I think that almost everyone in this site knows all the attrocties commited by the trash sub-humans of the bad called "Islamic State" (EI) ,that I prefer call it Daesh or better because its "official name" is an insult for all the good muslims, not only against man, women and children if not also against the archeological patrimony of Syria and Irak as the recent partially destroyed ancient city of Hatra whose destruction by this scum could be appreciated in the link of below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...&v=szU6Tj6vBKo
But fortunately still existed people in Syria and other countries trying to rescue the incalculable archeological patrimony of this wonderful country. Below you could read the histories of these authentic heroes and if you can afford it help them with funding or providing information of interest for their activities.
Here the Initiative "Heritage for Peace"
Official Page: http://www.heritageforpeace.org/
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/heritageforpeacesyria
Interview with one of the members of the Group: http://www.syriadeeply.org/articles/...rian-identity/
Presentation of the Official Page
We are an international group of heritage workers who believe that cultural heritage is a common ground for dialogue and a tool to build peace. Founded in February 2013, Heritage for Peace’s mission is to support heritage workers as they work to protect their collections, monuments and archaeological sites during armed conflict. We are an NGO based in Girona, Spain. Did you know that the oldest piece of annotated music known to history comes from Syria and dates back to well over 3,200 years
Hymn to Nikkal from 12th century BC (Ugarit)
If you want to know more click on the image above
Currently our efforts are focused on Syria, where the ongoing conflict has damaged numerous sites including World Heritage sites, threatened museums and libraries, and led to an epidemic of looting and illegal trade in artifacts. Yet, in our experience we also learned that many contending parties consider Syria’s heritage crucial for the country’s present and future. Heritage for Peace is impartial in the conflict; our programs are focused on supporting heritage professionals to deal with the unique challenges of protecting monuments, sites, museums and libraries during armed conflict, and on educating all military forces on their obligation to protect Syria’s precious cultural heritage under international law.
Syria’s Culture under Attack
Syria has been a crucible of human culture for hundreds of thousands of years. The country is home to some of the world’s first cities, as well as globally important sites from the Akkadian, Sumerian, Hittite, Assyrian, Persian, Greco-Roman, Ummayyad, Crusader, and Ottoman civilizations. This rich heritage, including six World Heritage sites, has been seriously damaged by the armed conflict that began in 2011.
The Entrance to the royal palace at Ugarit, where the Hurrian songs were found.
To give just a few examples: in Aleppo, the Ummayyad mosque came under artillery fire, destroying its ancient minarets; heavy fighting also damaged the Crusader castle Crac des Chevaliers. Museums at Apamea, Aleppo, and Raqqa experienced thefts, and the archaeological sites of Deir ez-Zor, Mari, Dura Europos, Halbia, Buseira, Tell Sheikh Hamad and Tell es-Sin have all been damaged by looters, who sell stolen artefacts to supply local and foreign dealers [1].
Rob me of my past and I will fight for the future (All is fair in Art & War)
Many Syrian heritage professionals, including the Directorate General of Antiquities and Museums (DGAM) have worked valiantly to safeguard monuments, museums, and sites, but the challenges of operating during wartime require special expertise, and they cannot operate in many areas of the country because of security reasons.
Syria’s Heritage Needs Your Help
Heritage for Peace believes that Syria’s shared cultural heritage can serve as an important ground for dialogue and peacemaking, even during the conflict. Our team of international volunteer experts are working to help educate and support Syrians of all religions and ethnicities who want to protect their cultural heritage.
Music from the distant past
To be successful, we need your help. As an impartial NGO we have the ability to reach all parties in the conflict – but because we are independent, we cannot rely on institutional funds. Please support our work by your donation or click at the link in the right column (In the Official Page.)
Help us to safeguard and protect what has not been destroyed yet like the oldest piece of written music: the Hurrian Hymn to Nikkal from 12th century BCE in the ancient cuneiform script Ugarit found in the early 1950s at a site of Ugarit, present day Ras Shamra. The Ugaritic script is also the oldest alphabet script ever found. It was the basis for the Phoenician alphabet, which in its turn was the foundation for the early Greek alphabet. Syria is truly part of world history and you can help us to try to safe that universal history.
