In the ancient city of Nineveh, a statue of a winged bull survived undamaged for 2,700 years – until IS took a pneumatic drill to it last year (see above).
With hundreds of thousands of lives lost, millions of people displaced and some of the world’s most significant heritage sites destroyed, the wars in Iraq and Syria have had an enormous cost. While the historical artifacts that have been bombed, defaced and plundered can never be restored – they are very well remembered.
The Museum of Lost Objects, a 10-part story and podcast from the BBC, traces antiquities or ancient sites that have been destroyed or looted in Iraq and Syria through local histories, legends and personal stories and recreates these lost treasures and explores their significance across generations and cultures, from creation to destruction.
For additional information on digitally preserving sites and objects threatened by IS, see the Million Image Database Project.