Replica of Palmyra Arch presented in New York

2016-09-22T17:57:00-04:00

A recreation of Palmyra’s Arch of Triumph was unveiled in New York on Monday, almost a year after Islamic State militants destroyed the original structure. The 1,800-year-old Roman arch was blown up by the extremist group last October, but a team of archeologists at Oxford University’s Institute for Digital archeology (IDA) set about recreating it, in an act of resistance to Isis’s rampant acts of cultural destruction in Iraq and Syria.

The recreation, which is two-thirds the size of the original, was constructed with 3D printing technology using Egyptian marble. Historically, the arch marked the entrance to the Temple of Baal, which was later converted into a church and then a mosque.

The recreated arch was displayed last spring in Trafalgar Square. It will stay in New York — at City Hill park — for one week before heading to Dubai.

Watch a video of the construction here:

For more on Palmyra and the destruction caused by ISIL, follow these links:

The new Monument Men: with 3D cameras and GPS data against cultural annihilation in Syria and beyond

2015-11-12T19:00:00-05:00

That’s why a team from the Institute for Digital Archaeology (IDA) is turning to the next best option—using technology to protect cultural heritage. Founded in 2012 by Roger Michel, IDA is a joint effort between Harvard University and Oxford University to create an open-source database of high-resolution images and three-dimensional graphics of things like paper and papyrus documents, epigraphs and small artifacts. Work on what IDA has named the Million Image Database began in early 2015.

The photo shows the Baal Shamin temple prior to its destruction. Volunteers of the Institute for Digital Archaeology were able to digitally archive the 2,000-year-old structure for the Million Image Database project just in time before ISIS fighters seized control of Palmyra's historic site.

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Replica of Palmyra Arch presented in New York

The new Monument Men: with 3D cameras and GPS data against cultural annihilation in Syria and beyond