Several years ago it was announced about the execution
of a Syrian archeologist, historian and curator of one
of the most spectacular archeological sites in the Middle
East. ISIS took this eighty-one year old scholar to the
city square of Palmyra and during the busiest time of the
day ISIS decapitated him. His headless body
was hung from a pole in town. His crime was
spending his life dedicated to the excavation
and preservation of a 2,000 year old Roman era
city. He loved the site so much that he named
his daughter for one of its’ queens and when
he could no longer work at the site he lived in
a house where he could see the ruins every day.
ISIS claims that he was a Director of Idols and
was thus executed. This is reminiscent of the
Taliban in Afghanistan blowing up gigantic
stories-high carvings in the name of stringent
Islamic ideals. There were concerns that the ruins in Palmyra
wouldl be destroyed as another ISIS shock-andawe
tactic.