The Syrian Cultural Heritage constitutes a prominent landmark in the record of documenting human civilization since the emergence of the first human, as it is distinguished globally by its richness, diversity and uniqueness in some of its components, both material and non-material.

This heritage embodies a model of the development of human creativity on the land of Syria, the cradle of civilizations and the virgin land for the emergence of agricultural villages, the concept of civilization, urbanization, visual arts, writing, accounting systems, mining, construction, urban development, and the home of the first alphabet and musical notes in the world.

Syria is homeland to the oldest archaeological villages in the world. On its land, man built his first house, the oldest murals, the oldest statue carved by humans in the world in the Syrian Golan, the oldest houses that used colored stone tiles in Tell Al-Muraybit, and the first to carve a human face from clay.

The Syrians were the first to enact criminal, civil and international laws in the world before Ur-Nammu and Hammurabi, the first to send students of knowledge in the world, the first to adopt the eagle as a logo in the world, the first to draw the migratory crane in the world, and in the Kingdom of Qutna in the Bronze Age they were able to produce woolen threads as soft as hair and with a high degree of precision.

The Syrian archaeological cultural heritage is one of the most important global sources used to document and record past events and understand the stages of human civilization development. Charles Virolleaud, the famous cuneiform scholar and the first to decipher the Ugaritic alphabet, the first and most complete alphabet in history discovered at the Ras Shamra site, which dates back to the fourteenth century BC, said: “Every civilized person in this world has two homelands: his motherland and Syria,” which highlights the richness and importance of Syrian heritage and the necessity of preserving and maintaining it.

In this context, Syria was one of the first countries to sign international agreements related to the preservation of cultural heritage and combating its illicit trafficking, which were approved under the umbrella of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), such as the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, the 1970 Paris Convention on the Measures to Prevent the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Cultural Property, and the 1972 Paris Convention II for the Protection of the Cultural and Natural Heritage.

According to the archaeology expert and reader of ancient inscriptions at the Directorate General of Antiquities, historian Dr. Mahmoud El-Sayyed, there are six archaeological areas in Syria comprising 46 sites and hundreds of historical structures registered on the UNESCO World Heritage List. They are the Old City of Damascus 1979, the ancient City of Bosra 1980, the Old City of Aleppo 1986, the site of Palmyra 1980, Crac des Chevaliers keep and the Citadel of Saladin 2006, and the ancient villages of Northern Syria 2011.

Mr. Al-Sayyed points out that Syrian glass blowing has been included on the lists of intangible human cultural heritage that needs Urgent Safeguarding, while the intangible cultural heritage in Syrian society includes various titles such as social practices and rituals, arts, music, skills related to traditional crafts, practices related to nature and the universe, and folk costumes, especially since intangible cultural heritage is a heritage that is subject to extinction, so it must be strengthened, preserved, and maintained by increasing interest in folklore.

The Syrian historian said that world heritage is defined in two types: “cultural and natural.” Cultural heritage has a moral aspect that includes science, literature, values ​​and customs, and a material aspect that includes tangible things such as monuments, structures  and events that occur and are transmitted among people, while natural heritage includes physical and biological landmarks that have high aesthetic and scientific value, and geological and physiographic forms such as areas that contain endangered animals and plants and natural areas of rare natural beauty that have high and distinct value such as the site of “Rujum Al-Hiri” in the occupied Syrian Golan.

He added  that the destruction of Syrian archaeological and historical sites, structures  and artifacts, the illegal excavations and the systematic looting carried out by antiquities gangs and armed terrorist organizations during the war on Syria, with the aim of destroying its cultural heritage, weakening the sense of identity, losing an important part of the world’s cultural heritage, and losing knowledge of human history, requires criminalizing the deliberate destruction of cultural heritage as a violation of human rights.

He stresses that the process of maintaining, restoring and reviving the Syrian heritage under the current circumstances is a necessity that should not be postponed, as it is an important part of the world human heritage and should be worked on in the early stages of post-war reconstruction.

To protect the Syrian cultural heritage, whether fixed or movable, many measures must be taken, according to Mr. Sayyed, starting with the cooperation of the international community to protect it, prosecuting those who violate and steal it, spreading awareness of the importance of what we have and the danger of illegal trafficking in cultural property, taking protection measures based on scientific foundations, documenting violations and damages to antiquities and historical monuments, carrying out the restoration process in a scientifically correct manner, and registering looted and smuggled antiquities abroad on the red list with the aim of preventing their illegal sale or export and retrieving them at a later stage.

He  points out the need to pay attention to museum displays and preserve museum collections, and encourage the legal circulation of exhibits between museums and various cultural institutions through exchange and loan operations ,ensuring the protection of loaned pieces in accordance with constitutional systems and international laws, preserving cultural heritage electronically, establishing a national registry of archaeological sites, and preserving and benefiting from national competencies and expertise.

Mr. Al-Sayyed affirms that one of the most important methods of heritage protection is introducing the concept of world heritage protection into educational programs on a wide scale, and activating cooperation with international and regional organizations and bodies working in the field of cultural heritage protection, management and promotion, and benefiting from the legislation and laws issued by them.

Mohammed Imad Al-Daghli

Translated by Manar Salameh