The researchers of the Institute, funded by Harvard University and the Classical Conclaves–including Oxford University–have been working on a plan to flood the artifact-laden zones of Iraq and Syria now nominally under Isis control with 5000-to-10,000 digital mapping cameras. Dr. Michel's race against time matters to everybody on the planet, and, the glad news is that it isn't just restricted to Syria and Iraq–it's region-wide, encompassing Lebanon, Turkey, Iran, and Yemen, most of which have their own arenas of conflict and thus pose their own dangers. The Insitute of Digital Archaeology is going directly after one of Isis' main propaganda prizes, the treasure that Isis wants to be seen destroyingin the secular world's eyes, that the masters of Isis want most to be seen destroying, namely, the recorded narrative of humankind as etched in Assyrian stone. The Times reported that the Oxford-based Institute for Digital Archaeology (IDA) will see thousands of cheap 3D cameras being sent to the areas most under threat. According to the Institute, which is working with UNESCO, as many as 20 million images could be compiled by 2017. Michel said international organizations such as UNESCO have partnered with the Institute for Digital Archaeology to help distribute the cameras to volunteers with government and nongovernmental organizations, local museums and antiquities societies, as well as to archaeologists and people who want to help protect their cultural heritage. Time is of the essence 
 
 The digital preservation project was conceived late last year and got off the ground about six weeks ago.
– Archaeologists and thousands of volunteers are in a race against time to digitally map some of the world's oldest and most important statues, temples, and cities before they can be destroyed by the Islamic State, the Los Angeles Times reports. If ISIS "is permitted to wipe the slate clean and rewrite the history of a region that defined global aesthetic and political sensibilities, we will collectively suffer a costly and irreversible defeat," Roger Michel, director of the Institute for Digital Archaeology, tells the Telegraph. In recent months, the terrorist group has blown up a pair of 2,000-year-old temples in Syria and destroyed Iraq's ancient city of Nimrud. ISIS considers these antiquities idolatry, and destroying them is a major facet of its propaganda, notes Forbes. To combat the loss of history, the institute—a venture between Harvard and Oxford—is spending $2 million to send at least 5,000 high-tech cameras to volunteers in the region to take millions of photos, the Telegraph reports. The institute will use the photos to create 3-D images, which could be used to make replicas of destroyed sites, something Forbes states MIT has offered to do. Taking photos at these sites will be dangerous work, and volunteers will only go to sites not yet controlled by ISIS, the Times reports. Though the project started only six weeks ago, time is of the essence. "We want to do something to document this legacy before it disappears," Michel tells the Times. (The group also beheaded an archaeological pioneer in the region.)