Syria's ancient sites ravaged by wartime looting on 'utterly massive scale'

The scars of Syria’s war are etched not only into its cities and towns, but into archaeological sites that have survived for thousands of years.

A recent study of satellite imagery has revealed devastating destruction across some of the country’s most important ancient sites, with evidence of looting found at nearly two-thirds of those examined. Researchers documented an especially destructive form of looting in which entire archaeological mounds were systematically bulldozed in areas that came under the control of Turkish forces and allied armed groups after 2016.

"It's been on an utterly massive scale," Jesse Casana, a professor of archaeology at Dartmouth College who led the research, told The New Arab.

Casana and his team analysed satellite imagery of almost 200 archaeological sites across Syria from 2015 to 2025. Their study, recently published in the journal Heritage, found evidence of looting at almost two-thirds of the sites, a dramatic increase from what researchers recorded during the earlier years of the civil war.

The researchers divided the damage into four categories: small-scale looting, militarisation, construction and mechanised looting. The last, Casana said, involves "large groups of organised labourers, often funded by external interests, targeting major sites and using machinery".

Almost every case of large-scale mechanised looting identified by the researchers occurred in areas that came under the control of Turkish forces and Turkish-backed armed groups after 2016.

For Casana, who conducted excavations in Syria for about seven years before the war and has spent the past 15 years monitoring archaeological destruction through satellite imagery, the findings reveal damage on a scale that was previously difficult to measure.

His team had conducted an earlier survey of more than 3,600 archaeological sites in Syria, documenting damage during the first five years of the war. The latest research suggests that the destruction did not end as the conflict began to die down. In some areas, it accelerated.

Ancient sites bulldozed

Some of the most severe destruction was concentrated around Afrin and Kobane, where researchers documented what they called “extreme damage” from mechanised looting after 2018.

Unlike conventional looting, in which people dig pits searching for antiquities, mechanised looting involves using bulldozers and other heavy equipment to quickly scrape an entire site. People then search for precious metals and other artifacts in the earth before the process is repeated.

Local journalists have previously reported the use of heavy machinery to excavate archaeological sites in Afrin by Turkish-backed opposition groups, but the scale of the destruction has been difficult to establish from the ground.

Satellite imagery offered researchers a broader view.

In the Afrin Valley, the study found that most mounded archaeological sites were severely damaged by systematic bulldozing between 2019 and 2022.

Among them was Ain Dara, home to the remains of an Iron Age temple dating back more than 3,000 years. Researchers detected evidence of heavy machinery at the site beginning in February 2019, when satellite images showed large scars left by bulldozers. Over the following three years, the high and low mounds surrounding the temple complex were largely destroyed.

At Cyrrhus, a major Greco-Roman archaeological site near the Turkish border, researchers documented extensive bulldozing between June 2018 and October 2020.

Similar patterns appeared around Kobane. At Hammam-et Turkman, a Bronze Age mound north of Raqqa, satellite imagery showed severe bulldozer damage between November 2019 and November 2021.

The geographical concentration of the destruction, Casana said, raises questions about Turkey’s responsibility for protecting archaeological heritage in territories under its control.

"It's hard not to see this as partly a Turkish military problem," he said. "It's clearly something that occurred on a very large scale in areas they occupied, so it’s either a failure on their part to meet their international obligations or something they were complicit in."

International law prohibits occupying powers from excavating or seizing antiquities in occupied territory and requires them to protect cultural property from looting.

In a statement to The New Arab, the Turkish Embassy to the UK said it "categorically rejects" allegations that the Turkish military caused or facilitated damage to archaeological sites in Syria.

"In all of Turkey’s counter-terrorism operations in Syria, utmost care was taken to protect civilians, civilian infrastructure, as well as historical and cultural heritage and the environment," it added.

Looting outlives the war

Syria’s antiquities became another casualty of the conflict almost as soon as fighting erupted in 2011.

Some of the country’s best-known archaeological sites, including the UNESCO World Heritage site of Palmyra and the Greco-Roman ruins of Apamea, became synonymous with the destruction and plunder of Syria’s cultural heritage during the early years of the war.

But the study suggests that looting continued long after the conflict’s most intense period and, in many places, became more widespread.

Researchers found evidence of smaller-scale, conventional looting at almost two-thirds of the 199 sites they were able to assess, a sharp increase from their previous study.

"The findings demonstrate that small-scale looting remains rampant across most areas of Syria," the researchers wrote.

They attributed the increase in part to the collapse of law enforcement and the economic desperation that engulfed much of the country during more than a decade of war.

"The rapid increase is likely related to the absence of police enforcement of laws against looting, combined with the desperate situation most Syrians found themselves facing over the past decade," they wrote.

Military forces across the conflict also damaged archaeological sites, often because ancient mounds occupy elevated positions that offer strategic advantages.

At Tell Qarqur in western Syria, a settlement with more than 9,000 years of human occupation, satellite imagery showed that a military installation had destroyed much of the archaeological site by December 2017. Parts of the area were bulldozed several years later, which the researchers said may indicate subsequent looting.

The findings build on the team’s earlier survey of more than 3,600 archaeological sites across Syria. That research found that about 13% had sustained damage between 2011 and 2016.

The latest study paints a more troubling picture of what followed, even as front lines shifted and large-scale fighting diminished, the destruction of Syria’s archaeological heritage continued.

There are, however, signs that the most destructive phase may have ended.

Casana said the team had not identified new instances of large-scale mechanised destruction since the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad's government in December 2024.

A lack of consistent access to high-resolution satellite imagery makes it harder to determine whether smaller-scale looting has continued at the same pace. But Casana said greater political stability and the rebuilding of state institutions could offer Syria’s archaeological heritage its best chance of protection in years.

Since taking power, Syria’s new authorities have sought to curb the illegal antiquities trade. Officials say thousands of trafficked artefacts have been recovered since December 2024, while police have announced a number of arrests linked to antiquities smuggling and looting.

For sites that have survived empires, invasions and millennia of political upheaval, their future may now depend on something more ordinary: whether Syria can rebuild institutions capable of protecting them.

"As long as Syria's government can get itself on its feet and maintain a functioning police force and antiquities authority," Casana said, "that's the best thing that can happen to reduce the looting."