A heavy black basalt stele decorated with a carved eagle, open wings clutching a wreath, and a Greek inscription was unearthed in Manbij east of Aleppo. Archaeologists estimate the stele to be about 2,000 years old and likely a Roman-era funerary stele from a grave. The stone was first spotted by a local resident behind the Cardamom wholesale market and reported to the Directorate of Museums and Antiquities, which excavated and recovered it. Syria's civil war inflicted massive cultural losses: about one million artifacts were looted between 2011 and 2019 and over 700 archaeological sites sustained heavy damage. Manbij became a smuggling hub as control shifted among the Assad regime, the FSA, ISIS, and the SDF, each imposing different systems that enabled widespread digging and illicit trade.
Digging for treasure was a controlled cronyism system under the Assad regime, and when the Free Syrian Army (FSA) took control of the city in 2012, the lack of oversight led to a proliferation of crude, disorganized looting operations. ISIS instituted a licensing system when it took control in 2014, allowing anybody to dig for antiquities on their land as long as they got a permit first.
Anything they discovered that was made of precious metals or ceramic finders had to pay a portion of their value to the ISIS government. Any artifacts they found with figural depictions had to be handed over to ISIS for destruction. When the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) ousted ISIS in 2016, its leadership became involved directly or by proxy in excavations, they enacted informal protection rackets where locals were provided security in exchange for antiquities.
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