The Quest to Save Syria's History

Cheikhmous Ali pushes a box of ballpoint pens across the table towards his friend Ahmad. The stout Syrian laughs aloud as he tucks one of the pens into his shirt pocket. "You think it'll work?" asks Ahmad. Ali nods. "And how," he says. The archeologist is proud of his plan: he has inserted mini digital cameras into the pens. "The quality isn't great, but it serves our purposes," he says.

Ahmad is on a potentially deadly mission; he risks being kidnapped on suspicion of spying, tortured and possibly even executed. He's determined to document what is currently happening in Syria's venerable mosques and crusader castles, as well as its museums filled with historical treasures dating back to the Byzantine and Roman empires. He also intends to film the smuggling underway in war-torn Syria.

The region is often described as the cradle of civilization. In Tell Brak and Uruk in northern Mesopotamia, archeologists found the remains of one of civilization's oldest settlements, some of which date back to 8,000 BC.

A team of British archeologists worked in Tell Brak until the outbreak of the civil war, but according to the Syrian authorities, the camp was looted long ago, along with the tools and ceramics that were being kept there. The experts -- who were dusting off ancient artifacts and restoring them with paintbrushes -- have been replaced by voracious armed bandits.

The remains of this ancient site were first discovered by British archaeologist Max Mallowan. He was in charge of the excavations beginning in 1937, aided by his wife, Agatha Christie, who cleaned up the finds and photographed them. The couple was responsible for discovering the famous "eye idol" figurines in the foundations of a temple, believed to be over 5,000 years old.

Much of the country's heritage, however, cannot be protected. This image shows damage to one of the old souks in Old Aleppo. The bazaar was hundreds of years old before the civil war reduced most of it to rubble.

This image is from the Aleppos bazaar in 2006. It isn't the only market in the country to have been destroyed in the violence. But it is among the more significant such sites.

This isn’t big on my care-o-meter. These are people who do not give a damn about their so-called civilizations, their societies, their heritage. All they care about is enforcing their will upon anyone they perceive as different from them. In the current cycle, with some Arab nations potentially in possession of nuclear weapons, they could as part of their hellbound inside-out philosophy get all of us enmeshed in nuclear war. For them, everything new sucks, yet they’re OK using modern medicines and technologies in their neverending efforts to subjugate others....ultimately, for no particular purpose other than to enjoy slaves or whores so they can sit back and be the base insects they really are. How impressive. We don’t know them past these crass characterizations, and I for one, don’t want to. Who knows, maybe they really are happiest in a 7th century world largely comprised of rubble and an apparent lack of anything resembling any remnant of Western influence. Western influence includes peace and tolerance, and maybe that’s also among the items high on the list of stuff they hate. I just wish they would all go to hell and leave the rest of us alone.

So it’s really a matter of worrying about preserving US or preserving THEM. And the one I can’t really give a crap about is THEM. Because at the end of it all, we could be rubble just like their crappy little markets and mosques and bazaars.

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