Once again, the war in Ukraine is affecting the country's culture. Flooding following the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam has destroyed significant archaeological sites.
Churches, monuments, and museums are submerged all over the Kherson region. Archaeological sites dating back to the Scythians — a nomadic people who lived in the region in the 8th century BC — and a Greek settlement from around 400 BC have been damaged or irretrievably destroyed.
"The situation is unprecedented," says Kilian Heck, who helped initiate the Ukraine Art Aid Center after the Russian invasion last year. The network of art historians and museum experts organizes aid shipments with packaging materials, generators, or dehumidification equipment to protect works of art in Ukraine from the consequences of the war.
In frequent Zoom meetings, German art historians exchange information with colleagues from Ukraine. Colleagues from the flooded areas had recently reported corpses floating in the water, which had been washed out of the cemeteries by the masses of water. Animal carcasses floating in the water, as well as contamination, also raised concerns about epidemics.
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