Khaled Asaad

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Khaled Asaad ( Arabic خالد الأسعد Chālid al-Asʿad , DMG Ḫālid al-Asʿad ; * 1933 or January 1, 1934 in Palmyra ; † August 18, 2015 ibid) was a Syrian archaeologist . Asaad was one of the most prominent experts on the ancient ruins of Palmyra and spent more than 50 years researching and restoring it as a responsible scientist. He waskidnapped and murderedby the Islamic State terrorist militia.

Life

Asaad attended primary school in Tadmor / Palmyra. He studied history and education at Damascus University . Asaad had been a member of the Ba'ath Party since 1954 . From 1961 he headed the excavation department in the antiquities directorate. From 1963 until his retirement in 2003, he was director of the museum and archaeological sites of Palmyra. He supported and promoted the international archaeological cooperation on site, which also included the missions of the German Archaeological Institute since 1980, he also worked with scientists from the USA , France , and Switzerland on the exploration of Palmyra from the Hellenism to the Islamic period . Based on the results of this work, UNESCO designated Palmyra as a World Heritage Site in 1980 . Asaad has published articles in archaeological journals and several books on Palmyra and the Silk Road . Asaad published a. a. Aramaic inscriptions from Palmyra.

Since the conquest of Palmyra in May 2015, the terrorist militia Islamic State (IS) has threatened several times with the destruction of the ancient site. These include a long colonnade street , Roman tombs and the Baal temple . In mid-July 2015, 82-year-old Asaad was kidnapped by IS and then repeatedly tortured. The British daily The Guardian reported that Asaad had refused to provide information on where ancient artifacts were hidden. On August 18, 2015, Asaad was beheaded in a square in front of the museum in Tadmor, today's city next to ancient Palmyra, and his body was put on public display . The IS murderers affixed a sign to his body that read The Apostle Khaled Mohammad al-Asʿad, supporter of the Nusairi regime .

Asaad came from an extended family of more than 60 members. He was the father of six sons and five daughters.

Honors

For his services to the archaeological sites of Palmyra he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Ordre national du Mérite , France , the Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland and the Order of Merit of the Republic of Tunisia .

Khaled Asaad has been honored in Pisa since October 2015. In the presence of President Mattarella , the excavation site at the Arsenali Repubblicani ( Museo delle navi antiche di Pisa ) was named after Asaad. A month later, a tree was planted for him in the “Garden of the Righteous” (Giardino dei Giusti di tutto il mondo) in Milan's Monte Stella Park and a room in the Museo delle Culture (Mudec) was named after him.

After the liberation of Palmyra, the orchestra of St. Petersburg's Mariinsky Theater gave a symphony concert with the star conductor Valeri Gergijew of the Munich Philharmonic in the Palmyra amphitheater on May 5, 2016 under the motto “A prayer for Palmyra: Music fills ancient walls with life”. The concert was dedicated to the memory of all those who lost their lives to the terrorists, especially the memory of Khaled Asaad.

In his honor, the International Archaeological Discovery Award “Khaled al-Asaad” has been presented since 2014 , which annually honors the five most important new discoveries in archeology.

In appreciation of the award, the archaeologist Paolo Matthiae describes it as follows:

Khaled al-Asaad was director of the archaeological excavations in Palmyra for over forty years. He was the archaeologist of this city, he worked with institutions from all countries: from France to Germany, from Switzerland to the Netherlands, from the USA to Poland and in recent years also from Italy with the Università Statale of Milan. He was a thorough scholar, but mostly he had the peculiarity of someone from the cities of the desert. These people, like the old Bedouins, are kind, nice and very hospitable, in a completely natural way, not excessive, but very moderate and discreet. Khaled al-Asaad was a very kind man, measured and with a kind soul. Even archaeologists who did not specialize in this period (Roman antiquity) often came to Palmyra to visit him; Khaled's kindness was absolute.
He was a man deeply rooted in his city, yet because of his international character, he was also a citizen of the world. On several occasions his name has been suggested for the position of Director General of Antiquities in Damascus, but I believe he preferred to stay in Palmyra, a city with which he identified. Khaled was so sure he was doing his job that he didn't think he had to escape. And if I remember him, he wasn't a man who feared for his own life. Even though he was retired and nearly 82 years old, he preferred to stay in his town; precisely because he understood that antiquities were in danger. And he probably imagined that his undisputed moral authority could protect what Palmyra has and still has to this day: the ruins of an absolutely extraordinary archaeological site, for the whole of the Mediterranean and for the whole world.

