Drew Walton

Museum Ethics

On Palmyra and Preventing Cultural Destruction

 1

On May 21, 2015 militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (henceforth abbreviated

as ISIS) formally entered the ruins of the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra. This marked the apex of

an offensive by the Islamic State against the government forces of the Alawite regime under

President Bashar al-Assad. The ruins of Palmyra, being a part of the larger district of Tadmur,

was not the direct objective of the ISIS jihadists. Palmyra however quickly became renowned by

the international community as an example of what the Islamic State was capable of doing to a

city they captured. The ancient Roman amphitheater was almost immediately used as makeshift

execution stage for those of the citys inhabitants they considered heretical. It is an especially

sad irony that this particular feature of Palmyra still stands unharmed after the city was retaken

by government forces a year later on March 27, 20161.

What befell Palmyra was nothing short of an ethical calamity; governments,

multinational organizations, and academics utterly failed to safeguard a cultural crosswords of

Roman and Persian heritage from destruction. The ruins of Palmyra have been considered a

World Heritage site by the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization

(UNESCO) since 1980 and the shock and awe felt by academics in witnessing such devastation

by modern warfare has caused a dramatic reevaluation by scholars of their ethical and moral

obligations to historical artifacts in the wake of this new form of terrorism in the twenty-first

century. Yet the fall of Palmyra was not a sudden event in the five year long conflict of the

Syrian Civil War, more could have been done to ensure the survival of what is now lost. This

paper seeks to be both an analysis of what has occurred and a contemplation on what can

ethically be done in response. This will be a threefold process: the first step being in considering

1 Hwaida Saad and Kareem Fahim, "Syrian Army Claims It Fully Recaptured Historic Palmyra
From ISIS," New York Times, (March 28, 2016)
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/28/world/middleeast/syria-palmyra.html (accessed
November 16, 2016).
 2

how sites like Palmyra can be protected from harm in warzones like Syria. The second step will

evaluate how collection evacuations and warzone storage measures can save objects within these

sites. Finally, it will examine whether cultural heritage lost should be replicated through

technologies like 3D Printing.

Cultural destruction has only recently been classified as a war crime on the international level

and is now fully prosecutable in legal courts. On September 29, 2016 the International Criminal

Court based out of The Hague, The Netherlands sentenced Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi, a member

of a terrorist cell linked to Al-Qaeda, to nine years in prison for his role in organizing the

destruction of Muslim shrines in Timbuktu, Mali.2 In the backdrop of the Islamic States actions

in Syria and Iraq this ruling is a significant matter to consider. How much will this affect the

prosecution of the militants who destroyed Palmyra? The current opinion of the two authors of

the recent New York Times article that reported this story rather bluntly say no.3 This is partly

bureaucratic in nature, as the International Criminal Courts jurisdiction is limited by two major

factors: The crimes were committed by a State Party national, or in the territory of a State Party,

or in a State that has accepted the jurisdiction of the Court; or the crimes were referred to the

ICC Prosecutor by the United Nations Security Council pursuant to a resolution adopted under

chapter VII of the UN charter.4

2 Russell Goldman and Marlise Simons, Why the Terrorist Who Destroyed Palmyra
Wont Face Justice, The New York Times, (September 29, 2016)
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/30/world/africa/icc-hague-court-antiquties.html
(accessed November 16, 2016).

3 Ibid.

4 International Criminal Court, How The Court Works, International Criminal Court.
The Hague, The Netherlands, https://www.icc-cpi.int/about/how-the-court-
works/Pages/default.aspx#legalProcess (accessed November 16, 2016)
 3

Another reason is particularly political in nature. For the International Criminal Court to

carry out justice against the ISIS militants that committed cultural destruction on the ruins of

Palmyra, the ICC would have to paradoxically recognize ISIS self-proclaimed caliphate and its

caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as a legitimate state rather than a terrorist organization. Such an

action would send shockwaves throughout the Muslim world, which has not known a true

caliphate since the Ottoman Empire a century ago. Thus the ICC, by unintentional design, is

handicapping itself in its ability to prosecute to crimes of this nature. It is ultimately a reactive

institution rather than a proactive institution.

