A photoshopped frame of the destruction of a lamassu at Nergal Gate…

In the month since the destruction at Mosul Museum and the Nergal Gate Museum, at least in the West, there has been an increase in the profile of reporting and an explosion in the volume of commentary on political violence against cultural property in the conflict (specifically, political violence against archaeological heritage in Iraq, compared to the coverage of previous and ongoing destruction of religious sites in Iraq and Syria and beyond).

There have also been increasing calls for military intervention – albeit, remarkably, only to protect archaeological, cultural, historic sites, not the civilian communities who are the target of the genocide (and based on unevidenced, though not necessarily entirely false claims). I’ll post more on that soon. Still, cultural heritage workers and Western politicians are not the only people who are exploiting events. Amongst the confusion and advancement of political narratives, I spotted a peculiar image and wanted to query it and learn more about it.

Islamic State has toppled, sledgehammered and jackhammered (drilled out) artefacts in Mosul Museum and at Nineveh

It is notable that the Islamic State released this propaganda, to assert their religious purity through their commitment to cultural destruction, immediately after the were exposed for making a deal with Turkey and not destroying Suleyman Shah’s tomb.

Last June, it was rumoured and mistakenly reported that the Islamic State had ‘destroyed ancient masterpieces, including the rare Assyrian winged bull’ at Nineveh Museum. This time, they’ve done it – at Mosul Museum and the Nergal Gate to Nineveh [the Nergal Gate Museum at Nineveh]. You can stream or download the mp4 (or watch it on YouTube/YouTube archive).

But if, like other sensible people, you don’t want to boost the web traffic to their pornography of violence – which they try to advertise as Islamic although they also preserve “heretical”, “idolatrous” things as long as they profit from them – I’ve taken screenshots from the video for verification and analysis. Christopher Jones, at the Gates of Nineveh, has ongoing, historically-informed coverage of this and other destruction, including Assessing the Damage at the Mosul Museum, Part 1: the Assyrian Artifacts.

New video confirms destruction of the Victory Convent of the Chaldean Sisters of the Sacred Heart in Mosul

Hyperallergic have published my analysis of the evidence for the destruction of the Victory Convent of the Chaldean Sisters of the Sacred Heart in Mosul, Iraq, on the 24th of November. Sadly, it looks like it happened.

Comparison of frame of video via Gilgamesh Nabeel (3rd December 2014) on Endangered Heritage Sites in Iraq on Facebook (29th November 2014) and (flipped) photo by Younis Thanon on Ankawa (24th November 2014)

Is it me, has the video or photo been flipped, or are they the very similar cupolas of two different buildings?

[Hyperallergic have published my analysis of the evidence for the destruction of the Victory Convent of the Chaldean Sisters of the Sacred Heart in Mosul, Iraq, on the 24th of November. Sadly, it looks like it happened.]

I started reinvestigating the evidence for the destruction of the Chaldean Catholic nunnery in Mosul when Gilgamesh Nabeel shared an Iraqi community group’s video in a Facebook group for Endangered Heritage Sites in Iraq.

Alalam does not have any evidence that the Islamic State has destroyed Sufi shrines in Deir Ezzor, Syria, September 2014

Since some of Alalam’s false evidence was slightly less obvious than the rest (in the last post), I felt I should debunk it properly. Alalam News Channel‘s photos have been recycled from the documentation of earlier acts of violence in Syria in 2013, Iraq in 2014 and Libya in 2012. I won’t be online much for the next two or three weeks.

There is not yet any evidence that the Islamic State has destroyed Sufi shrines in Deir Ezzor, Syria, September 2014

Ruslan Trad @ruslantrad asked me, ‘is this true? “Islamic State destroys Sufi shrines in eastern Syria“‘ (in Deir Ezzor). I have fact-checked this report, but I repeat: I cannot do this fact-checking any longer.

Miracle of miracles, I actually have a very short period of paid work, for which I am working more than full-time. After that, I will have to work more than full-time on the book. I would dearly love to do this work properly, but no-one is paying me for it, not even the mainstream media that are using my work, and I cannot live without an income.

It is not the Catholic Cathedral of Saint Ephraim in Mosul, Iraq; it is the Coptic Church of Saint Tadros in Minya, Egypt

The co-founders of Iraq Heritage, (Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Doha Centre) Luay Al Khatteeb and (Executive Director of Iraq Heritage) Aymen Jawad have highlighted the urgency of saving vulnerable minorities – such as Christians, Yazidis, Shia Turkmen and Shabak – in Iraq.

There is no evidence yet that the historic cemetery in al-Shahwan (Mosul, Iraq) has been destroyed (2nd September 2014)

This is the last of five posts that are based on the efforts of the team for Monuments of Mosul in Danger. So far, there is no evidence that the disused cemetery in the al-Maydan neighbourhood has been destroyed.

There is no evidence yet that the Mosque of Sheikh al-Shatt (al-Maydan, Mosul, Iraq) has been destroyed (2nd September 2014)

This is the fourth of five posts that are based on the efforts of the team for Monuments of Mosul in Danger. So far, there is no evidence that the Mosque of Sheikh al-Shatt has been destroyed.

There is no evidence yet that the Shrine-Mosque of al-Imam al-Bahir (Mosul, Iraq) has been destroyed (2nd September 2014)

This is the third of five posts that are based on the efforts of the team for Monuments of Mosul in Danger. So far, there is no evidence that the al-Imam al-Bahir shrine-mosque has been destroyed.