Activists to Save Syria's Cultural History_美文

Activists to Save Syria's Cultural History

Activists to Save Syria's Cultural History1

The museum in the Syrian town of Maarat al-Numan is well-known for its ancient Roman and Byzantine mosaics,mosaics are now hidden from view, indefinitely.

They were wrapped and sandbagged by volunteers who are working to preserve Syria's history from the destruction caused by the country's civil war.

"It's in territory controlled by the opposition, but the government regularly barrel-bombs it," he said.

Syrian opposition member Amr Al-Azm, says government forces launched an assault on Maarat al-Numan not long after the mosaics were sandbagged.

Al-Azm as director of Syria's Science and Conservation Laboratories and taught at the University of Damascus. He fell out of favor with the Syrian regime and left the country before the civil war began. But his concern for Syria's past, and its future, did not end when he left the country.

"We started to try to see if there was anything we could do to reduce the damage where possible, and more importantly, document what damage was already done," he said.

From a computer at Shawnee State, Al-Azm coordinates preservation efforts with a network of colleagues and former students who remain in Syria. They are his eyes and ears on the ground, while he documents and compiles reports of the destruction, remotely.

The Maarat al-Numan museum is just one example of thousands in the Middle East that archaeologists are concerned about. While the museum's mosaics may have been saved from permanent destruction, many sites at risk are not easily accessible, including those in places controlled by Islamic State, where militants have already looted or destroyed important historic sites.