Before delving into the argument of ethically preventing cultural destruction, it is important to

recognize that people died doing just that with Palmyra. To the intellectual community this

human loss was felt most tragically with Khaled al-Asaad, the eighty-three year old director of

antiquities for the ancient Palmyra site. Ethically, a man in his position was faced with two

choices during the initial onslaught: save himself or save the millennia old works and artifacts

that he cared for? Rather than flee and abandon his lifes work of forty years to the advancing

ISIS force, al-Assad stayed and helped evacuate what little they could from Palmyras museum.

His was a heroic sacrifice as he was promptly beheaded and hanged by ISIS once they conquered

the city. Nassar Rabbat in his article They Shoot Historians, Dont They? is quick to celebrate

al-Assads intellectual career as a historian. He was well known in Syria before the civil war for

his large body of work on the Palmyra ruins along with his experience in Roman antiquities.5

Emphasized in all of this was al-Assads Islamic faith which was very much part of his

identity as well. The ISIS militants who executed him also knew both of these aspects of his

character. Alongside his full name, al-Assad was labeled by his executioners as an al-murtadd

5 Nassar Rabbat, "They Shoot Historians, Don't They? Nassar Rabbat on ISIS and
Palmyra," Artforum International 54, no. 3 (2015): 101.
 4

which roughly translate into apostate. Rabbit is quick to stress that such a label goes beyond non-

Muslim infidels who are wholly without Islam bur rather that al-Assad betrayed his Islamic

faith by his lifes work of studying Roman antiquities. As he elaborates, The conceptual

distinction will become clearer if we consider the semantic origin of murtadd, which derives

from the verb irtadd, "to relapse," or "to revert from." The underlying notion here is that once a

person arrives at Islam, the final and true religion--even if only by accident of birth--he or she

will have no right to revert to faiths deemed lesser in the hierarchy of creeds as viewed from an

Islamic historical perspective.6 Al-Assads example is given here to stress the empirical need of

museums and similar higher institutions to fully develop, and if need be, implement contingency

plans meant to safeguard their collections without sacrificing their employees and volunteers to

the twisted ideologies that cause cultural destruction. At the heart of this paper is for museums to

better tackle the ethical issues of preventing cultural destruction without forcing individuals like

al-Assad to go well beyond the call of duty.

Palmyras infrastructure was heavily damaged by airstrikes and missiles strikes from the

Syrian government and Russian Air Force but the brunt of the destruction came from the

occupying ISIS forces. Besides demolishing the Arch of Triumph, The shrine of Baal Shamin.

The Temple of Bel, and the famed Lion God statue at the entrance of the Palmyra Archaeological

Museum; ISIS militants booby-trapped the ruins with mines as they retreated from the city in the

face of the advancing Syrian government forces7. This one last act of spite from the Islamist

terrorists led to a drastic but understated event in western media. Russian explosive specialists

6 Ibid.

7 Tamer Osman and translated by Pascale el-Khoury, UNESCO steps in to protect

what's left of Syria's Palmyra, (May 16, 2016), http://www.al-
monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/05/syria-palmyra-archaeological-heritage-sites-
destroyed-fight.html (accessed November 28, 2016).
 5

were brought in soon after Palmyras recapture and they soon went about de-mining the ancient

romans ruins.8 In the immediate aftermath of securing the site, Russia sent a high class orchestra

conducted by the world famous Valery Gergiev to play at the very Roman amphitheater ISIS

used as an execution platform. Such an act by Russia was at least partially inspired for public

relations. As the New York Times articles points out, The Russians were so eager to make that

point that they flew a group of reporters from Moscow to Syria and then bused them to Palmyra

to see the performance. The production, attended by a heavily guarded V.I.P. guest list, was

broadcast live on Russian state television.9 President Vladimir Putins ultimate reasons for this

grand stunt can be benevolent or pessimistic, however in either scenario it shows that Russia, as

a state, is taking direct action in helping to preserve a cultural legacy of western civilization.

