Syria’s Raqqa Museum reserved in former curator’s memory
Former curator of Raqqa Museum – North Press
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Muhammad Izzo, former curator of ArchaeologicalRaqqa Museum, confirms that archaeological work is not easy due to little knowledge of culture in the East where the oriental man has a “shallow” culture of artifacts with little interest and respect.
In the interview with North Press Izzo wishes that “the oriental person knows these discovered artifacts and that are still buried under soil represent the national history, being the common factor among all people in Syria.”
Muhammad Izzo got a master’s degree of Arts in History and Archaeology in 1979 from Charles University in in the Czech after he returned to Raqqa where he was hired in the Department of Antiquities and Museums in Raqqa for a year.
Later on, Izzo contracted with King Saud University in Saudi Arabia for a long time.
He said,
“I returned to Syria, and I became the curator of Raqqa Museum until 2003.”
Before the outbreak of war in Syria, the Raqqa Museum contained more than 7.000 artifacts, in addition to more than 3.000 artifacts found in the sites including hill of Hercules, Qalaat Jabaar, and the archaeological hills, according to Izzo.
Raqqa contains 700 archaeological sites distributed inside and outside the city.
The historical legacy of Raqqa is found in many international museums, including the Louvre Museum in Paris, which contains entire halls in the name of Raqqa.
Izzo added,
“unfortunately and out of sudden, invaders entered Raqqa, and desecrated it under many titles, and under the cover of religion to occupy and destroy it.”
“Religions are innocent of them and their actions,” he said with a sigh.
In 2013, Syrian opposition factions took controlled of Raqqa and more than 3.000 rare artifacts were transferred to Central Bank of Syria to protect them, but the opposition factions stole the bank and its contents.
The former curator said “Many factions came and occupied Raqqa under many titles, spreading corruption and causing the Raqqa Museum and other archeological sites to suffer a lot of their evil deeds.”
The opposition factions, at the time, recruited archeological objects traders to drill and sell the artifacts, according to Izzo, who added that a group of the surrounding countries, especially Turkey, involved in the archaeological drilling and smuggling from Raqqa Museum.
Turkey was the support and facilitator for all archaeological thefts, then come Lebanon and Iraq, according to Izzo.
He returned in his memory to the year 2013, saying, “I remember one day when I came to the Raqqa Museum and we found a person with beard guarding it, sitting on his chair with a pistol in his hand.”
He added, “I asked him is it possible to visit the museum.”
“The guarder answered inquiringly ‘Who are you?’ and I introduced myself, but he said in a high tone and arrogance ‘go from here, you are an apostate.”
He narrated another incident occurred in Tabqa,
“I found a stall on the sidewalk containing papers, pens, pistols, bombs and archeological artifacts, and since I used to be the curator of the Raqqa Museum, I discovered that these pieces were from the museum because there were numbers on them that I myself wrote.”
As Izzo was walking through the museum, he came across an archaeological sarcophagus that has a nice story.
He came to narrate the story, saying, “When the armed groups entered, took over and looted the museum, a good group of artifacts was hidden in the bottom of the coffin, and huge pottery fragments were placed on top of it.”
So that, the thieves found the coffin too heavy and the pottery shards were of no value, “so they left it,” according to him.
The museum includes four mosaics, two of which were discovered at an archaeological site called “Halawa” located on the eastern bank of the Euphrates Dam Lake in the 21st century.
Despite bombing, distortion of archeological artifact, and practices of the opposition factions against the artifacts, these mosaics were not lost their brilliance or value, Izzo noted.
Izzo said, “This painting was colored in black, almost like the other one, by the Islamic State Organization (ISIS), and we don’t know what the intent of this action.”
He added, “This group [ISIS] wanted to destroy everything referred to an enlightened and open mind.”
So far, no party has documented the extent of theft of the artifacts in Raqqa that opposition and ISIS carried out.
After the defeat of ISIS in 2017, the remaining artifacts were handed over to Raqqa’s Civil Council of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES. (
Izzo clings to the land of his city, and works to protect the national heritage, saying
“for me and for all other communities that exist in this city”.
He stressed, “The nation’s memory is always proportionate to its tangible and intangible heritage. Therefore, we all and the young people must guard the archaeological sites and archaeological heritage.”
Izzo said “Since every national community in this country has its own heritage which is the main torch and luminous lamp for all the peoples in this region.”