Cradle of Civilization in Peril

In the mid-13th century, a Mongol invasion cut a wide swath of cultural ruin through the Middle East, including the destruction of the great library of Baghdad. It took the region centuries to recover. Today, many Iraqi and Syrian archaeologists evoke this infamous chapter in medieval history to convey some sense of the devastation wrought by the so-called Islamic State (ISIL), along with the continued brutality of more than four years of civil war in Syria.