While Russias actions were met with skepticism in the West, some consideration needs to be

taken in how states and multinational organizations can emulate Russia in protecting important

cultural sites and institutions in warzones.

One such answer in addressing this ethical issue is already in play. UNESCO has stepped

in following Russias self-celebration and assumed responsibility over the ruins. Led by Mechtild

Rossler the director of UNESCOs World Heritage Center and escorted by UN security forces,

their first order of business was to take stock of what was destroyed by ISIS during its

occupation of the Palmyra ruins. Unsurprisingly, the largest features of the ruins such as

Palmyras many sarcophagi and statues were the most damaged as they were intentionally

8 Maria Tsvetkova and Denis Dyokim. Syria's ancient Palmyra has been demined:
Russian military, Reuters, (April 21, 2016) http://www.reuters.com/article/us-
mideast-syria-crisis-palmyra-demining-idUSKCN0XI253 (November 28, 2016).

9 Andrew Kramer and Andrew Higgins, In Syria, Russia Plays Bach Where ISIS
Executed 25, The New York Times. (May 5, 2016)
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/06/world/middleeast/syria-russia-palmyra-isis-
classical-music.html (accessed November 17, 2016).
 6

defaced or outright demolished by the militants.10 The technical rapid assessment mission

determined that despite the loss of significant and iconic cultural works, the archeological site of

Palmyra still retained its cultural integrity and historical authenticity. Irina Bokova, the Director-

General of UNESCO very much confirmed the importance of this assessment by saying,

Palmyra is a pillar of Syrian identity, and a source of dignity for all Syrians. UNESCO is

determined to ensure the safeguarding of this and other sites with all partners as part of broader

humanitarian and peace building operations.11

While the report claims that UNESCO is stanch in further protecting the ancient Roman

ruins. This is seemingly the best UNESCO can do as it can seemingly only send in experts to do

autopsies of sites like Palmyra after the fact. We know this because the Director-General was

near powerless in preventing Palmyras fall in the first place in 2015. Back then as the situation

became increasingly clear that the region of Tadmur would not hold out against the ISIS assault

she was quoted of saying, I appeal to all parties to protect Palmyra and make every effort to

prevent its destruction.12 Similar reports by UNESCO once again suggest, like the International

Criminal Court, UNESCO is only capable of reacting to cultural destruction rather than being

proactive in protecting cultural sites and institutions.

Is it ethically inappropriate for UNESCO to espouse ideals of safeguarding cultural

heritage sites like Palmyra but be bureaucratically unable to actively defend these locations?

UNESCOs own protocols suggest so as the very basis of which was signed in May 14, 1954 in

10 UNESCO, UNESCO experts take preliminary stock of destruction in World

Heritage site of Palmyra, (April 27, 2016), http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/1488
(December 2, 2016).

11 Ibid.

12 UNESCO, We must save Palmyra" says UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova,

(May 14, 2015), http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/1280 (accessed December 2, 2016).
 7

The Hague. The Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed

Conflict, otherwise known as The Hague Convention, adopted a treaty which presents official

procedures in addressing cases such as Palmyra. It covers moveable and unmovable objects

ranging from works of art, architectural monuments, historic or archeological sites, books,

manuscripts, collections, and nearly any and all items that hold historical, archeological, cultural,

and scientific relevance regardless of their origin or ownership.13

The one-hundred and fifteen countries that adopted this treaty are bound to take

precautions in the event of armed conflict in their own nations and against other nations in the

convention. There are seven recommended measures with the two most relevant being,

Adoption of peacetime safeguarding measures such as the preparation of inventories, the

planning of emergency measures for protection against fire or structural collapse, the preparation

for the removal of movable cultural property or the provision for adequate in situ protection of

such property, and the designation of competent authorities responsible for the safeguarding of

cultural property.14 as well as Consideration of the possibility of registering a limited number

of refuges, monumental centres and other immovable cultural property of very great importance

in the International Register of Cultural Property under Special Protection order to obtain special

protection for such property.15 These particular measures are evidence that even in the aftermath

of World War Two, with the looming dread of the Cold War in full swing, that there were the

beginnings of a consideration to proactively using peacekeeping forces to defend sites deemed

13UNESCO, Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of

Armed Conflict, http://www.unesco.org/new/en/culture/themes/armed-conflict-and-
heritage/1954-hague-convention-first-protocol/#c290511 (accessed December 2,
2016).

