Satellite Imagery Based Analysis Of Archaeological Looting

Recently, satellite imagery has become relevant to archaeology. The use of infrared satellite imagery has made exploring desert sites much more efficient and much faster. The satellites utilize infrared light to detect variations in density of the ground to map out the topography of the land. Out of the three passages above, satellites are the most advanced technology.

On March 19, 2003 Baghdad was under fire. Three weeks later, American tanks roll into the Iraq capital scenes of triumph replaced by chaos. The US Military wasn’t prepared for citywide civilian crisis and eventually everything went up for grabs—even the treasures of the Iraq museum. The Iraq Museum have object materials from about half a million years ago – carvings, statues, and pottery. All the archaeological data was housed

Among the Ruins: Syria Past and Present by Christian Sahner is a narration of Sahner’s viewpoints of the conflicts that besiege Syria today with their accompanying historical basis. He highlights the effect that this is not just another “Arab Spring” or sectarian brush fire that suddenly appeared but instead is deeply rooted in cultural tensions that have boiled over. Sahner provides examples of sectarianism and its impact upon Syria throughout history but also supports his thesis that the conflict extends beyond sectarianism, which he supports through historical illustrations. Furthermore, his prolific usage of first-person experience and writing breathes life into historical notions. One example is Sahner’s quote of a Syrian

On 7 March 2015, ISIS has begun destroying Hatra, an ancient city in Iraq.. According to Abdulamir al-Hamdani, an Iraqi archaeologist , “some of the important Hatra sculptures that had been destroyed included a statue of Sanatruq,, a king of Hatra; a statue of a priest of Hatra; and an important mask from

In 2011, the Egyptian Revolution sparked not only dramatic social and political changes in Egypt, but also drastic changes around the world. For years the former Minister of State for Antiquities Affairs, Zahi Hawass, unapologetically demanded the return of some of Ancient Egypt’s most valuable treasures including: the Rosetta Stone, the Statue of Hatshepsut, the Luxor Obelisk, the Zodiac Ceiling and Nefertiti’s Bust. He went as far as to formally demand them back and label them as ‘stolen artifacts’, even though he openly admitted Egypt has no legal claim to them. The chances of these artifacts being returned were incredibly slim even before the Egyptian Revolution, but after Egypt had no chance of reclaiming

One of the major topics in Anthropology today is the link between colonialism and archaeology. Moro-Abadia (2006) explains that “during most of the twentieth century, the history of archaeology has been an eloquent example of ‘colonial discourse’, by which colonialist groups constitute the field of truth about the past by imposing specific knowledge, practices and values upon colonized groups.” Moro-Abadia (2006) explains three ways that the history of archaeology acted as a tool of knowledge-power about the past within which he says some colonialist practices have come into being.

While most sites are found by accident, many sites were carefully selected through surveys. By utilizing remote sensing technology, tools that allow us to see what the naked eye cannot through mapping around the area, we are able to detect things such differences in the ground’s temperature and reveal hidden trails that we could only see from the sky. With the information, experts are able to narrow down locations of potential excavation sites by taking into account the surroundings such as the

A group of boys aged ten to fifteen painted simple graffiti on a wall in their town one day in 2011. What these boys didn’t know was that this would create a country wide civil war that has killed 250 thousand people and displaced millions more. The Syrian Civil War has evolved into a worldwide issue that is one of the most pressing problems of the current day. “In all, 11.5 percent of Syria’s population has been wounded or killed since 2011, according to the SCPR analysis. The vast majority of deaths — 400,000 — were caused by violence, while 70,000 came as an indirect result of the war — the collapse of the country’s health-care infrastructure, lack of access to medicine, poor sanitation, the spread of communicable diseases, falling vaccination

In the mid-twentieth century, an Arab nationalist fervor overtook Syria, leading to a series of coups which would eventually install the ostensibly socialist Ba’ath party at the head of state -- a rule that lasts tenuously to the present day. In the chaos of the aftermath of European occupation the seeds were sown for the conflict that rends Syria today as a nation struggles to define itself outside of the context of both factionalist terrorism and the autocratic al-Assad regime which has reigned since that period. When Hafez al-Assad, father of current president Bashar al-Assad, came to power in 1970 he seized the whole of the nation’s political power, placing it firmly in the hands of his family and therefore those of the military

“More than 250,000 Syrians have lost their lives in four-and-a-half years of armed conflict.” (Syria: The Story of the Conflict). These horrific killings began when the anti-government protestors. After a short while, civil protesting became a full

The wave of Arab unrest that began during the Tunisian Revolution reached Syria in Mid March 2011. Currently, the political, socio-economic and humanitarian situation in Syria has escalated to the

Using remote sensing to monitor United Nations World Historic Sites is key in regions where physical monitoring is not practical, the site is too fragile to endure repeated monitoring events, or extremely dangerous to people. Some sites are located in regions that are remote, in conflict areas, densely covered by tree canopies, or too large to practically cover by other means. Methods being developed or used today are using RADAR to monitor geoglyphs in Peru, LIDAR to map medieval wall city gates in Spain, satellite imagery identifying sites in war-torn Syria, and very-high-resolution aerial imagery to map the canopy tree species in Cambodia. These methods will allow organizations to better monitor the sites without causing undo stress

Few wars in recent years have been able to compare with the sheer death, destruction, and contention; as Syria still remains embroiled in a half decade long war in a conflict that gradually begins to affect the lives of virtually everyone in terms of their beliefs and perception of the world. Upon it’s initial outbreak in March of 2011. The discontent amongst the Syrian populace has festered over the years due to the abhorrent and distant attitudes of the Assad regime and it seemed a ripe opportunity to revolt against their oppressive and authoritarian government as the Arab Spring gained massive attention across the world. The event that sparked massive protests in March of 2011 was the kidnapping of several Syrian children in a town 60

Within the past year, ISIS has been willfully destroying historical sites and artifacts where they have taken control over in the middle east. The preservation of historical sites and artifacts is important. Preserving historical sites plays a big cultural role. Also, preserving historical sites is environmentally friendly. History can tell us about the past, history is said to repeat itself. Preserving historical buildings also has a big economic benefit.

The complexity of the issue of law and cultural heritage protection during armed conflict is that it involves a variety of disciplines: anthropology, archeology, architecture, conservation, law,