Publications (selection)

  • Nouvelles découvertes archéologiques en Syrie. Direction générale des antiquités et des musées, Damascus 1980. 2nd edition Damascus 1990.
  • with Adnan Bounni: Palmyra. History, monuments, museum. Damascus 1984.
  • Restoration Work at Palmyra. In: Palmyra (= ARAM periodical. Volume 7, 1). The ARAM Society for Syro-Mesopotamian Studies, Oxford 1995, pp. 9-17 ( doi: 10.2143 / ARAM.7.1.2002213 ).
  • with Jean-Baptiste Yon: Inscriptions de Palmyre. Promenades épigraphiques dans la ville antique de Palmyre (= Guides archéologiques de l'Institut Français d'Archéologie du Proche-Orient Vol. 3). Institut Français d'Archéologie du Proche-Orient, Beirut 2001, ISBN 2-912738-12-1 .
  • with Andreas Schmidt-Colinet (ed.): Palmyra's wealth through global trade. Archaeological research in the area of ​​the Hellenistic city. Two volumes. Holzhausen, Vienna 2013, ISBN 978-3-902868-63-3 , ISBN 978-3-902868-64-0 .

literature

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Year of birth according to GND and the German Archaeological Institute .
  2. ↑ Year of birth according to the Syrian Ministry of Culture .
  3. ↑ IS kills former chief archaeologists of Palmyra , tagesschau.de, August 19, 2015.
  4. ↑ Shielding Syrian Antiquities, to a Grisly Death at ISIS 'Hands. Obituary in The New York Times , August 19, 2015 (accessed August 20, 2015).
  5. ↑ IS beheads researcher. Horror over the murder of "Mr. Palmyra ” , Spiegel Online, August 19, 2015.
  6. ↑ Beheaded Syrian scholar refused to lead Isis to hidden Palmyra antiquities , The Guardian online, August 19, 2015.
  7. ↑ World Heritage Site in Syria: IS terrorists behead chief archaeologists at Palmyra Spiegel Online , August 19, 2015; Syrian archaeologist 'killed in Palmyra' by IS militants BBC News , August 19, 2015.
  8. ↑ mbc.net (Arabic) August 20, 2015.
  9. ↑ Tommaso Fabiani: Matarella inaugura gli Arsenali Repubblicani pisatoday.it, October 17, 2015.
  10. ^ Il “custode” di Palmira al Giardino dei Giusti Università degli Studi di Milano, November 5, 2015, accessed on November 16, 2015.
  11. ↑ Uno spazio del Mudec sarà dedicato all'archeologo milanotoday.it, September 10, 2015, accessed on November 16, 2015.
  12. ↑ Alasdair Sandford: Syria: Russian orchestra holds concert in Palmyra ruins , euronews.com, May 6, 2016
  13. ↑ Since there is no central website: As an example, the 5th edition 2018: International Archaeological Discovery Award “Khaled al-Asaad”, 5th edition ; accessed on November 26, 2018
  14. ↑ Quoted from: International Archaeological Discovery Award “Khaled al-Asaad”, 5th edition ; accessed on November 26, 2018
personal data
SURNAME Asaad, Khaled
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Asʿad, Chālid al-; خالد الأسعد (Arabic)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Syrian archaeologist and victim of terrorism
DATE OF BIRTH between 1932 and 1934
PLACE OF BIRTH Palmyra
DATE OF DEATH August 18, 2015
Place of death Palmyra