14 Ibid.

15 Ibid.
 8

worthy of protection on a level that would act above the hypothetical warfare between two

countries at hand.

This is again shown by UNESCO in their Second Protocol which compliments the

original Hague Convention and was fully ratified in March of 1999. This further extended what

then began to be known as enhanced protection on cultural heritage sites; thereby giving them

legal protection and authorization on the national level while also prohibiting their use for

military purposes.16 Yet again however, this process is mired in bureaucracy and enhanced

protection can only be granted to cultural heritage sites through special circumstances mainly as

the text indicates, Upon the outbreak of hostilities, a Party to the conflict may request, on an

emergency basis, enhanced protection of cultural property under its jurisdiction or control by

communicating this request to the Committee. The Committee shall transmit this request

immediately to all Parties to the conflict. In such cases the Committee will consider

representations from the Parties concerned on an expedited basis. The decision to grant

provisional enhanced protection shall be taken as soon as possible and, notwithstanding Article

26 [Rules of Procedure], by a majority of four-fifths of its members present and voting.

Provisional enhanced protection may be granted by the Committee pending the outcome of the

regular procedure for the granting of enhanced protection, provided that the provisions of Article

10 sub-paragraphs (a) and (c) are met.17

Both conventions show that while UNESCO has the framework to send enhanced

protection to sites like Palmyra, it did not do so despite the years long timespan the organization

16 UNESCO, Text of the 2nd Protocol,

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/culture/themes/armed-conflict-and-heritage/1999-
second-protocol-its-committee/text-of-the-2nd-protocol/ (December 2, 2016).

17 Ibid.
 9

had since in the onset of the Syrian Civil War. The likely reason why they did not is that no

request from the Assad regime was officially made to UNESCO before it was too late to for them

to act. Nonetheless, Palmyra has long been designated as a United Nations World Heritage site.

This fact makes the cultural destruction of Palmyra all the more embarrassing for UNESCO and

a drastic reevaluation if not a third convention needs to be considered to expand the jurisdiction

of enhanced protection to include sites like Palmyra among others that bare official designations

from UNESCO. In theory, such a convention would be appropriate in assisting, if not fully

thwarting, other ethical issues brought about in preventing cultural destruction. This third

convention would reflect the changing nature of modern warfare, where wars are fought on a

smaller yet deadlier scale, just as the last two conventions have. Enhanced protection could be

easily granted to designated UN World Heritage sites in any given country experiencing warfare

as a neutral presence.

Such considerations could very well be made in the near future, as the Safeguarding

Cultural Heritage conference recently began on December 2, 2016 and concluded the following

day. The conference had been organized by the United Arab Emirates and France along with

UNESCO in further establishing the precedent to protect cultural heritage sites during armed

conflict. The conference concluded with the adoption of the Abu Dhabi Declaration which

upholds UNESCOs global mandate for protecting cultural heritage but also outlines practical

and persistent means to do so while also creating a network of safe havens for endangered

cultural heritage. French President Hollande emphasized the impact Palmyra had stating, "Our

common goal is to get concrete commitments to protect the worlds cultural heritage in places

exposed to danger by extremism and barbarism, as is the case in Palmyra, Nimrod and Timbuktu.
 10

It comes to preserving the traces of the past in our cultures so that we can build the future,"18

While the Abu Dhabi Declaration has not introduced no immediate mandates regarding the

protection of sites like Palmyra, it has laid the groundwork for legally binding resolutions that

can be formally introduced following the conclusion of the Syrian Civil War as UNESCOs past

two conventions have been done in the aftermath of major armed conflicts.

