Allison E. Cuneo

The armed conflict that began in Syria in 2011 rapidly precipitated a massive humanitarian catastrophe. In 2014 the crisis escalated and became regional in scope with the take-over of Mosul by ISIS, followed by the group’s rapid territorial gains in northern Iraq and Syria. In Syria alone, combat has reached every region, with nearly a third of the population internally displaced and more than four million refugees. Syrians and Iraqis are struggling with an erosion of identity and a lack of control over their lives, and these feelings are further compounded by the destruction of their cultural heritage as a result of the ongoing conflict. Thousands of cultural properties have been affected by combat- related incidents, theft, and intentional destruction. This paper examines the conflict’s impact on cultural property by discussing the activities and outcomes of the Cultural Heritage Initiatives (CHI) project, supported in part by the award of a cooperative agreement between the U.S. Department of State and the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR). ASOR CHI documents the impact of the war on cultural heritage, implements stabilization projects now, and plans more comprehensive preservation actions for the future. Ultimately CHI seeks to develop best practices for cultural property protection.

ASOR CHI activities include gathering and archiving evidence of cultural property crimes and information about the condition of cultural heritage from online media, satellite imagery, and in-country sources. Working collaboratively with other groups and agencies, ASOR CHI has compiled lists of heritage resources to create an inventory and map of heritage assets in both countries. This information is used to complete on-site and remote condition assessments to analyze patterns of damage and assess preservation needs. These assessments have been crucial for prioritizing on-the- ground activities for completed and ongoing stabilization efforts.

This overview of the CHI program demonstrates the effectiveness of responses that engage local stakeholders and underscores the challenges of protecting cultural heritage during modern armed conflicts that often involve complex and shifting arrays of conventional forces, non-state actor, proxy forces, and terrorist organizations.

The region of Palmyra and modern Tadmor was taken from ISIL militants by a coalition of Syrian, Russian, and Iranian military forces on March 24, 2016. This report will provide a summary of what is known to have taken place in the area since September 2015, including a synopsis of the humanitarian and military situation since then and the effects the conflict has had on the cultural heritage of ancient and modern Palmyra. This report is a preliminary analysis of a rapidly developing event, and initial findings may be subject to change as further information is revealed.

Since its capture by ISIL militants in May 2015, the region around the ancient city of Palmyra (modern Tadmor) has been in the midst of a humanitarian crisis, which has escalated dramatically in recent weeks. This report will provide a summary of the current situation in Palmyra and the effects of the conflict on its people and cultural heritage. Atrocities include attacks on civilians and mass abductions. Intentional damage to the cultural materials of the local populations is widespread, including the destruction of Islamic and Christian religious sites, as well as severe damage to the architectural remains within the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Palmyra. Confirmed damage at this archaeological site includes the destruction of the Baalshamin Temple, the Temple of Bel, and at least seven tower tombs within the Valley of the Tombs.

Heritage just is one of the many casualties of the Arab Spring.  The looting of the Egypt Museum in Cairo and the bombing of Crac des Chevaliers in Syria are some of the most representative examples of strategic and calculated violence against cultural sites throughout the conflict.  Simultaneously, the illicit trade of artifacts has become an emerging market in the Arab region.  These trends are not unique to the Arab Spring or the Middle East and North Africa regions, and in fact represent a common and growing tactic in modern armed conflict.  However, the motivation for and extent of abuse and exploitation of cultural heritage during this time has varied widely.  Who is targeting heritage, and for what purpose?  Why does this tactic feature prominently in certain Arab states, but not others?  What types of cultural property are being mistreated or exploited and to what extent?    Most importantly, how does the treatment of cultural heritage influence local and international sociopolitical relationships?  This paper will summarize the destruction of cultural property during the Arab Spring, highlighting the varied treatment of heritage among the Arab states while also contextualizing this analysis within broader global trends and past conflicts.

Foreign trade within the Mediterranean during Bronze Age, particularly the interaction between the Aegean and the rest of the Eastern Mediterranean, has been subject to a great deal of attention from scholars since the archaeological discovery of the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations.  However, very little discussion has been centered on how the elites of these societies, particularly the on the Greek Mainland, employed foreign goods as a tool to demonstrate and legitimize its political superiority over the general population.  Those in control of Mycenaean palatial administrations derived their authority in a variety of ways, one of which included restricting access to imported materials.  This political and economic power was exhibited through the exclusive consumption and public display of foreign luxury objects.  In this way, exotica in Mycenaean society can be interpreted at the tangible manifestation of palatial wealth capital and foreign political relationships.  The transition from the Middle Bronze Age to the Late Bronze Age in Mainland Greece is marked by a sudden increase in the amount of raw material and manufactured goods at large political centers.  The conspicuous consumption of exotic luxury objects from the Eastern Mediterranean was the one of the main motivations driving the centralization of agriculturally based industries within the palace, the products of which were used as collateral for gift exchange among foreign elites.  While many argue that royal gift exchange was the basis of much foreign exchange within the Mediterranean during the Bronze Age, much of the trade appears to take place outside the political realm in both the state and private economic sectors.  This paper will attempt to explain why the demand for exotica rose in the Mycenaean society during the transition from the Middle to Late Bronze Age and how competition among the lower echelons of palatial elite served as the primary driver of exotic consumption during this period.

