Replicas of an ancient monument in Palmyra that has apparently survived attempts by Islamic State to demolish it are to be erected in London and New York.
The 15m-high arch is one of the few remaining parts of the 2,000-year-old Temple of Bel in the Syrian city. It was almost completely razed by Isis fighters as they systematically destroyed Palmyra over the past year.
The construction of a replica will be the centerpiece of a series of events around World Heritage Week, planned for April, with a theme of replication and reconstruction. It has also been characterized as a gesture of defiance against attempts by religious extremists to erase the pre-Islamic history of the Middle East.
Photo: Sandra Augers, Reuters
Founded in 32AD, the Temple of Bel was consecrated to the ancient Mesopotamian god Bel and formed the center of religious life in Palmyra. In keeping with many ancient temples, the site was converted into a Christian church during the Byzantine era, then subsequently into a mosque when Arabs brought Islam to the area.
Known as the Pearl of the Desert, Palmyra — which means city of Palms — lies 210km northeast of Damascus. Before the Syrian conflict erupted in 2011, more than 150,000 tourists visited the city every year.
The Temple of Bel was considered among the best preserved ruins at Palmyra, until confirmation of the destruction in August. Earlier that month, the group beheaded Khaled al-Asaad, the 82-year-old Syrian archaeologist who had looked after Palmyra’s ruins for four decades, and hung his body in public.
3D technology
Building a copy of the temple’s entrance arch has been proposed by the Institute for Digital Archaeology (IDA), a joint venture between Harvard University, the University of Oxford and Dubai’s Museum of the Future that promotes the use of digital imaging and 3D printing in archaeology and conservation.
In collaboration with UNESCO, the institute earlier this year began distributing 3D cameras to volunteer photographers to capture images of threatened objects in conflict zones throughout the Middle East and north Africa.
The images are to be uploaded to a “million-image database” that, it is hoped, can be used for research, heritage appreciation, educational programs and eventually 3D replication — including full-scale rebuilding.
The destruction of the Temple of Bel came too soon for the site to be included on the IDA’s database, but researchers have been able to create 3D approximations of the damaged site through thousands of photographs.
Alexy Karenowska, IDA’s director of technology, said the renderings would be used to recreate the arch through a combination of 3D printing computer-controlled machining techniques. The pieces will be made off-site then assembled in place in Trafalgar Square and Times Square.
Karenowska said it was hoped that the scheme would help to highlight the international importance of cultural heritage. While the Temple of Bel is an architectural treasure of the Middle East, its influence on architecture had a major impact on the classical styles spread throughout Europe by the Roman Empire, which once extended to the banks of the Euphrates, she said.
“We tend to think about cultural heritage in a somewhat parochial way,” Karenowska said. “We also think of other people’s cultural heritage as being something that’s particular to them. We see that very much with the Middle East. People in the West find it very easy to say that the Middle East has this great cultural heritage and this problem [of its destruction] is something that’s happening to them. The idea is to underline that cultural heritage is something that’s shared between people. It’s about people’s roots and it’s important to recognize also that this is something that as humans we do all understand on some deep level.”
Roger Michel, IDA’s executive director, said, “It is really a political statement, a call to action, to draw attention to what is happening in Syria and Iraq and now Libya. We are saying to them if you destroy something we can rebuild it again. The symbolic value of these sites is enormous, we are restoring dignity to people.”
Having been targeted already by zealots in its homeland, Karenowska accepted that building the arches could pose a security risk, although she downplayed its impact.
“A building like the National Gallery or Trafalgar Square, these are major targets by virtue of what they are,” she said.”Simply by placing a thought-provoking piece of art in one of those spaces, the level of heightened risk is very limited. This is something we are thinking about very carefully and that people involved are thinking about it on a day-to-day basis.”
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