While enhanced protection might be an excellent deterrent in protecting historic sites like

Palmyra, it is not a foolproof plan. If the sites location is a strategic objective for the advancing

army, then it came be reasonably assumed that the site will be captured eventually despite the

efforts of the enhanced protection. Theoretically from this point, the institution in charge of the

cultural site has two options. Surrendering to the advancing force or evacuating the site before it

can be taken over. Ethically speaking, the former of these two options is only valid if the

advancing force abides by the same code of ethics and platform established by UNESCO and

ratified by a large number of the worlds nations. Only in this circumstantial situation should the

institution allow themselves to be enveloped by the opposing force, as evacuating the site and

transporting what is movable is a far more dangerous ethical decision to make in a constantly

evolving warzone. That said, if the advancing faction is fighting a particular ideologically driven

war against the country that houses the site, as is seen by the likes of ISIS, then the institution

must assume that the collections they hold stewardship over as well as the very site itself is in

danger of being forever destroyed. The ethical decision then must be to either completely

abandon the site or to begin a full scale evacuation.

18Naser Al Wasmi, Safeguarding Cultural Heritage conference kicks off in Abu

Dhabi, The National UAE, (December 2, 2016)
http://www.thenational.ae/uae/heritage/safeguarding-cultural-heritage-conference-
kicks-off-in-abu-dhabi (accessed December 3, 2016).
 11

Modern day collection evacuations are not commonplace events for museums, especially

in warzones. The closest case studies one can find in any immediate comparison to the likes of

Palmyra involve emergencies involving fire. A journal article titled, Uncertainty and Risk

Analysis of Collection Evacuation Model of National Palace Museum provides a

comprehensive look into escape methods for collections using quantitative data analysis known

as the Monte-Carlo Simulation Method to recreate a fire in a single room exhibit in the National

Palace Museum located in Taiwan. The paper uses an alternative method for evacuation that

avoids the threat of bottlenecking the evacuation teams at the exit. As the authors state, To

evacuate collections of museum, the chief of museum usually uses the emergency plan to

maneuver personnel for the fire emergency. It is evidence that its performance needs real

maneuver, and such factors as performance, participation maneuver personnel, personnels

skilled degree, on-the-spot situation, and policymaker of the maneuver command dispatcher's

ability have apparent differences.19 The papers conclusions suggests that by using four teams of

manpower moving in less direct, but more controlled rectangular motions that the teams can

successfully evacuate the collections of a single exhibit room of 1247.6 meters in 600 seconds or

less, thereby saving the objects in immediate threat in a stunningly quick fashion.20 Beyond the

hard math and science of this analysis, can the specifics of this evacuation method be applied to

institutions facing the threat of warfare? That answer of course is dependent on how much

19 Y.T. Wu, C.P. Lin, C.H. Chang, K.C. Lai, Uncertainty and Risk Analysis of Collection
Evacuation Model of National Palace Museum, Procedia Engineering, Volume 14,
(2011), Pages 2567-2575,
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877705811014007 (accessed
December 3, 2016).

20 Ibid.
 12

personnel is available at the time to the institution though based on the situation on hand this

method of collection evacuation would be very adaptable.

Official guidelines from museums on emergency procedures rarely directly address the

possibility of warfare, but The International Council of Museums Handbook of Emergency

Procedures does just that. ICOM specifically addresses how museums can prepare for the threat

of missile and rocket attacks. ICOMs clauses instruct that an institution strive to include: An

up-to-date documentation of all of the exhibits, an organization, regulations, and the division of

responsibilities, preparation of a safe place for the exhibits, improvements of the museums

defense, prevention of glass scattering as a result of the shock wave, store museum catalogues

and the documentations in a safe place outside the museum, any exhibits that are not easily ready

for transfer due to either weight or size must be protected in situ, prepare a list of guard

companies, have signed contracts so that these will react in the time of need, prepare a contact-

list with army officials, the police, the fire-department, the rescue forces, and of course, the

museum personnel, prepare a list of volunteers.21 These are all valuable plans for any cultural

institution to utilize in the event of the onset of warfare. Yet these guidelines are also too

assuming as well, it is simply not realistic to believe that any institution beyond the highest and

most secure in the world can reasonable afford to follow these guidelines; especially in hiring out

private security companies willing to operate in warzones.

