Siria între antichitate și actualitate. Situația vestigiilor arheologice în contextul primăverii arabe

Abstract

The Middle East area is full of history more or less known even by archaeologists and historians. This makes this area devoid of its due importance. The Orient area hosts among the oldest permanently inhabited human settlements of which there are testimonies and documents. Unfortunately, archeological research began recently, about a century ago, and has managed to bring to the surface only a part of the history of those places. However, we are glad that the interest in this area is also due to the culture, not only to the oil fields that we find in the Arabian Peninsula. We highlight this aspect because, as we will see in the following lines, not always a very coveted resource brings with it a certain advantage. The geographical position of Syria has made it a disaster for several ancient cities, including Palmyra, Damascus or Ebla. These cities were the „collateral victims” of resource struggles. The aim of the paper is to highlight the rich past and the poor present that the cities I will talk about have.