How would you
like to hear the United States Secretary of State say this about you?
“I
want to thank Professor Michael Danti for shining a light on what is without
question a global, critical challenge… When it comes to elevating the fight to
protect the cultural heritage of Iraq and Syria, Michael and his colleagues at
the American Schools of Oriental Research are literally the gold standard.”
That was
Secretary John Kerry addressing the crowd at a State Department event to
underscore the threats to cultural heritage in Iraq and Syria at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It was a proud night for our colleagues
at ASOR. Under the leadership of Executive Director Andy Vaughn and Professor Michael
Danti of Boston University, a dedicated team of American and Syrian scholars is
working with the State Department on the Syrian Heritage Initiative. The SHI is
a cooperative
effort to document comprehensively the current condition of cultural heritage
sites in Syria and assess future restoration, preservation, and protection
needs. ASOR is taking the lead in the struggle to protect the cultural heritage
of war-torn Syria.
ASOR is an
original partner in the Antiquities Coalition, supporting our efforts to fight
cultural racketeering and to promote and protect the world’s cultural heritage
since we began. They are stalwart collaborators and their own efforts in the
Middle East clearly impressed the Secretary. At the event on Monday, I saw Andy
Vaughn at the reception afterwards as he smiled and humbly accepted compliments
and congratulations from the assembled, allowing that Secretary Kerry’s
encomium was “pretty cool,” while pointing out that there was still much to be
done for the cause of safeguarding Syrian and Iraqi cultural patrimony.
As for Michael
Danti, he directly preceded Secretary Kerry on stage to talk about the horrors
inflicted in Syria and Iraq by the Islamic State. His presentation of the
facts, accompanied by dramatic photos from Mosul and Dura Europos, drove home
to the audience just how perfidious the terrorists are in their zeal to
eradicate opposition and in their willful destruction of cultural sites and
materials. And Michael had reason to be proud when he also heard this from
Secretary Kerry. “Michael was the first American archeologist in more than half
a century to gain access to the Zagros Mountains, and that's the Iraqi
Kurdistan Region along the Turkish and Iranian border. And he traveled to Syria
for more than two decades, right up until the conflict erupted, researching
Syria's ancient heritage. And we are all profoundly grateful for his
commitment.” Michael was swept up by a press maelstrom after the event, though
he did tell me later, “I felt very honored to speak to such a distinguished
audience on a topic that I hold dear.”
Other leaders of
the Syrian Heritage Initiative are Scott Branting (ASOR), Jesse Casana
(University of Arkansas), Abdal-Razzaq Moaz (Indiana University and ASOR), and LeeAnn
Barnes Gordon (ASOR).
We will leave it
to Professor Susan Ackerman of Dartmouth, who leads ASOR as its President, to
put this evening in perspective. “It's a great day for us to be so prominently
and publicly recognized and signals just how important our work to safeguard
Syria's (and Iraq's) cultural heritage is, both for us as an organization and
for the remains of the ancient Near Eastern past that we all hold so dear.”
It was indeed a
great day for our friends at ASOR. And it was a great night for cultural
heritage too. As pleased as everyone is to see the Antiquities Coalition’s partners
lauded so prominently, we are pleased to hear this ringing endorsement and
promise of help for preservation goals from the Secretary of State. John Kerry
gets the final word. “I want you to know that President Obama and our
Administration are laser-focused on protecting the cultural heritage of
countries all around the world… Our heritage is literally in peril in this
moment, and we believe it is imperative that we act now. We do so knowing that
our leadership, the leadership of the United States, can make a difference and
that the fight to protect the cultural heritage of Iraq and Syria isn’t just
about shared values. It’s about protecting a shared legacy.”
