I don’t know if this is helpful but in 1989 I stayed at the Bel Temple in Palmyra. It was an extraordinary experience to wake up among these ancient ruins amid magnificent remains of the past. Its ruins as Wikepedia notes were considered among the best preserved at Palmyra,[3] until sadly they were destroyed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant degenerates in August 2015.

Beatrice Hopkinson
  

On Aug 19, 2015, at 8:04 AM, Ellen McInnes <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

University of Manchester archaeologists have been undertaking excavations in Iraq in conjunction with colleagues from Iraq. Stuart Campbell said 'We are not in the practice of taking guns and of defending places physically, so there are only two ways you can respond: by carrying on with good archaeology and continuing to dig more material at the same time as it is being destroyed, and by trying to make sure we document everything so that we preserve the knowledge of it.'http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/manchester-archaeologists-defy-isis-destruction-of-iraqs-cultural-history-by-working-to-preserve-memory-of-historic-artefacts-10162931.html
This kind of active preservation by record isn't available to all but isn't there a Google Earth project under way trying to map sites in the area or quantify damage done?https://web.stanford.edu/group/chr/drupal/book/export/html/54
Or this using 3D imagery to 're-create' lost artefacts http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3087731/Cyber-archaeology-rebuilds-lost-treasures-Public-project-uses-photos-create-3D-models-artefacts-destroyed-ISIS.html
But those are specific projects - i'm not sure what we can do as a body of archaeologists



> Date: Wed, 19 Aug 2015 14:45:00 +0000
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [BRITARCH] I have a suggestion - why don't we just talk about something more important instead?
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
> As has been widely reported today, in the last week an 82 year old archaeologist, Professor Khaled Alas'ad, was beheaded by IS in Syria for refusing to revel the location of antiquities he and his team had managed to hide before the occupation of Palmyra.
> Kind of puts the nonsense into perspective, no?
> What, if anything, can we as British archaeologists usefully do to support our colleagues under such threat?
>
> ........................................................... Sophie Cabot BA MPhil.
>
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