What's Been Lost

   Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it. So the famous saying goes. But what if there is no history to learn from? Chris Hedges calls this "The Assassination of Memory" in reference to Israel's destruction of cultural and historical sites in Gaza. Sites that include: Gaza's oldest mosque, which was once a Catholic church and before that was a Roman temple, a 12th century Greek Orthodox church, and the Ard Al-Moharbeen necropolis, which was unearthed in 2023 and contained graves from the first century B.C. 

   This gross annihilation is meant to erase the history of the Palestinian people and to empty the well of historical information that allows us to expose the historical farce that is the state of Israel. But, Israel is not alone in acts like these. Western governments have long used the argument of cultural superiority to justify their crimes. U.S, Israeli, and European colonial history is littered with examples of destruction and theft of art and culture. This destruction of culture and history helps to create this false image of cultural superiority that the West claims. 

   Starting from the oldest records of historical erasure we see the actions of colonial powers on their newfound subjects. Still today this plunder can be seen in museums across England, many of which contain Kenyan and other African artifacts that have never been repatriated. In North America, colonial dominance has left the landscape dotted with ancient mysteries such as Moundville in Alabama, which at its peak was the largest settlement north of Mexico. Speaking of Mexico, the ancient wonder city of Tenochtitlan that was built by the Aztecs has been completely lost in all its splendor due to the conquistadors and their greed. 

   Not all liquidation of memory is a thing of the distant past. The U.S, Saudis, Israelis, and private citizens from the West are responsible for modern incarnations of historical erasure. The Saudi government, despite their outward appearance as a fundamentalist Islamic state, built much of their state mythology by destroying ancient Islamic sites, including those with a direct connection to the prophet Muhammad. Further, the Saudis, with the support of the U.S, illegally bombed ancient cities such as Sanaa, destroying timeless architecture. 

  The United States also disappeared artifacts during its escapades in Asia following World War Two. During the Korean War, which killed at least 3 million Koreans and completely decimated daily living in the northern half of the peninsula, the United States indiscriminately bombed Buddhist temples and their artifacts. Not long after was Cambodia, where the U.S functionally supported the Khmer Rouge and their genocide as a bullwark against Vietnam and the Soviets. While the U.S was playing accomplice to Pol Pot's extermination campaign, wealthy Western art dealers such as Douglas Latchford paid the Khmer Rouge to smuggle out ancient Khmer artifacts from places like the awe inspiring Angkor Wat. 

   The United States of course also had many military adventures in West Asia. Afghanistan's many ancient wonders, many of which date to the dawn of human civilization, were not only destroyed by U.S bombs, but many were stolen as well. Same goes for Iraq. In fact many of Iraq's items of antiquity were robbed by the U.S military and its contractors and then sold to the owners of Hobby Lobby, who used the artifacts in their own farcical creation the "Museum of the Bible". 

   Art, culture, and history are lenses that allow us to look into the past. By looking at the past we look more critically at our present and at our future. The works of the ancient world remind us of our follies and they remind us that history is not a linear progression. We can in fact, regress. Even our Western societies are prone to this regression, no matter how much they clad themselves in rhetoric of superiority and endless progress.