Among the many infamous crimes of isis—murderous bombings, beheadings, lashings, kidnappings—the destruction of archaeological heritage may seem insignificant. Compared with the barbarism committed against living human beings, surely the destruction of ancient monuments must be of secondary importance? Yet those crimes go hand in hand: isis and its affiliates were and are committed to the destruction of society and civilization both, including the memory of times, places, and peoples that contradict some of their most deeply held assumptions and beliefs.

For an American reader particularly, with our country’s relatively recent European settlement and general ignorance of the pre-Columbian Western hemisphere, the attachment to history that is felt in most other parts of the world can be difficult to grasp. But in the Middle East, as in Europe, one need not consciously consider the long ebb and flow of history to be affected by it. The mere existence of the ruins of Palmyra—once an important desert outpost on the Roman frontier—places the passerby as one in a long line of inhabitants on a given piece of land.

It is the smaller archaeological sites that dot the country—whose names are often known only to locals in the immediate vicinity and a few specialists—where the bulk of Syria’s historical and prehistorical heritage is found.

When isistook control of Palmyra, they destroyed the pre-Islamic pagan temples of Bel and Baalshamin and murdered Khaled al-Asaad, the director of antiquities for the city, for refusing to show them where