The Syrian conflict was destroying Palmyra well before the Islamic State showed up

In Syria's ancient city of Palmyra, the Islamic State is finishing a job that four years of violent conflict got started.

The Islamic State has become infamous for destroying historical artifacts in land it controls, from the Mosul Museum in northern Iraq to the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud. When IS militants overran Syria's ancient city of Palmyra in May, it seemed that another of the world's great cultural treasures would be lost. Those fears were confirmed in late August when observers reported that the Islamic State had used explosives to blow up part of the 2,000-year-old Temple of Baalshamin, one of the most important sites in Palmyra. The news came just days after the Islamic State executed Khalid al-Asaad, 83, who had served as Palmyra's chief of antiquities for half a century. On Oct. 5, locals and activists told reporters that IS fighters have destroyed another monument in the city: the Arch of Triumph. 

But there’s one thing many reports neglect to mention about Palmyra: The four-year-long Syrian conflict has been quietly destroying it since even before the Islamic State came on the scene.

A picture taken on March 14, 2014 shows damage caused by shelling on a wall in Syria's ancient oasis city of Palmyra.

In April 2013, Reuters reported that Palmyara’s ruins were being damaged in fighting between rebels and forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. According to witnesses, rebels were moving in and around the archeological sites and Assad’s army fired at them with rockets, mortars, and artillery shells. The Syrian Ministry of Culture’s director of antiquities and museums also admitted to Reuters that “the Syrian army is in some areas in the archeological site and we oppose this.”

UNESCO, too, has been warning about damage to Palmyra, a world heritage site, for two years or more. The ancient city, which the UN's cultural organization calls an “oasis in the Syrian desert” that contains the “monumental ruins of a great city that was one of the most important cultural centers of the ancient world,” has been officially listed as “in danger” since 2013. 

In a January 2014 world heritage progress report to UNESCO, the Syrian Ministry of Culture detailed the effects of conflict in and around the site, which included, according to UNESCO’s summary:

• Holes from shells and bullets in the southern and eastern walls of the Temple, and in the wall of the wood warehouse adjacent to the guesthouse;
• The collapse of two columns of the southern portico of the Temple;
• Bullet and shelling traces on the southern, western and northern walls of the Temple, and the column in the north-eastern corner of the portico of the fence of the Temple;
• Traces of burning on the southern and eastern walls, on the lintel of the eastern portico, and the southern window.

And that’s according to the Syrian government itself. UNESCO hasn’t been able to visit the site since March 2011. But based on other sources, including satellite imagery, UNESCO says the government continued to use the site as a base of military operations until it was captured by the Islamic State in May.

A picture taken on March 14, 2014 shows carvings in the temple of Baal at Syria's ancient city of Palmyra.

It wasn’t just shelling and military vehicles doing damage. The conflict has created ideal conditions for looting artifacts and made it impossible to do the kind of regular maintenance that ancient sites like Palmyra need.

In a video statement released in May, UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova said she was “extremely worried” about the developments in Palmyra, referring to the pillaging of Mosul and Nimrud. But she also noted that she’d previously requested that the Syrian military cease operations there. “Unfortunately, we have seen this last two years some damages made. Palmyra was converted into a military camp. We have seen columns fallen and damage also to the palm groves that are adjacent to the area.”

There’s no denying that IS militants take particular delight in destroying cultural symbols, but remember this: As the Islamic State levels parts of Palmyra and erases another piece of human history, they’re just finishing what Assad, other rebel groups, and four years of conflict have started.

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