ICOM also addresses the direct threat of cultural destruction on the collections and

exhibitions of museums. They state several recommendations that been summarized as removing

items near outer walls and windows or are made of ceramic or easily breakable material or are

21 International Council of Museums, Handbook of Emergency Procedures,

(October 2010)
http://icom.museum/uploads/tx_hpoindexbdd/ICMS_Handbook_eng.pdf (accessed
December 3, 2016)
 13

extremely valuable to the museum and storing the objects in an underground space. In the case of

storing these items ICOM recommends the following, Storage of museum items in underground

places necessitates placement on shelves 15 cm above ground level, at minimum; also, one

should check that a good drainage exists, temporary storage for museum items must be according

to the following conditions: reasonable physical protection against bomb/rocket attacks and theft,

without water, drainage or sewage pipes, without inflammable, explosive, oxygenated or

corrosive materials. Without a biological threat maximum temperature of 24 C and a relative

humidity that does not exceed 65%, a good locking system (we suggest that the lock would be

changed to a new lock); this lock must be marked with a secret sign, have an armed guard

equipped with a communication device.22 Ultimately ICOMs recommended measures favor a

scenario where evacuation is the last possible action an institution would have ethically have to

take in a warzone. Thus the need for UNESCOs enhanced protection is perhaps the best possible

solution in protecting against cultural destruction that works within the system of guidelines and

protocols already established by these cultural institutions.

Even in the aftermath of Palmyras liberation from ISIS there are ethical issues to consider.

Mainly in how the caretakers of the ruins will transition the devastated site back into an

intellectual space for tourism, if it can be at all. In Palmyras case, UNESCOs aforementioned

technical rapid assessment mission has determined that Palmyra can indeed make that transition

following the Syrian Civil Wars conclusion; but what if a theoretical site or museum could not

make such a transition? If the devastation was too much or the location now overwhelmed by a

whole new tragedy brought about by warfare, would the institution be obligated to discontinue

its mission? Perhaps ethically it would be better for such a hypothetical institution to shut its

doors and deaccession its remaining collections to another museum or cultural institution that
22 Ibid.
 14

shared, at least partially, the closing institutions mission. In following the American Alliance of

Museums guidelines in taking stewardship over the surviving collection in such a scenario, the

new institution would need to especially hold several key tenants in whether they could ethically

accept the collections. The two most important being, The human resources are sufficient, and

the staff have the appropriate education, training and experience to fulfill the museums

stewardship responsibilities and the needs of the collections.23 and The scope of a museums

collections stewardship extends to both the physical and intellectual control of its property.24 In

the muddled aftermath of any supposed war, this would be the ideal move of any institution that

could not effectively restart operations.

But for those institutions that could such as Palmyra, there are still more ethical considerations to

be made. If the institutions unmovable objects were destroyed but their movable objects were

safely stored away, what then would be done in restarting the institutions daily operations?

Should they simply restructure their displays to stress their surviving collections whilst

acknowledging what they failed to protect? This would be the most logical answer in years past

but new technologies have changed this and have created a serious ethical dilemma for

institutions like Palmyra recovering from future conflicts and tragedies of cultural destruction.

Additive manufacturing, more commonly known as 3D Printing, is a process from which three-

dimensional objects can be created by computers in a single continuous moment that effectively

supersedes production lines. What is so drastic about this process is that it can recreate objects

that have been mapped by computer processing from 3D photographs of that object. It is in this

23 American Alliance of Museums, Collections Stewardship, http://aam-

us.org/resources/ethics-standards-and-best-practices/collections-stewardship
(December 4, 2016).

24 Ibid.
 15

sense that the discussion of recreating lost monuments or objects via 3D Printing has begun to be

taken seriously in intellectual circles.

