Kate Taylor: Islamic State’s assault on artifacts is more than vandalism

Good column. The insecurity of those who feel compelled to destroy the past.

The Russian and Iranian revolutions largely preserved their cultural and historical heritage (e.g., Hermitage, Persepolis):

The Royal Ontario Museum chose a provocative title for this week’s public discussion in Toronto about the destruction of museum artifacts, archeological sites and historic buildings by the Islamic State. “Cultural Genocide in Iraq and Syria” was the evening’s topic.

Has vandalism by the Islamic State, trumpeted to the world in a February video showing the destruction of artifacts at the Mosul Museum, reached such proportions? The answer that emerged at the ROM discussion was a pretty emphatic yes. For those of us who have worried about how to frame the loss of artifacts when multitudes are being raped, murdered or displaced, it is a message that is paradoxically comforting – or at least useful. The fate of living humans and the fate of ancient stones turn out to be intimately linked.

The destruction shown in that notorious video is just the tip of the iceberg. The ROM’s associate curator of Near Eastern archeology, Clemens Reichel, reviewed the debate over how many of the works shown there are actually replicas – he concluded some were but others were ancient pieces showing modern repairs – but mainly he provided the fuller context of the vandalism. The Islamic State has been systematically exploding historic buildings including Christian churches such as the seventh-century “Green Church” in Tikrit and about 100 Islamic sites including the Shrine of Jonah, a church-turned-mosque in Mosul on the site on what is believed to be the biblical prophet’s grave. (The Islamic State’s brand of fundamentalism rejects any cult of saints or martyrs, which may partly explain why it has targeted so many Islamic shrines.)

Canadian journalist Patrick Graham, who was working in Iraq during the period of the U.S. invasion, then added his own anecdotal perspective, recalling the link he had observed between Iraqis and a land they had inhabited for centuries, a place dotted with shrines, mosques and monuments that surround them with their history. He told a story about a cleric in Baghdad who was left to run a local hospital during the week when both the city and its museum were being looted. The man searched everywhere for missing things, collecting the medical equipment he needed with one hand while returning historic artifacts to the museum with the other.

Kate Taylor: Islamic State’s assault on artifacts is more than vandalism – The Globe and Mail.