US returns more than 17,000 stolen artifacts to Iraq: including tablet from Gilgamesh cycle

More than 17,000 ancient artifacts from prehistoric, Assyro-Babylonian and Islamic times that had been stolen since 2003, when the United States invaded Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein’s regime, have returned home to the Middle Eastern country.

Notably among the finds is a 3500-year-old clay tablet that belongs to the Gilgamesh cycle: inscribed on the tablet is part of the epic of the king of Uruk, Gilgamesh, an epic cycle of Sumerian setting written in cuneiform characters that is considered the oldest literary text in the world.

The tablet measures about 15 centimeters by 12; it was stolen in 2003, sold at auction in 2014 to a wealthy collector, who displayed it for a number of years in the Washington Museum of the Bible, which he founded, and in 2019 seized by U.S. authorities as stolen property.

During Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi’s visit to the White House, U.S. President Joe Biden announced the withdrawal of the U.S. military in Iraq by the end of the year and the return of the missing ancient artifacts from the country and put on the international market. The United States is recovering such works found on U.S. soil, and already many important artifacts, such as the Gilgamesh tablet, are returning home.

US returns more than 17,000 stolen artifacts to Iraq: including tablet from Gilgamesh cycle

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