Thursday, 16 October 2014

Looting In Syria

David Kohn has a useful article on looting in Syria ("ISIS's looting campaign", New Yorker October 14, 2014). He notes damage to sites such as Apamea and Dura-Europos. Interestingly the antiquities are apparently moved through Turkey.
Once the artifacts are out of the ground, they’re sold by second-hand dealers. Daniels said that many of the looted items, which include gold and silver coins, mosaics, figurines, jewelry, cylinder seals, and tablets, end up for sale in towns near the Turkish-Syrian border.
So should we be on the look out for Late Roman mosaics that are associated with classical sites such as Apamea?

And are other classical antiquities from Syria being provided with new collecting histories in Turkey? What classical sculptures from such a source are surfacing on the market?

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