Northern Syria – North-Press Agency
Rostum Abdo
The north and eastern regions of Syria, especially the areas between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers are distinguished by the abundance of hills and archaeological sites, which may be no less important and abundant than the oil and gas which is found there, as the Italian researcher Paolo Emilio Pecorella, who lost his life during excavations on the site of Tal Pirei, which is located on the left bank of Jaqjaq river near Qamishli, pointed out to this point when he said: "The hills and ruins of al-Jazira region are richer than its oil.”
The number of hills and archaeological sites in this geographical area that includes Hasakah, Raqqa, the eastern countryside of Aleppo, and the northern part of Deir ez-Zor is estimated about 1,750 hills and archaeological sites, i.e. equivalent to 1,750 museums, if we consider that every hill or site constitutes a museum project like Tal-Halaf, which formed a museum abroad by itself, specifically in Germany, which included more than 600 artifacts, including huge statues that had been extracted from the site of Tal-Halaf in Sere-Kaniye (Ras al-Ain), and was transferred into Berlin after the World War I, in the era of the German diplomat and prospector Max Von Oppenheim.
In these sites and hills which are spread around the banks of rivers and valleys, various civilizations, kingdoms and peoples from the Neolithic period to the late Islamic eras were settled, and due to the importance of this region, the sites of Jarablus (Carchemish) and then Tal Halaf (Guzana) which are located within this geography, were the first Syrian sites that witnessed regular excavations.
The number of sites, where different missions (foreign, Syrian or joint) worked in the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers since the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, exceeded a hundred archaeological sites, and about 30 archaeological missions were working in until 2010-2011.
During the Syrian crisis, regular excavations in these sites were stopped, as in other sites in Syria, and most of these missions left the Syrian territories. With the absence of state authority and control over this geographical spot, many of these sites became vulnerable to encroachments and abuses, especially after they fell into the hands of armed radical Islamist groups, such as (Jabhat al-Nusra, Ahrar al-Sham, and the Islamic State ISIS), that unleashed civilians and military personnel to search for artifacts and extract them illegally, in order to sell them. Thereby, investing the resulting funds to support their military groups and to provide them with weapons and ordnance in addition to the salaries paid to their militants and jihadists.
There are still no accurate statistics regarding the number of archaeological sites that have been exposed to encroachments and abuses in this geographical area, but it is expected that the number is very large and may exceed 400 hills and sites, not to mention that the size and type of damage is varied from a site to the other or from one region to another, and these damages ranged among (building violations – secret excavation – soil deportation – bulldozing – military fortifications).
This cultural wealth represented by the hills and the priceless archaeological sites, which we rarely find in any other spot outside the Fertile Crescent Region was and still the focus of attention of many universities, missions, scientific and professional institutions that worked in Syria, or which were aspiring to come for work, this wealth we find, is one of the victims of the ongoing conflict in Syria, and it is undoubtedly:
1- A loss for the Syrians, because those hills and sites have long been part of their history, culture and identity.
2- A loss for universities and scientific, cultural, local and international institutions that were seeking to work in these hills and sites in order to study them and reveal their history and secrets.
3- A loss for the Syrian museums, which will miss thousands of artifacts that were looted from these sites, perhaps irreversibly, and which will often find a place in the international museums.
*Rostum Abdo, Academic and researcher.
All opinions expressed are of the author's.