Collapse and Rebirth of Cultural Heritage

This book aims to assess the issue of cultural heritage and illicit trafficking within the frame of a destabilized region and provide a historical and geopolitical understanding of what the Middle East is currently experiencing

Cultural heritage and illicit trafficking in the Middle East are two key topics of our time. The book sheds light on both aspects, and identifies the need to democratize cultural heritage, by giving greater control to local communities. It also investigates the link between local hotbeds of conflict and violence in countries such as Syria and Iraq, as well as war economics, transnational criminal networks and the politics of deliberate destruction and theft of cultural heritage. Finally, the chapters analyze the impact of non-violent and violent non-state actors, fragile states, forced migration, environmental degradation, as well as how local and international institutions have reacted to the dramatic events which the region and its inhabitants have experienced in recent years

Autorentext

Lorenzo Kamel is Associate Professor of History of the Middle East and North Africa at the University of Turin and director of IAI s Research Studies. He taught at several universities in Europe, the US, and the Middle East, and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University for two years, and a Marie Curie Experienced Researcher at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg.

Inhalt
Ettore Greco and Nicolo Russo Perez Foreword Lorenzo Kamel Introduction Elijah J. Magnier Chapter 1: The Steep Cost of Destabilizing Iraq and Syria Francesco Bandarin Chapter 2: The Reconstruction and Recovery of Syrian Cultural Heritage. The Case of the Old City of Aleppo Stefano de Martino Chapter 3: The Italian Response to the Cultural Heritage Emergency in Iraq Omar Mohammed Chapter 4: Space, Time and People: How the Destruction of Mosul's Heritage Reshaped the Future of the People Abdul Salam Taha Chapter 5: The Role of Academia in Enabling the Illicit Antiquities Market: The Damage to Iraq's Cultural Heritage Lorenzo Kamel Chapter 6: Cultural Heritage as a Process of Accumulation: The 'Paradigm of Gilgamesh' Contributors Abbreviations