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ISIS
and Antiquities: The Missing Pieces
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ISIS
decapitates "humanity" and the " human heritage" in
this Arab cartoonist's rendering.
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Why does ISIS destroy and loot antiquities? Two explanations have been
offered. This first is Islamic antipathy towards the pre-Islamic past.
The second is that the group profits from selling looted antiquities. But
there is a third and equally sinister reason that has barely been
mentioned. Both destruction and looting comprise a system of social
control over captive populations, a system that strives to regulate
individual behavior down to the level of digging holes in the ground.
ISIS's ideological animosity is clear enough. It is loudly trumpeted
in their
propaganda videos that show the destruction of antiquities sites and
museums. It is also patiently explained in their online magazine Dabiq,
which taunted,
[T]he enemies of the Islamic State, who
were furious at losing a 'treasured heritage.' The mujahidīn, however,
were not the least bit concerned about the feelings and sentiments of the
kuffar. . . The kuffar had unearthed these statues and ruins in recent
generations and attempted to portray them as part of a cultural heritage
and identity that the Muslims of Iraq should embrace and be proud of. Yet
this opposes the guidance of Allah and His Messenger and only serves a
nationalist agenda.
These pronouncements make it clear that their motives are precisely
Islamic and have excellent precedent. Those who claim that these actions
somehow go against Islamic tenets or history are deluded. This iconoclasm
is no different from ISIS's punishments like amputation for theft or
stoning women for adultery—or throwing gay men off of the roof,
crucifying criminals or beheading enemies. ISIS explains this all very
clearly.
The goal is not simply economic
profit but psychological control.
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But ISIS's profit motive is equally clear. Looting of sites and
museums in Syria has skyrocketed since the start of the conflict.
Government forces, anti-Assad rebels and Kurds are all involved, but
ISIS introduced a level of organization and control that is unique.
Satellite photos show neat rows of looting holes on archaeological sites
in ISIS controlled territories.
Documents reveal that ISIS treats antiquities as a natural resource on
par with gemstones and stolen property. The same department, the
Diwan al Rikaz (Department of Precious Resources), that deals with
mines and minerals also handles antiquities. ISIS issues excavation
licenses, takes a share of goods when they come out of the ground, taxes
sales and does some amount of its own marketing, including through social
media.
And yet
recent studies, including one that I coauthored with Yaya Fanousie
for the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, suggest that profits
simply aren't that large. Far from the initial claims that ISIS was
making tens of millions or more from stolen antiquities, the true figures
are likely far lower. All observers agree that oil and stolen goods,
including funds taken from Mosul banks, comprise the bulk of ISIS's
wealth.
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A
U.S. State Department chart shows the internal structure of the
antiquities department of ISIS' Diwan al-Rikaz in Deir ez-Zor
governorate, Syria.
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Some antiquities can indeed be sold to the final buyer in Europe, the
United States or Asia for vast amounts. But most of the material coming
out of the ground—pottery, glassware, coins, architectural fragments—are
not high tickets items and are worth, at most, only a few thousand
dollars even at the final point of sale. And when they are extracted they
are worth far less; most studies of looted antiquities suggest that the
final sales price can be as much as 98 percent higher than what diggers
in the field are paid. Of course, to the impoverished residents of Syria
and northern Iraq even a few dollars have immense value. But where is the
value for ISIS if the total income from antiquities is only a few million
dollars, compared to, say, oil revenue, which for 2014 was estimated to
be between $100 million and $263 million?
The missing value of antiquities looting for ISIS lies precisely in
the realm of social control. ISIS is creating a state ostensibly modeled
on that of early Islam but does so with a modernist obsession with
bureaucracy. It produces a
stream of rules and regulations, for everything from school curricula
and children's vaccination schedules. It produces chits authorizing the
movement of fighters, it fixes the prices for childbirth, regulates
fishing methods, bans Apple products and sets college examination
schedules. And of course there is detailed religious guidance, including
for schools, which operate on "Islamic State time."
There are numerous taxes, including jizya for non-Muslims, and
on businesses and economic transactions, and fees for water, electricity
and other services. Antiquities are usually taxed at the khums
rate of 20 percent. And there are massive expropriations of
property—including at gunpoint—from Muslims and especially non-Muslims,
everything from cars, refrigerators and apartments to the most heinous of
all, slaves. A recent estimate suggests
roughly half of ISIS's monthly income derives from confiscation and
theft.
All these feed an imperial economy that relies on the continued
allegiance of fighters, now estimated to number
at least 30,000. Recruiters are paid
thousands of dollars for each fighter, depending on their skills.
Fighters themselves receive signing bonuses, monthly salaries, child
allowances,
honeymoon rewards, apartments and much more,
including slaves. The ISIS economy and ideology demand the continued
extraction of surpluses, and more importantly, mechanisms of social
control, including over antiquities.
Looting antiquities has been part
of the coping economy of Middle Eastern societies for centuries.
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Looting antiquities has been part of the coping economy of Middle
Eastern societies for centuries. Digging up antiquities from
archeological sites, and even using their organic rich soil as
agricultural fertilizer, is a traditional source of extra money for
Middle Eastern populations. By controlling antiquities like other
resources ISIS inserts itself into countless holes in the ground. It
taxes countless antiquities transactions along the supply chain and
controls the movement of the loot, guiding and directing what had been a
traditional economic activity.
The real goal is not simply economic profit but psychological control
over new ranges of behavior and thought. Making the central government
the absolute source of both rewards and punishments was a fundamental
part of ancient Mesopotamia, where thugs and their religious henchmen transformed
themselves from organized criminals into kings and priests. Similar
problems of paying fighters with loot helped drive the imperial expansion
of the Umayyad caliphate. ISIS's plunder of ethnic minorities in
particular is also reminiscent of
Nazi treatment of Jews and their property.
ISIS's checkpoints, surveillance and inspection
visits, public humiliations and punishments of
criminals and others, like
breastfeeding women who run afoul of its draconian ways, are parts of
a totalitarian vision of absolute control. ISIS has transformed the
pre-Islamic past of Syria and Iraq into a forbidden zone, a mere natural
resource to be exploited. But while the financial profits may be
relatively small, it also offers ISIS yet another way to control the
behavior and thoughts of its population, transforming them from captives
into dependents of what strives to be an all-powerful, divinely mandated
state.
Alex Joffe is editor of
The Ancient Near East Today, the monthly e-newsletter of the
American Schools of Oriental Research. He is also a Shillman-Ginsburg
Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
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