Facebook Marketplace is typically used as a hub for thrifters to discover hidden gems that are now up for resale. But in Syria, some Facebook Marketplace users may find some unexpected items alongside old furniture and knickknacks: artifacts that may have been looted.
Thieves are reportedly robbing graves that are more than 2,000 years old in Palmyra, among other cities, and listing the funerary gold and artifacts they take on Facebook.
Located in the Fertile Crescent, where some of the first known civilizations began, Palmyra was an ancient city along the Silk Road—a trading route at the crossroads of Europe and Asia—dating back to the 3rd century BCE. The city, known for its Roman ruins, is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It contains countless invaluable artifacts such as statues and mosaics. In 2015, Palmyra was heavily damaged by militants who blew up some of these ancient sites while they were under Islamic State control.
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Looting and trafficking there have reportedly surged following the overthrow of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad by rebels in December. The looting, along with widespread poverty affecting 90 percent of Syria’s population, puts the country’s cultural heritage in danger of being lost and destroyed by those looking for a quick buck.
“When the [Assad] regime fell, we saw a huge spike on the ground. It was a complete breakdown of any constraints that might have existed in the regime periods that controlled looting,” Amr al-Azm, a professor of Middle East history and anthropology at Shawnee State University in Ohio and co-director of the Antiquities Trafficking and Heritage Anthropology Research (ATHAR) Project, told the Guardian.
ATHAR, which follows trafficked Middle Eastern antiquities in the black market online, noted that nearly one third of its total 1,500 Syrian cases took place in December. The project includes a database of more than 26,000 screenshots, videos, and images of looted antiquities since 2012.
While its not unusual for trafficked goods to end up for sale online, the emergence of Facebook Marketplace as a hub for these kinds of sales is relatively new. Despite Facebook banning the sale of historical artifacts on its platform in 2020, the policy is not enforced strictly enough to deter looters from risking these transactions among sizable groups ranging from 100,000 to 900,000 people.
Experts have also noticed an increased speed in sales of trafficked goods. “This is the fastest we’ve ever seen artefacts being sold. Before for example, a mosaic being sold out of Raqqa took a year. Now, mosaics are being sold in two weeks,” Katie Paul, a co-director of the ATHAR project and the director of Tech Transparency Project, explained to the Guardian.
The Syrian government has tried to stop thieves by threatening jail sentences of up to 15 years and finder’s fees for those who turn in the artifacts. But with limited resources available to protect archaeological heritage, the government’s efforts have been more focused on trying to rebuild following the recent political fracture.