Sir, Palmyra is rapidly becoming the symbol of Isis’s cultural iconoclasm. If Isis is permitted to rewrite the history of a region that defined global aesthetic and political sensibilities, we will collectively suffer a costly and irreversible defeat. But there is hope.
People throughout the Middle East are engaged in the enterprise of cultural heritage preservation by creating a detailed record of these artefacts. Our organisation, a joint venture with Oxford University and New York University’s Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW), is flooding the area with thousands of low-cost 3D cameras and enlisting local partners to photograph as many items of historical significance as possible.
The goal is to acquire up to 20 million 3D images of at-risk objects and architecture by the end of 2016. All of these images will then be held in open source archives at ISAW. By placing the record of our past in the digital realm, it will lie forever beyond the reach of vandals and terrorists.
Through further collaborations with organisations specialising in 3D printing technology, it will be possible to contemplate replicating what has been lost. One of the great virtues of this digital take on the Monuments Men concept is that it avoids the need for any physical custody of objects. In this way, potentially complex repatriation issues are entirely avoided.
Roger Michel
Executive director, Institute for Digital Archaeology
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Ben Altshuler
Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents, Oxford University, and field director, Institute for Digital Archaeology