Syria Today: Humanitarian Crisis and the Destruction of Cultural Heritage

On December 10, 2013 Stephen Cornish, executive director of Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Canada, and Clemens Reichel, assistant professor of Mesopotamian archaeology at U of T, associate curator of Near Eastern Archaeology at the ROM and curator of the exhibition Mesopotamia: Inventing Our World participated in a conversation about the crisis in Syria. 

MSF runs hospitals and health centres in Syria and the surrounding countries, and Cornish recently returned from the region. He will talk about the ongoing catastrophe of the Syrian conflict -- more than 100,000 people killed, two million refugees and four million displaced inside the country.

Reichel, who has been excavating in Syria for twenty years, will address the danger presented to Syria's archaeological sites, monuments and museum, and the threats to Syrian scholars and museum employees engaged in their protection.

In partnership with Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

Recorded at the Royal Ontario Museum on December 10, 2013.

Explore Mesopotamia was an informative and entertaining lectures series delving into the archaeology, art and innovation of Mesopotamia presented during the display of Mesopotamia: Inventing Our World.

No transcript available.

Added: December 24, 2013 - 10:34