A decade of war has not only destroyed Syria's present and poisoned its future, it has damaged beyond repair some of its fabled past. Syria was an archaeologist's paradise, a world heritage home to some of the oldest and best-preserved jewels of ancient civilisations. When IS jihadists hurtled into Palmyra in May 2015 to expand the "caliphate" they had proclaimed over parts of Syria and Iraq a year earlier, the outcry was global.
