Idir Ouahes is a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Exeter. His thesis, to be completed this year, Method of the Mandate, includes a chapter on France’s organization of an antiquities service in the early 1920s as it took over Syria and Lebanon. https://www.newsdeeply.com/syria/contributor/idir-ouahes/rss en Wed, 24 Feb 2016 00:00:00 +0000 Idir Ouahes https://www.newsdeeply.com/syria/community/2016/02/24/what-can-be-done-for-syrias-antiquities https://www.newsdeeply.com/syria/community/2016/02/24/what-can-be-done-for-syrias-antiquities The hazy question of ownership lies at the core of the trade and destruction of Middle Eastern artifacts. As the Syrian civil war becomes increasingly complex, familiar questions call out for an answer: who owns a country’s antiquities and what can be done to protect them in times of unrest?