30,000 ancient treasures saved from ISIS in daring archaeological rescue

Published in the journal Museum Management and Curatorship, the study details the rescue of the artifacts from the Deir ez-Zor Museum in Syria. 

The artifacts are described as "priceless and were saved from the museum before the city was captured by ISIS," news agency SWNS reported. Phys.org also reported on the study.  

The Deir ez-Zor haul was part of some 300,000 museum objects rescued and relocated across Syria.

Although the rescues took place in 2014 and 2015, new details about the operation have only recently been revealed in the study by Maamoun Abdulkarim, said SWNS. 

The museum held priceless treasures unearthed at some of Mesopotamia's most renowned archaeological sites, including Halaf, Dura-Europos and Mari.

Abdulkarim, a professor of archaeology and history at the University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, oversaw the operation as director-general of Syria's Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums.

In the study, he argued that carrying out such a rescue amid active hostilities requires far more than logistical planning.

"It fundamentally involves decision-making, institutional resilience, trust and the ability to adapt rapidly to changing circumstances," Abdulkarim said, as SWNS noted.

He said those events prompted Syrian antiquities authorities to urgently reassess their protection plans and accelerate efforts to safeguard museums in cities at risk of siege or collapse.

"In a cultural emergency, waiting for perfect conditions can become more dangerous than acting under uncertainty," Abdulkarim said.

"Heritage protection during war is not only about what we save," he said. 

"It is also about when we decide to act, whom we trust and how quickly we are prepared to adapt."