File Archive of "Endangered Heritage Sites of Iraq"

File Archive of "Endangered Heritage Sites of Iraq"

Simone Mühl

After the terror organization known as Daesh/ISIS/ISIL captured Mosul, they initiated a series of destructive actions, including mass killings, deportations of population groups, and the targeted destruction of heritage sites and features.In the initial months, information regarding the conflict and its consequences was inadequately represented in Western media. To address this gap, the Facebook group "Endangered Heritage Sites in Iraq" was created to disseminate information to the broader public about the events affecting Iraqi heritage. The group also aimed to analyze various Iraqi media reports, including those from social media, and critically assess their reliability, as such information was being exploited to incite terror and fuel religious/ethnic conflicts among the population.

Initially, information was gathered using a Geographic Information System (GIS) approach, and the data was regularly updated. However, as the number of media outlets proliferated, and with the unchecked dissemination of often inaccurate information, the task of information mining became increasingly challenging. Additionally, as the conflict became more geographically static over time (mainly starting from 2015), the GIS approach became less suitable and just single media reports were picked and re-posted with analysis comments.

This file archive contains the original data published on Facebook from June 2014 to November 2015. It is organized in three groups. First, the map output of the collected data (YYYY-MM-DD_HeritageStatus_MonitorMap), a table listing threatened sites containing also the relevant media sources (YYYY-MM-DD_ThreatenedSites_Sources), and a table that roughly collected information about the occupation history of major cities (YYYY-MM-DD_Cities_Sources), which was relevant at that time for conflict prognosis and conflict party analysis. Nevertheless, this list was partly biased as the media reports were and may not serve as a reliable source, but rather as contemporary testimony.

Version	1.0
Last Updated	October 5, 2023, 7:01 AM (UTC-04:00)
Created	July 28, 2023, 8:25 AM (UTC-04:00)
Subtitle	Endangered Heritage Sites of Iraq
Publisher	DAI; Facebook
Funding	none
ROR ID	https://ror.org/03tg3dp70
In Language	English
Year of publication	2014-2015
Resource Type General	Dataset
Related Resources	Endangered Heritage Sites in Iraq