIE AND I. SABRINE Figure 2. Political geography of Syria, showing Idlib and Hama Governorates mentioned in text, and approximate areas of military control in early 2016. (Information from the Institute for the Study of War). residence has been deliberately excluded. The texts are written in the morning to seven in the evening. Many days his group in the present tense, but they describe the situation known to finds nothing, but depending upon the value of what is found, participants in early 2016. he earns on average 10,000 Syrian pounds per month, which is equivalent to about $20. In a good month, he can earn up to $50. He considers excavating to be hard work and it does not Interview Texts pay enough for him to live on. He explains that before 2010, Participant 1 (P1) the average worker’s wage in Syria was about $10 per day. He is looking primarily for coins from the Classical Before the conflict, P1 worked on construction projects in through Abbasid periods, glass vessels, and also some bronze Lebanon, but that is no longer possible for him because of and copper figures. He mentions specifically that silver Greek hazardous travel through the different zones of military con- coins “with the image of an owl” can be sold for $400 each, trol.

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