Do you want to listen to the oldest annotated music in the world, the Hymn of Nikkal, than click on the picture below and hear the performance of the Syrian composer & pianist Malek Jandali from his album “Echoes from Ugarit” recorded with The Russian Philharmonic Orchestra.
الموسيقار مالك جندلي – أصداء من أوغاريت: أقدم تدوين موسيقي في العالم اكتشف في
أوغاريت – سوريا على لوحات مسمارية تعود إلى الألف الثاني قبل الميلاد
[1] All the references to the locations and archaeological sites (Wikipedia) show the sites in good condition before the crisis. Clearly that has changed drastically now.
And here some videos of the measures taken by the group and its collaborators in Syria:
Video 1: http://www.wsj.com/video/syrian-cura...3-8F9C2948A596
Video 2 (In German): http://www.ardmediathek.de/tv/Stilbr...castId=3914800
Here the measures taken by the "Syria's National Museum of Damascus"
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syria-race-sav...154104992.html
In Syria, race to save antiquities from looting, damage
Damascus (AFP) - Workers at Syria's National Museum of Damascus carefully wrap statues and place them in boxes to be transported to a safe place, hoping to save the priceless pieces from theft or destruction.
Since his 2012 appointment as head of antiquities in the midst of Syria's civil war, Maamoun Abdulkarim says just one thing has been on his mind -- avoiding a repeat of the kind of looting that ravaged Iraq's heritage after the 2003 invasion.
"The images of the looting of the museum in Baghdad and other Iraqi sites are always on my mind, and I told myself that everything must be done to avoid a repeat of that here," he told AFP.
Widespread illegal excavation and the destruction of artefacts and religious sites by jihadists from the Islamic State (IS) group have only added to the sense of urgency.
Before the Syrian conflict began in 2011, Abdulkarim was co-director of a French-Syrian mission working excavating the 700 so-called Dead Cities of northern Syria, which date back to Roman and Byzantine times.
Syria has been the home of many civilisations over the millennia, from the Canaanites to the Ottomans, and is rich in both artistic and architectural treasures.
Since his appointment, Abdulkarim and his colleagues have worked to protect Syria's heritage from a conflict that has killed more than 215,000 people.
So far, they have wrapped and stored some 300,000 items and thousands of manuscripts in secret locations protected from fires, shelling and floods.
The pieces come from 34 museums, including 80,000 items from Damascus alone.
- Escape from Deir Ezzor -
Perhaps the most dramatic rescue yet was from the eastern city of Deir Ezzor last August.
After Mosul in neighbouring Iraq fell to IS in June, and the destruction began there, a decision was taken to evacuate the 13,000 artefacts remaining in Deir Ezzor.
Large parts of the city were in IS hands, but the airport and some districts remained under government control.
Yaarub al-Abdullah, the former director of antiquities for Deir Ezzor, said: "I worked for a week with two colleagues to wrap everything. We put it into a truck that came under heavy machinegun fire.
"We put the boxes on a military plane among dead and injured soldiers. It was terrible, but we managed it," added Abdullah, who now heads the National Museum.
Back in Damascus, Abdulkarim followed the operation with trepidation.
"I didn't sleep for a week after I took the decision to evacuate the artefacts," he said.
"If the plane had crashed, I would have lost three friends and gone to prison for losing 13,000 items," he said, with a smile.
He said an estimated 99 percent of Syria's museum collections had been preserved, thanks to his 2,500 employees, including those in opposition-held areas.
"They feel that protecting our heritage is a question of honour, like defending the honour of their mothers," Abdulkarim said.
But their work has come with a price: around a dozen of them have been killed in the conflict, including five during the course of their work.
- 'Our shared history' -
Despite their best efforts, Abdulkarim fears thousands of artefacts have already been stolen across the country.
Even worse is the damage that has been done to 300 sites and 445 historic buildings.
In some cases the damage came in fighting. In others, it has come from illegal excavation, even with bulldozers, in places like Mari, Doura Europos, Apamee and Ajaja in the northeast, the Yarmuk valley in southern Daraa, and Hamam near Raqa in the north.
Ayham al-Fakhry, 39, fled his post as director of antiquities in Raqa in 2012, and laments the irreversible losses to Syria's rich heritage.
