Systematic attacks on humanity's very first civilizations have never been as widespread as in the last 20 years. Many years of war and conflict have taken a heavy toll on cultural heritage in the Middle East.
"We believe that the looting that has taken place in the Middle East is the most extensive since the Second World War," says author Anders Rydell.
Illegal trade and looting
Destroy the false gods – Palmyra and the war on cultural heritage paint a portrait of the ideological and underlying causes of the destruction, pillaging and plundering of humanity's oldest high cultures.
"We don't know how much has been destroyed, huge areas of archaeological sites were destroyed. Iraq and Syria have the richest archaeological soil on the planet, says Anders Rydell.
Acclaimed World Hero
The frame story begins in the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria with an 82-year-old museum director named Khaled al-Asaad. He became a celebrated world hero for his fight to protect the museum objects and the ancient city of Palmyra against the siege of ISIS during the Syrian civil war in 2015.
"He had the chance to flee when ISIS besieged the city, but he refused. ISIS beheaded him, photographed and disseminated the images. He became a kind of martyr for cultural heritage," says Jesper Huor.
Exploitation is the biggest threat
The greatest threat to cultural heritage comes from exploitation – destroyed cities in war are to be rebuilt, which risks destroying the soil.
The idea of what a cultural heritage is and what a museum can be was born in 1700th century France. Attacks on the Middle East's cultural heritage are thus as much an attack on Arab nation-states as on European ideals and values, the authors argue.
"When we talk about the Islamic State, their destruction of temples in Palmyra, it was above all a ritual, symbolic destruction," Rydell explains.
"And if we hadn't thought that these temples or statues were important and classified as UNESCO-listed, they wouldn't have been attacked," adds Jesper Huor.