Researcher ORCID Identifier
https://orcid.org/0009-0005-7558-8376
Graduation Year
2026
Document Type
Open Access Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Classics
Second Department
Anthropology
Reader 1
Jody Valentine
Reader 2
Omer Shah
Terms of Use & License Information
Rights Information
© 2026 Tristen A Leone
Abstract
This paper investigates how Palmyra's multicultural archaeological archive incited ISIS's destruction of the site during the Syrian Civil War through an analysis of sepulchral and religious architectural structures and onomastic practices. In contributing the cultural heritage scholarship, this paper places the motives of Islamic extremist groups in conversation with intellectual discourse around the multicultural identities of the Ancient Near East during the Roman Imperial Period. Further, through anthropological methodological frameworks and the photographic archive of excavation efforts at Palmyra, I aim to center modern local communities' experiences of living on and near an archaeological site like Palmyra. In consulting modern examples of multicultural identity amongst different Syrian communities, I link the ancient and present in comparing modern experiences with traces of ancient experiences left behind in the archaeological archive.
Recommended Citation
Leone, Tristen A., "An Ideological Target Through the Archaeological Archive: The Islamic State’s Destruction of Palmyra and its Impact on Local Syrian Identity" (2026). Pomona Senior Theses. 379.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/pomona_theses/379
Included in
Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque Art and Architecture Commons, Archaeological Anthropology Commons, Classical Archaeology and Art History Commons, Islamic World and Near East History Commons, Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons
