Islamic State militants have destroyed parts of the second-century Roman amphitheater and an iconic monument known as the Tetrapylon in Syria's historic town of Palmyra, the government and experts said Friday.
The 57 second video shows militants lifting funerary reliefs from shelving and dropping them forcefully onto the floor. Other historic artifacts are subjected to repeated blows with sledgehammers, filmed for cinematic effect.
Ordinary Syrian people are going to extraordinary lengths, risking everything to protect their heritage, despite the horror that has engulfed their country.
The museum was trashed and some of its best-known artifacts and statues were smashed by the militants, who cut off the heads and hands of statues and demolished others before being driven out last month.
Many argue that 3D printing fails to capture the authenticity of the original structures, amounting to little more than the Disneyfication of heritage.
Cultural organizations have been working to create precise 3D digital models of the threatened heritage monuments in Palmyra, Syria, in case the originals are damaged beyond repair.
With regime troops and their allies now within striking distance of the city itself, the Russians are softening up the minions of the phony caliphate from the air.
Another landmark structure in Syria’s ancient city of Palmyra has been deliberately destroyed by Islamic State militants. The building involved this time was a set of triumphal arches, erected in the second century.
Archaeologists are working quietly and methodically to catalogue, photograph and pack artifacts that are thousands of years old into wooden crates to be stored in top secret storage facilities in Damascus and elsewhere.