Indeed it has already happened with Palmyras famous Arch of Triumph for the Temple

of Baal, which was one of the first monuments targeted by ISIS for cultural destruction. The

twenty-five foot tall replica weighs thirty-thousand pounds and was made through 3D Printing

Egyptian marble.25 The grand effort was done by the Institute of Digital Archeology in

partnership with UNESCO who utilized photographers using 3D camera to take photos of the

endangered monument among others in the Syrian warzone before the ruins were captured.26 The

recreated Arch of Triumph was toured as a message of resilience against the efforts of cultural

destruction by ISIS and went from London's Trafalgar Square, to New Yorks City Hall Park, and

finally to Dubai.27 This 3D Printed replica of the Palmyra Arch of Triumph , roughly equal in

both size and height, brings forward a difficult question for institutions whose works have been

destroyed or could very well be destroyed in the future. Are their cultural treasures worth

bringing back, even if that defies the authenticity of the original?

The answer to this question seems hotly contested in the intellectual sphere currently.

While the replica is celebrated by UNESCO, digital historians, and some archeologists; it also

25 Gaby Del Valle, Replica Of Ancient Arch Destroyed By ISIS Is Now At City Hall
Park, The Gothamist, (September 20, 2016)
http://gothamist.com/2016/09/20/palmyra_arch_reconstructed_in_city.php (accessed
December 4, 2016).

26Damien Gayle, Palmyra arch that survived Isis to be replicated in London and
New York, The Guardian,
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/28/palmyra-temple-bel-arch-survived-
isis-syria-london-new-york (accessed December 4, 2016).

27 Gaby Del Valle, Replica Of Ancient Arch Destroyed By ISIS Is Now At City Hall
Park, The Gothamist, (September 20, 2016)
http://gothamist.com/2016/09/20/palmyra_arch_reconstructed_in_city.php (accessed
December 4, 2016).
 16

negatively viewed by others. Ellis Woodman, an architect, is a fierce critic of this developing

phenomenon. Writing for the Architects Journal, Woodman ethically questions why such intense

effort has been put into 3D Printing the Palmyra Arch of Triumph when Syrian Civil War along

with the massive humanitarian crisis it has caused is far from over. From this point of contention

Woodman ultimately concludes, Yet, much as such a course of action may attract support, the

premise on which it is founded surely demands questioning. The impulses behind demolition and

reconstruction are not ultimately so far apart: just as Isis's assault on Palmyra represented an

attempt to wipe out one episode of Syria's past, now the digitally produced copy promises to

erase another. In a country where the reductive narratives enforced by successive leaders have

resulted in so much suffering, it would be a sad irony if the solution adopted at Palmyra

represented a further suppression of the complexity of Syria's history.28

Woodmans point should wisely be considered on an ethical level for the author brings up

a valid counterargument to UNESCOs bold efforts: By playing god, do we risk compromising

the integrity of what was built millennia ago? Are we as a civilization so important as to impose

our own will in physically recreating an object that has met its end? Cultural destruction was not

invented by ISIS, it has been practiced in one form or another by other groups of people in times

past. Replicas and copies are not necessarily new concepts to museums and other cultural

institutions, yet Woodman is right in acknowledging that there is something different about this

rising technology of 3D Printing. This research paper ultimately disagrees with Woodmans

assertions. The benefits of digitally preserving and creating material culture in this matter far

outweigh Woodmans notions of integrity and authenticity in material culture. More so, it is

28 Ellis Woodman, Its great that we can 3D-Print vandalized temples, but is that
the way to repair Palmyra? Architects Journal 243 (9), (April 7, 2016): 67.
 17

perhaps these very notions that are at risk of becoming extinct from new technologies in the

coming years. This will be an ethical issue that will be intensely debated well into our future.

In the end, while cultural destruction is becoming an ever increasing ethical dilemma to

our treasured cultural and historical legacies around the world, it does not need to be considered

to be an inevitability. Higher level institutions, wide-reaching organizations, and even the most

unlikely of countries are aware, now more than ever in recent memory, of the dangers the great

works around the world face in the twenty-first century. These entities have many options

available to them in protecting cultural heritage from its intentional destruction; but by far one of

the best available options is to increase the powers and jurisdiction of UNESCOs enhanced

protection capabilities; the groundwork of which has already been laid over the previous

decades. Failing that, collection evacuations and wartime preparations are also measures to be

taken into serious consideration by individual museums and institutions. But even should that

fail, if collections are lost to warfare or to human ideology, we now have the capability to bring

them back for better or for worst. In the coming years we shall see an intersection between

material culture and its potential for a digital afterlife. Perhaps the talking point of future

generations will not be to argue the ethics of protecting sites like Palmyra from cultural

destruction but rather whether we should bring them fully back.

