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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.

According to Amr Al-Azm, an archaeologist and co-director of the Antiquities Trafficking and Heritage Anthropology Research (ATHAR) project, three key factors are fueling the surge in looting: demand, economic collapse and breakdown of law and order in many areas.

“First, there’s the persistent and growing demand,” Al-Azm told Arab News. “This is fundamentally a supply-and-demand issue: conflict zones like Syria make up the supply side, while the demand largely comes from North America and Western Europe.”

Artifacts flow into black markets because buyers exist — whether motivated by profit or a misguided belief that they are preserving history, Al-Azm said.

“Regardless of intent,” he said, “both groups fuel demand, which perpetuates the problem.”

The second driver is what Al-Azm calls “treasure-hunting fever,” a phenomenon that extends far beyond Syria but has intensified amid the country’s post-regime economic collapse.

“When people lose their livelihoods, they seek alternative ways to survive,” he said. “If they know — or even believe — that something valuable is buried nearby, they’ll dig for it in hopes of supplementing their income.”

This desperation may also be accompanied by a misguided sense of entitlement. Many Syrians, Al-Azm explained, believe these artifacts rightfully belong to them, especially given how corrupt officials from the ousted regime hoarded or sold cultural property for personal gain.

“When a government is widely seen as corrupt, and its officials and employees are perceived to be stealing constantly, that belief becomes ingrained,” he said. “People begin to think: Why should I let the government take this? They’re just going to steal or sell it anyway.”

He added that for many Syrians, that legacy of corruption reinforces a personal claim: “This artifact is coming from my land, my backyard, my village — why shouldn’t I have a claim to it?”

The third factor is institutional collapse. As government structures and enforcement mechanisms fell apart, they left a vacuum.

“In many areas, the absence of enforcement has created a vacuum,” Al-Azm said. “Following the regime’s collapse, people often reverted to the opposite mindset: if something was banned before, it’s now assumed to be permitted.

“That shift in perception has contributed to the surge in looting activity.”

While the current crisis has intensified looting, looting in Syria predates the civil war that began in 2011, revealing a deeper, long-standing crisis threatening the nation’s cultural heritage.

“Looting is an age-old global phenomenon,” Al-Azm said. “Since humans began burying their dead with valuables, others have sought to dig them up and recover those treasures.”

Since 2011, the civil war has shattered Syrian society — dividing communities along social, economic, sectarian and geographic lines. Cultural heritage, Al-Azm said, was an early casualty.

“This war has deeply damaged Syrian society,” he said. “And cultural heritage has been a casualty from the very beginning.”

Today, efforts to recover stolen artifacts face daunting challenges. Investigators must navigate deeply entrenched smuggling networks that, for more than a decade, have trafficked Syria’s cultural legacy into black markets around the world.

With over 10,000 archaeological sites vulnerable to illegal digs, the fight to protect Syria’s heritage is now a fight to preserve its identity.

In 2020, the UN agency for education, science and culture, UNESCO, warned of “industrial-scale” looting in Syria, citing satellite images showing thousands of illegal excavations. Irina Bokova, UNESCO’s director-general, also highlighted links between antiquities trafficking and funding for extremist groups, urging swift global action to halt the trade.

Among the most widespread forms of theft is “subsistence looting,” in which locals dig for artifacts to survive.

“In Syria, many people live on, next to, or very close to archaeological sites, so they’re well aware that valuable artifacts may be buried nearby,” Al-Azm said. “Often, these sites have been previously excavated or are active dig locations with foreign — usually Western — archaeological missions, sometimes in partnership with Syrian teams.

“Locals are often hired as laborers on these missions, which gives them both familiarity with the landscape and exposure to the types of objects that may be found underground.”

In May, a video surfaced online showing content creators using metal detectors to search for artifacts in an old home in Deraa, southern Syria. The homeowner had reportedly contacted them after making a discovery beneath the house.

The video, shared on YouTube by the channel NewDose, included a promotion for a metal detector company and ended with the unearthing of ancient copper and gold coins. It also claimed the homeowner had previously uncovered a church beneath the property.

Al-Azm believes that social media has worsened the looting crisis. “With platforms like Facebook, people can easily post finds, ask questions, and buy or sell looted antiquities — all in the open. It’s made the situation increasingly unmanageable,” he said.

He noted that traffickers and looters often operate within Facebook groups. “Right now, we monitor more than 550 groups just in the MENA region — and many of them are huge. Some have 100,000 members, others 500,000, and one group has even surpassed a million members,” he said.

Syria, often referred to as the cradle of civilization, was home to some of the world’s earliest cities and innovations. From Ebla and Mari to Ugarit, these ancient societies helped shape governance, language, trade and urban life. Their legacy is now at risk of being lost forever.

Alongside small-scale looting, Syria also faces more organized theft. These crimes are carried out by longstanding trafficking networks and criminal groups that view cultural property as a highly lucrative commodity.

Al-Azm pointed out that many of these long-standing trafficking networks “have operated in the region for decades, if not centuries.”

“These groups engage in a range of criminal activities, including the looting and trafficking of antiquities, because it’s highly profitable,” he said. “The sale of cultural property generates significant revenue, making it an attractive enterprise for such networks.”

