The destruction of the Temple of Nabu in the Assyrian city of Nimrud in northern Iraq by the Islamic State (Isil) has been condemned by Unesco and a leading UK archaeologist. As part of its propaganda campaign, the jihadist group issued video footage earlier this month that appeared to show part of the ancient archaeological site being blown up.
The United Nations training and research agency, Unitar, released satellite images taken on 3 June confirming the damage to the temple, which was built in the ninth century. “Compared to imagery collected 12 January [2016], we observe extensive damage to the main entrance of what is known as Nabu Temple,” the agency said.
The gate and the walls of the temple, dedicated to the Babylonian god of wisdom, were built centuries later. “In general, it seems that they [Isil] do not have the knowledge to distinguish between modern reconstructions of buildings and the ancient remains. They display a formidable ignorance. But when explosives and bulldozers are used, some serious damage can be done,” says Colin Renfrew, an archaeologist at the University of Cambridge and member of the House of Lords.
“Extremists cannot silence history and their attempt to erase the memory of this region can only fail. The deliberate destruction of heritage is a war crime and must be punished as such,” says Irina Bokova, the director-general of Unesco, in a statement.
The Isil “video taken from several angles shows explosives being detonated behind and under the [entrance] arch,” the archaeologist Christopher Jones writes on his blog. A series of mermen sculptures flanking the arch were seriously damaged.
He adds: “As can be seen in after shots, the arch collapsed but the majority of the structure is still standing… In a move surely calculated to provoke a media reaction, the video concluded with an Isis member stating that the group intends to go to Egypt and blow up the pyramids and the sphinx.” The video footage also shows a bulldozer demolishing the seventh-century Mashki Gate in Nineveh, which is also located in the north of the country near the city of Mosul.