The embarrassment caused by the looting of the Iraq Museum shamed the United States into ratifying the 1954 Hague Convention. Controversy has swirled around the idea of utilizing “embedded” archaeologists during armed conflict to uphold the Convention. What does it mean to be “embedded," or has this loaded term been misappropriated? Are we as archaeologists professionally obliged to assist the military in order to protect heritage during wartime, or are we ethically compelled to avoid any collaboration with armed forces? This paper will discuss the ever-changing relationship between archaeologists and the military as well as its potential ethical implications.

From the Dickinson Colege "Compass": A presentation and discussion of the threat to antiquities and material culture during times of political upheaval. We will focus not only on the current situation at museums and archaeological sites in Egypt, but also the issues that arose in Iraq and in previous wars. The presentation, given by a recent Dickinson graduate, Allison Cuneo '07, will be followed by a discussion. Hosted by Chimaera Club and Dickinson's Classics and Archaeology Club.

On September 25, 2008 the United States Senate voted to give its advice and consent to the ratification of the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. Though it was accepted with a number of "understandings," the United States will now be expected "to plan or establish in peace-time, within their armed forces, services or specialist personnel whose purpose will be to secure respect for cultural property and to co-operate with the civilian authorities responsible for safeguarding it" as stipulated in Article 7 of the Hague Convention. This raises a number of questions with regard to who should be charged with carrying out cultural heritage policy and how. What are the ethical implications of embedding cultural heritage experts within the United States' armed forces? Would their role be like that of an anthropologist who is affiliated with the Human Terrain System (HTS)? Will the fields of cultural heritage management and archaeology face the same ethical dilemmas in which the field of anthropology is currently embroiled? This paper will explore the ethical implications of archaeologists and cultural heritage managers working within the armed forces as the U.S. military develops new policies and procedures to safeguard and protect cultural heritage in order to implement the 1954 Hague Convention.

The Silk Road was a main artery of foreign exchange, merging the cultural worlds of the East and West between approximately 200 BCE to 1614 CE, enabling the movement of not only commodities, but also religion, artistic traditions, knowledge, and peoples. The product of this cultural transference is embodied in the sites and monuments that dot the landscape, as well as in the diversity of ethnicities that inhabit Eurasia. Because of its historical and cultural importance in shaping the people and land of this region, UNESCO has sought to preserve and protect not only the sites and monuments that were a product of Silk Road cultural and economic exchange, but also the cultural landscape itself under the intangible heading of a cultural route. In the Report on the Expert Meeting on Routes as a Part of our Cultural Heritage, a number of initiatives were undertaken by UNESCO to promote the concept of cultural routes as a form of world heritage, particularly the overland portion of the Silk Road. During this meeting the World Heritage Center clarified its central concept of 'outstanding universal value' to better fit the classification of a cultural route, the nature of which is determined by its spatial, temporal, and cultural characteristics as well as its overall role or purpose. At face value the Silk Road appears to fit well within UNESCO's concept of a heritage route due to its expansive nature, its impact on the exchange and transmission of art, religion, academic knowledge, and technology, and its important economic role for nearly two millennia. However, UNESCO faces a number of internal legislative challenges that may impede the nomination process, particularly the difficulty of defining and protecting a cultural heritage route. Likewise, the state parties associated with the Silk Road have their political and economic motivations for nominating its heritage sites for inscription on the World Heritage List, but among those stakeholders the former Soviet Central Asian states and China have invested the most time and resources. For Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Afghanistan the hope is to redefine ethnic identities and gain economic independence. For China, defining the Silk Road landscape is inherently tied to legitimizing Marxist political ideology and defining its national ethnic identity. Will UNESCO be able transcend these national agendas and its own confusing criteria to negotiate the protection of the Silk Road landscape? Is China's cultural heritage management policy being used to promote a unified Chinese national identity to the exclusion of ethnic minorities? Will Central Asia be able to overcome internal political conflict and bureaucratic corruption to protect the Silk Road cultural landscape and develop it for tourism? This paper will explore the challenges that UNESCO faces in inscribing the Silk Road to the World Heritage List as well as the varying ways in which the memory of the Silk Road is interpreted and subsequently manipulated to further both political and economic agendas in Central Asia and China