Raqqa Museum

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The Museum of Raqqa

The Museum of Raqqa, also known as the Ar-Raqqah Museum or Rakka Museum (Arabic: مَتْحَفُ الرَّقَّةِ, romanized: Matḥaf ar-Raqqah), is a museum in Raqqa, Syria founded in 1981.[1] The structure housing the museum was built in 1861 and served as an Ottoman governmental building.[2] The museum is dedicated to the preservation of the culture of the Raqqa province.[3]

The museum notably curates large collections gathered from the excavation researches led in the region of Tell Sabi Abyad, Tell Bi'a, Tell Chuera, Tell Munbaqa, and various artefacts dating back to Roman and Byzantine times, as well as more recent objects from the Islamic period (notably the epoch of Haroun al-Rachid) and from the time of the bedouin domination.[4] Its first floor has three sections: Ancient, Classical Vestiges and Modern Art; and the second floor is dedicated to Arab and Islamic art.[5]

At its peak, the museum housed some 7,000 artifacts from the surrounding regions.[2] The Syrian Civil War caused damage to the museum with many of its items being stolen and destroyed during ISIL's rule over Raqqa.[6] After the capture of the city by the Syrian Democratic Forces in October 2017, the Raqqa Civil Council and its "Committee of Culture and Antiquities" in cooperation with the Vision (Ro’ya) Organisation, has started to restore the building and track down its stolen artifacts, beginning in early 2018.[7]

See also

References
  1. "Raqqa Museum". CDLI. Retrieved 25 November 2019.
  2. Ronahi TV (6 September 2018). "The Museum Of Raqqa Struggles To Recover Following ISIS Looting". Al Shahid Witness. Retrieved 7 July 2019.
  3. "Rakka Museum". Syrian Digital Library of Cuneiform. UCLA. Retrieved 17 January 2012.
  4. Danti, Michael D.; Zettler, Richard; Ashby, Darren P.; Hiatlih, Khaled; Abdo, Ristam; Ahmed, Amer; Qasim, Muntser; Cuneo; Gabriel, Marina (5 January 2018). "Special Report: Current Status of the Raqqa Museum" (PDF). American Schools of Oriental Research. p. 30. Retrieved 25 November 2019.
  5. Silverman, Helaine (2 November 2010). Contested Cultural Heritage: Religion, Nationalism, Erasure, and Exclusion in a Global World. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 187. ISBN 9781441973054.
  6. Hamou, Ammar; Limoges, Barrett (16 August 2018). Ismail, Abdullah (ed.). "'A treasure house of Syria's past': Archaeologists, NGOs reckon with scale of cultural looting in post-IS Raqqa". Syria Direct. Retrieved 25 November 2019.
  7. Arab 24 (21 August 2018). "Local organisation is rehabilitating archaeological sites in Raqqa". Al Shahid Witness. Retrieved 7 July 2019.
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