"Not only do you have the barbarity of the IS jihadists who destroy any representation of humans and Muslim mausoleums, but also the greed of mafia groups coming from Lebanon, Iraq and Turkey to buy pieces found by local residents," he said.
"They pay IS 20 percent of the estimated value and then the mafias take the objects to be sold in Europe or the Gulf," he said.
Despite international action to prevent smuggling antiquities from Syria, Abdulkarim and his colleagues say sanctions on Damascus have left them isolated.
"We felt like we had the plague," he said.
"Can there be an embargo on heritage? It belongs to the whole world."
Recently though, there have been signs of change, with invitations to Germany and France for directorate staff and an award in Venice for their work.
Abdulkarim urged the international community to rally around those in Syria trying to save their heritage.
"There must be a international mobilisation to save culture and civilisation. It's not just our responsibility, but a collective one," he said.
"It's our history; we all share it."
Photographies:
Damascus Museum employees wrap archaeological artifacts into boxes to protect them from being damaged (AFP Photo/Joseph Eid)
Archaeological sculptures are seen in the garden of the Damascus Museum in the Syrian capital (AFP Photo/Joseph Eid)
Damascus Museum employees wrap archaeological artifacts into boxes to be transported to a safe place, hoping to save the priceless pieces from theft or destruction (AFP Photo/Joseph Eid)
Some 300,000 items from 34 museums have already been wrapped and stored in secret locations to protect them (AFP Photo/Joseph Eid)
Cabinets lie empty inside the Damascus Museum after artefacts were removed for safekeeping (AFP Photo/Joseph Eid)
And here the initiative of "Project Mosul" of recreate the pieces destroyed with digital recreations based in photograps, archives, etc.
Source:http://techcrunch.com/2015/03/17/pro...royed-by-isis/
Project Mosul Aims To Resurrect The Artifacts Destroyed By ISIS
Posted Mar 17, 2015 by John Biggs (@johnbiggs)
In what could be one of the most interesting and important uses of 3D scanning to come along in a long while, the Initial Training Network for Digital Cultural Heritage is working to collect photographs of the destroyed statues that can be used to piece together 3D models of the destroyed artifacts. With enough visual data, the group should be able to recreate the objects to scale and undo, in some way, the damage wrought by ISIS at the Mosul Museum.
The plea is simple: “We are looking for volunteers to help virtually restore the Mosul Museum,” write the volunteers. “This includes finding photos, processing data, contributing to the website and generally helping out with organising the effort to identify the museum artefacts.” You can email them here.
The project is being organized by Matthew Vincent, Marinos Ioannides, and Chance M. Coughenour and is looking for folks to help with 3D modeling and even website maintenance. They write:
The video circulated around the 26th of February, 2015 shows the horrific destruction of the Mosul Museum by ISIS Fighters. This is not the first time this museum has suffered during times of conflict, but the destruction is nearly absolute, and this time we can respond through the application of digital technologies to cultural heritage.We assume that much of the museum’s contents were looted, and anything small enough to be easily removed will be appearing soon on the antiquities market. Anything too large to remove for sale, appears to have met a violent end at the hand of ISIS extremists. In both cases, it is possible to virtually recreate the lost items through the application of photogrammetry and crowdsourcing. Given enough photographs, digital or scans of analogues, it is possible to reconstruct the artefacts and create digital surrogates of those artefacts. This provides two immediate benefits: helping to identify looted items and recreating destroyed items.We propose to coordinate a volunteer effort of experts and amateurs in the crowdsourcing of the necessary digital imagery and the creation of digital surrogates for the artefacts in the museum. We would like to work with the local management of the Mosul Museum as much as possible, as well as with experts familiar with the collection and material. All data generated from this project will be freely available to the public.
This use of 3D printing, scanning, and digital archeology is actually quite stirring: it can resurrect history that has been destroyed by ignorance in ways unheard of even a few years ago. I’ve reached out to the team and hopefully they can share some of the work over the next few months – like this recreation of the Lion of Mosul, nearly ready for its 3D printed debut.
And here an example of their work:
"The Lion of Mosul"
Edit: Already a thread about this. Merged. - Aikanár