In the 1960s, a popular poster stated, “War Is Not Healthy For Children And Other Living Things.” It’s no secret that conditions in the Middle East last week went overnight from dicey to deadly. Thousands have been slaughtered in both the Israeli and Palestinian lands. Worse, unforgivable and inhuman atrocities have been inflicted on innocents including small children.
Nothing compares to the senseless loss of human life. Yet, there is another aspect of war, especially in the Middle East, about which most everyone involved appears unaware or apathetic. That’s the consequential and eternal ruination of invaluable artifacts. It’s proof war is not healthy for anything. Period.
The Middle East has long been one of the epicenters for historical relics and collectibles. More so than other regions, the arid climate helps preserve many ancient items....
Naturally, preservation assumes the land is undisturbed. If it has been untouched, archeologists are careful to gently brush away any dirt and sediment time has layered on top of an object. It is a meticulous process that can seem to take forever yet reap rich rewards. Alternately, if bombs and rockets rain down, wonderful historic sites and valuable treasures are sure to be permanently obliterated. Caches of riches hidden for millennia will be forever lost instead of recovered.
Take, for instance, just three years ago, in the small village of Yavne, Israel, a stone’s throw north of Gaza and south of Tel Aviv. There, two 18-year-old boys were assisting at an historic site. Archeologists were uncovering a building foundation and items thousands of years old. That’s when one of the teens spied an old earthen vessel. It was quite heavy. Inside they found over 400 pure gold coins dating back over 1,100 years. The gold value of the coins alone is north of $60,000. The historic/numismatic value puts the treasure at countless times that.
Now, consider the images we’ve all seen on TV showing the obliteration in Tel Aviv and in Gaza. Entire areas are being reduced to mere rubble. Last year, in 2022, before this latest round of combat carnage, farmer Nidal Abu Eid in Gaza was working in his field when he saw what appeared to be an old rock. He looked closer.
Abu Eid had found a baseball-sized limestone statuette head of the ancient Canaan goddess, Anat. Estimated to be over 4,500 years old, the carved Canaanite mythological deity was once the goddess of beauty, love, and war. The farmer said he knew the statue had special meaning because it included a carved snake atop the head.
According to lore, the snake represents abject strength. Anat is also said to have inspired Athena, the Grecian goddess of war who is also often surrounded by snake images. The value of the pre-bombing, intact sculpture head, which has survived since 2,500 BC, is said to be “priceless.”
In 2021, in an area on the Israeli coast just south of Haifa, fragments of ancient biblical scrolls were found including scriptures from a book of twelve minor prophets that contain information about the biblical End of Days. Those were in addition to the historic 1948 discovery of the original Dead Sea Scrolls in Judean Desert caves. Mere fragments of those scrolls are now worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. The caves where they were found are, incidentally, in Palestinian territory. Happily, they survived over 2000 years. Just imagine what else waits to be unearthed.
Accidental, peripheral damage to lost treasures is one thing. Intentional destruction is another. Such was the nightmare with giant statues of Buddha carved into the side of an Afghani cliff in 55AD. Standing upwards of 180 feet, the massive hand-carved statues stood in Bamiyan, Afghanistan. I say, “were” because, in 2001, the Taliban deemed them to be “graven image idols.” Extreme Muslim sects forbid such things.
Once a holy stopover for Buddhists on the legendary Silk Road, the modern Taliban couldn’t let them exist. They wanted them gone. To appease them, the Afghan government offered to drape the World Heritage site so they couldn’t be seen. No deal.
In 2001, just months before Islamic terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Center, the Taliban dynamited the majestic 1,500+ year-old statues. They selfishly blew them up so no human would ever see them again. They’re now gone forever.
No, war isn’t healthy for children. Nor is it good for anything. I’d wager something to that effect may be written in that recently found “End of Days” scroll – assuming it’s still around.
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