The Syrian Crisis and Cultural Memory

Citing news reports from the height of the Syrian refugee crisis and academic papers relating to cultural identity and memory, I will suggest that the diaspora of Syrian people and the loss of their material culture will have extreme repercussions on the current and future identity of the Syrian people. This paper shines a light on the human cost of war and loss of irreplaceable material cultural heritage. I will posit the effects of such cultural trauma on the future of the displaced Syrian people by focusing on individual stories of loss, relocation, and change, using historical examples to validate the experience of the refugee. Finally, I will look to the future, grounding this analysis in scholarly theories of identity and memory to ask the question: what is next for Syrian identity? In May 2015 the terror group, ISIS first overtook Palmyra—a cultural World Heritage Site that dates back two thousand years. The destruction of the ancient Roman ruins was swift and devastating. The European shores have become awash with desperate and soaked Syrian refugees fleeing the war, and while the world is deeply concerned with the threats to human life, I am equally concerned with the material heritage being left behind by those fleeing. The Roman architecture, art, pottery, and massive works of human innovation and creativity that illustrate Syrian culture are literally being blown apart. My historian-self was afraid that this rich chapter of human history would be lost forever. Thankfully, I was wrong. In my research, I discovered archaeologists, scholars, religious people, cultural institutions, and the refugees themselves were working continually to salvage, preserve, and document cultural heritage. I discovered that there are many who share the same conviction that material culture is fundamentally important to identity