If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to [email protected]. The archaeological heritage of the world’s first cities is a priceless, nonrenewable resource and is at greater risk now than at any other time in human history. Looting and armed conflict have taken their toll in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere in the Middle East, but the biggest threat to many archaeological sites is agricultural and urban development. To document, preserve, and protect these vital links to human history, the Oriental Institute will create the Chicago Center for Archaeological Heritage Preservation (CCAHP): the first effort of its kind to systematically map, catalog, and monitor at-risk archaeological sites in the Middle East and other regions.