 18

Bibliography

Al Wasmi, Naser. Safeguarding Cultural Heritage conference kicks off in Abu Dhabi. The
National UAE. (December 2, 2016)
http://www.thenational.ae/uae/heritage/safeguarding-cultural-heritage-conference-kicks-
off-in-abu-dhabi (accessed December 3, 2016).

American Alliance of Museums, Collections Stewardship. http://aam-us.org/resources/ethics-

standards-and-best-practices/collections-stewardship (December 4, 2016).

Del Valle, Gaby. Replica Of Ancient Arch Destroyed By ISIS Is Now At City Hall Park. The
Gothamist. (September 20, 2016)
http://gothamist.com/2016/09/20/palmyra_arch_reconstructed_in_city.php (accessed
December 4, 2016).

Gayle, Damian. Palmyra arch that survived Isis to be replicated in London and New York. The
Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/28/palmyra-temple-bel-
arch- survived-isis-syria-london-new-york (accessed December 4, 2016).

Goldman, Russell and Marlise Simons. Why the Terrorist Who Destroyed Palmyra Wont Face
Justice. The New York Times. (September 29, 2016)
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/30/world/africa/icc-hague-court-antiquties.html
(accessed November 16, 2016).
 19

International Council of Museums. Handbook of Emergency Procedures. (October 2010)

http://icom.museum/uploads/tx_hpoindexbdd/ICMS_Handbook_eng.pdf
(accessed December 3, 2016).

Kramer, Andrew and Andrew Higgins. In Syria, Russia Plays Bach Where ISIS Executed 25.
The New York Times. (May 5, 2016)
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/06/world/middleeast/syria-russia-
palmyra-isis- classical-music.html (accessed November 17, 2016).

Osman, Tamer and translated by Pascale el-Khoury. UNESCO steps in to protect what's left of
Syria's Palmyra. (May 16, 2016). http://www.al-
monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/05/syria-palmyra-archaeological-heritage-sites-
destroyed-fight.html (accessed November 28, 2016).

Rabbat, Nassar. "They Shoot Historians, Don't They? Nassar Rabbat on ISIS and
Palmyra." Artforum International 54, no. 3 (2015): 101.

Saad, Hwaida and Kareem Fahim. "Syrian Army Claims It Fully Recaptured Historic Palmyra
From ISIS." New York Times. (March 28, 2016)
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/28/world/middleeast/syria-palmyra.html
(accessed November 16, 2016).
Tsvetkova, Maria and Denis Dyokim. Syria's ancient Palmyra has been demined: Russian
military. Reuters. (April 21, 2016) http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-
syria- crisis-palmyra-demining-idUSKCN0XI253 (November 28, 2016).

UNESCO. Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict.
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/culture/themes/armed-conflict-and-heritage/1954-
hague- convention-first-protocol/#c290511 (accessed December 2, 2016).

UNESCO. Text of the 2nd Protocol. http://www.unesco.org/new/en/culture/themes/armed-

conflict-and-heritage/1999-second-protocol-its-committee/text-of-the-2nd-protocol/
(December 2, 2016).

UNESCO. UNESCO experts take preliminary stock of destruction in World Heritage site of
Palmyra. (April 27, 2016). http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/1488 (December 2,
2016).

UNESCO. We must save Palmyra" says UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova. (May 14,
2015). http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/1280 (accessed December 2, 2016).

Woodman, Ellis. Its great that we can 3D-Print vandalized temples, but is that the way to repair
Palmyra? Architects Journal 243 (9), (April 7, 2016): 67.

Wu, Y.T. and C.P. Lin, C.H. Chang, K.C. Lai. Uncertainty and Risk Analysis of Collection
Evacuation Model of National Palace Museum. Procedia Engineering, Volume
14, (2011), Pages 2567-2575.
 20

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877705811014007 (accessed
December 3, 2016).