As looters continue to chip away at Syria’s cultural identity, the global community faces a crucial test: whether to act decisively or stand by as one of the world’s oldest cultural legacies disappears — artifact by artifact, site by site.

To confront this growing crisis, Al-Azm says Syria will need comprehensive international support — both from its archaeologists and heritage experts, many now scattered across the diaspora, and from global institutions ready to take necessary action.

Central to that support, Al-Azm noted, is the Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums in Damascus, the national institution tasked with protecting Syria’s cultural heritage. “That includes supporting the institution responsible for overseeing this work,” he said.

During the conflict, much of the burden of preservation fell to NGOs, local communities, and individual stakeholders. Al-Azm emphasized that these grassroots actors played a crucial role in protecting Syria’s heritage when official capacity was limited.

“These groups played a vital role, and we should continue to encourage, support, and facilitate their efforts moving forward,” he said.

Legal experts echo the need for a multilayered response. Amir Farhadi, a US-based international disputes and human rights lawyer, points to international law as a critical line of defense against antiquities trafficking.

“The main pillar of the international legal framework is the Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, which was adopted through UNESCO in 1970,” Farhadi told Arab News.

Syria is among the many countries that have ratified the convention, which aims both to deter the theft of cultural property and to facilitate its return when stolen.

Farhadi noted that while the Convention and similar treaties are not retroactive, they remain effective tools for addressing recent crimes.

“The more recent the theft of cultural property, the more robust the legal framework for its restitution,” he said. “This is good news for Syria, since most antiquities trafficking that took place during the war years would fall within the scope of the 1970 convention.”

He contrasted Syria’s position with that of countries seeking the return of colonial-era artifacts. “For example,” he said, “there is no binding legal mechanism applicable to the dispute between Greece and the UK over the Parthenon (Elgin) Marbles.

“Instead, the two countries could pursue optional mediation through a specialized UNESCO committee, although the UK has in the past refused.”

In Syria’s case, Farhadi said, additional legal protections specific to Syria were introduced during the height of the looting campaign carried out by the terrorist group Daesh.

In 2015, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 2199, calling on all member states to prevent the cross-border trade of Syrian cultural property removed since March 15, 2011. The resolution explicitly urges the return of looted items to the Syrian people.

The urgency behind that resolution was clear. Daesh began in 2014 systematically looting and destroying key cultural sites across Syria, including in Raqqa, Manbij and Palmyra.

Between 2014 and 2017, the group’s occupation of territory marked the most intense period of destruction, targeting museums, tombs and archaeological landmarks.

Still, Farhadi cautioned that strong legal frameworks alone are not enough. “While the UNESCO Convention and Security Council Resolution clearly prohibit the international trafficking of Syrian cultural property and require its restitution, enforcement depends on concrete action by individual states,” he said.

“Locating and authenticating stolen heritage is not straightforward,” Farhadi said. “It requires cooperation among stakeholders — law enforcement in both the source and destination countries, museums and auction houses willing to conduct due diligence, and authorities in the country of origin.”

In Syria’s case, the challenge is immense, he added. “There are reports of thousands, if not tens of thousands, of looted objects that entered the black market over the past decade.”

“But how do you differentiate a Bronze Age figurine looted by Daesh from one that entered the market legally decades ago? That’s where provenance becomes critical — and where trafficking networks try to exploit gaps.”

Verifying authenticity often depends on access to site inventories and museum records — information that only Syrian authorities and cultural institutions can provide.

“Mechanisms like the Red Lists published by the International Council of Museums (ICOM) are helpful,” Farhadi said. “But the danger is for less high-profile objects, or those for which records were lost during the war.”

In his view, success hinges on diplomacy. “Cooperation must happen at the highest levels — bilaterally between Syria and countries where trafficked objects end up, and multilaterally through organizations like UNESCO,” he said.

“This would require the new government to prioritize this issue, which of course is much easier said than done in this time of transition,” he added.

Farhadi believes the responsibility also lies with international organizations. “UNESCO has the responsibility — if not the obligation — to support Syria in setting up concrete mechanisms to facilitate the restitution of property,” he said.

“Back in 2015,” he added, “the Security Council expressly called on UNESCO to do this.”

While past collaboration was often hindered by international reluctance to engage with the Assad regime, Farhadi said that obstacle is no longer relevant.

“With the political landscape shifting, the goodwill to support Syria in this transition could finally jump-start new multilateral efforts to recover and restore its looted heritage,” he said.

 Al-Azm, the archaeologist, emphasized the broader significance of heritage in rebuilding Syrian society. “Cultural heritage has a critical role in enhancing the Syrian identity,” he said.

He envisions a new, inclusive Syrian identity that moves beyond the ideologies of the past. “It’s going to be a new Syrian identity, unlike the previous one that was heavily infused with ideologies like Baathism, Pan-Arabism and Nazism, and even at one point Islamism, if we were to go there.”

“We need a national identity rooted in shared history and common aspirations, free from ethnic, sectarian or tribal divisions,” Al-Azm said. “Preserving what remains of Syria’s decimated ancient sites — like Dura-Europos, Apamea and the Dead Cities — is essential.”

“These remnants of the past,” he added, “can help forge a unified future for Syrians. Protecting our heritage is ultimately about protecting our future.”