The 2015 destruction of the world heritage site of Palmyra by ISIL shocked the world. ISIL obliterated Palmyra’s tombs and temples and even murdered Palmyra’s head of antiquities, Khaled al-Asaad when he refused to disclose the location of the ancient city’s treasures.

Opinions vary about the motivation behind the destruction.

Many believe it was motivated by the extremists’ hatred of idolatry — hence their initial targeting of religious sites.

However, the destruction of Palmyra’s Monumental Gateway in the autumn of 2015 suggested this was not the whole story.

So, what did ISIL hope to gain from the destruction?

The Beginning of the Destruction of Palmyra

Initially, ISIL pledged not to harm Palmyra. But within months, it forgot its promise. In August 2015, the destruction began when the extremists blew up the temple of Baal Shamin and then the Temple of Bel. 

This tragic loss was swiftly followed in September by ISIL obliterating several of the city’s unique tower tombs. Finally, in October, they blew up the Monumental Gateway, which framed the beginning of Palmyra’s iconic collonaded street.

Destruction Due to Ideology?

The militant’s extreme religious beliefs have formed one explanation for the destruction of the temples and tombs. Islam condemns the practice of idolatry — the worship of idols or depictions of gods other than Allah. So ISIL’s ultra-extreme interpretation of Islamic law could explain the destruction of Palmyra’s religious sites.

This explanation could explain the destruction– but it doesn’t. Earlier Muslim invaders contented themselves with removing the faces from Palmyra’s statues and friezes. Otherwise, they left Palmyra intact, even partially reconstructing the sanctuary of Bel as a fortress.

After the destruction of the temple of Baal Shamin, ISIL proudly released videos of its work. The group continued to release videos with each subsequent attack. It was as if ISIL was taunting the world — and President Assad’s forces — by holding the city hostage.

The Importance of Palmyra

A Syrian Heritage report states that as early as June 2015, ISIL was booby-trapping Palmyra, placing explosive devices around the site. According to Maamoun Abdulkarim, Syria’s top antiquaries official, the reason for this was simple: ISIL was planning to hold Palmyra “to ransom” by “killing them (the city’s monuments) one by one.“

But why was Palmyra a valuable hostage? In ancient times, the city of Palmyra became wealthy because of its strategic position along the trade route between the east and the Mediterranean. The Romans also valued it as a strategic outpost against the Parthian Empire.

Today, Palmyra lies close to Syria’s major highway system, linking the cities of Homs and Damascus as well major oil fields and strategic military bases.

In other words, Palmyra was in an area Syrian forces dearly wanted to control.

In this context, we can see how ISIL was holding a gun to the proverbial head of the ancient city while saying to its opponents: “You’ve seen what we are prepared to do so far. If you want Palmyra to live, don’t come any closer.”

Cultural Murder in Palmyra

ISIL’s threat carried weight because of Palmyra’s importance to Syria’s heritage. The Director-General of UNESCO stated ISIL designed the destruction to “deprive the Syrian people of its knowledge, its identity and history.”

This was also a view that Lynda Albertson, the Association for Research into Crimes against Art, held. “It is easy enough to view the damage to these heritage sites as something that can be rebuilt, if all we see is the physical,” Ms Albertson stated in an interview with The Guardian. In her view, ISIL was demotivating her enemies while chipping away at Syrian identity by controlling and destroying its heritage.

“It is far more difficult to grasp the effects of cultural cleansing in the longer term, and to truly absorb its impact on a country’s people, “said Ms Albertson. “Each time ISIS chips away at history, blowing up this, bulldozing that, there are statements from Unesco and heritage professionals condemning the acts, but little more. People need to realise that this war, and ISIS’s part in it, is chipping away at Syria’s cultural continuity.”

So, by destroying history, ISIL hoped to rewrite it.

The Traffic of Antiquities

But at the same time, the terrorist group hoped to profit from Palmyra, using the site’s antiquities as a valuable source of funds.

ISIL has — or had — a well-established practice of selling artefacts from ancient sites they have captured and destroyed on the black market. In August 2015, the FBI posted an alert on their website, warning dealers to look for artefacts from Iraq and Syria.

“We now have credible reports that US persons have been offered cultural property that appears to have been removed from Syria and Iraq,” stated Bonnie Magness-Gardiner of the FBI art theft program.

There was more. Satellite images showed “industrial level looting” on some sites — and ISIL was caught red-handed. In a raid on the headquarters of ISIL’s finance chief in Syria, Abu Sayyaf, a cache of ancient artefacts was found heading for illegal sale.

ISIL was not only selling artefacts themselves. They were encouraging others to do so — and profiting from it. An undercover reporter for CBS discovered that the group was selling “licenses” to dig ancient sites to destitute locals unable to earn a living legitimately in war-torn Syria.

“If you find an artefact, you take 80% and ISIS 20%,” her source told the reporter. “But if the equipment used to make the find is ISIS-owned, the group take a 40-50% cut instead.”

The Destruction of Palmyra: Complex Motives

The execution of former site director Khaled al Asaad because of his refusal to divulge the whereabouts of many valuable items from Palmyra suggests ISIL had every intention of using the city to line its own coffers. In light of this, the destruction was a handy way of covering up the removal of anything of value.

Handy. But not the primary motive. For it seems that Palmyra’s main use to the extremists was as part of a strategy to win a war by controlling and destroying a nation’s ancient roots.

Resources 

The Christian Science Monitor. What Syrian antiquities reveal about Islamic State’s billion-dollar economy. (2015). Accessed on November 01, 2015

BBC News. Palmyra: Satellite image of IS destruction. (2015). Accessed on November 01, 2015

Syrian Arab Republic Ministry of Culture. ISIS terrorists blow up Baal ShaminTemple. (2015). Accessed on November 01, 2015

Allison Cuneo et al., et al. Special Report: Update on the Situation in Palmyra. (2015). ASOR Cultural Heritage Initiatives. Accessed on November 01, 2015

Shaheen, Kareem. Isis is systematically destroying Palmyra, top antiquities official says. (2015). The Guardian. Accessed on November 01, 2015