Countering

Archaeological Site Looting in Syria and Iraq
may be intended to recover coin hordes and rare jewelry caches, which will destroy
fragile textile fragments that may not have as ready a market.
Geospatial analysis of satellite imagery shows that the site of Dura-Europos has
been subjected to extremely heavy looting following the outset of Syria’s civil war
(AAAS 2014b). The area inside the ancient city wall was so badly disrupted by April
2014 that counting individual looting pits was not possible; pits overlapped to the extent
that one could not be distinguished from another. Rather than assessing the pits in
aggregate number, an assessment by the AAAS aimed to identify what areas had not been
disrupted by looting – an approximate estimate given that areas ‘free’ of damage might
be undermined by lateral tunnels or other destructive acts not otherwise visible from
satellite imagery. The walled portion of Dura-Europos has been previously calculated to
measure 50 hectares, and an area of 38 hectares has been thoroughly impacted by site
looting. Some 76% of the walled-city is now disrupted by recent looting activity. Four
vehicles were also observed inside the site in imagery from April 2014, suggesting that
looting was ongoing at that time. Outside the city wall, satellite imagery analysis showed
the density of looting to be lower but also severe. Based upon observed pit densities,
the extent of the affected area, and counts of individual pits on the city’s outskirts, the
AAAS (2014b) estimated the looting area beyond the city walls contain approximately
3,750 individual looting pits. At least some of the looting outside the city walls predated
the outbreak of the Syrian civil war (Casana 2015), but the majority of the pits show
recent earth disturbance. The combined damage inside and outside the wall illustrates
the nearly complete loss of this important ancient site.
Conclusion
Archaeological sites across Syria and Iraq have suffered from substantial looting in
recent years, and many of the sites that comprise the famed ‘cradle of civilization’ are
at significant risk. The scientific loss from looting is staggering, and there is increasing
evidence that links the profit from this plunder to violence and criminal activity.
Although the worst of the damage seems to occur around the time of active conflict,
ongoing political instability places sites at continued risk for damage. Given the current
realities on the ground in Syria and Iraq, it is nearly impossible to ground truth damage
to archaeological sites in this region. High-resolution satellite imagery has been the
primary research methodology employed to assess the extent of site looting. It remains
to be seen what is left of these sites; test excavations have suggested that site pillage may
not inevitably mean total site loss (Hanson 2012). Only careful future survey will be
able to identify precisely how much has been lost. Even in the midst of conflict, there
is some hope. There have been emergency on-the-ground interventions to protect key
heritage sites in Syria, although these have been very difficult to undertake (Al Quntar et
al. 2015). One can only hope political stability will return soon to the conflict areas and
archaeological research with our Syrian and Iraqi colleagues can resume.
References
Adams, R. McC., and Nissen, H. 1972. The Uruk Countryside: The Natural Setting of
Urban Societies (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).
Adams, R. McC. 2008. ‘An Interdisciplinary Overview of a Mesopotamian City and its
Hinterlands’. In Cuneiform Digital Journal 1, 25 March 2008. URL: < http://www.cdli.
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