BAGHDAD — More
than 300 ancient cuneiform writing tablets were returned to Iraq on Monday from
a private Lebanese museum, as part of
Baghdad's widespread efforts to restore
antiquities looted during years of war.
اضافة اعلان
Sealed wooden boxes transported the 331
tablets bearing ancient cuneiform script from the Nabu Museum in northern
Lebanon to Baghdad, an AFP journalist said.
Iraq has seen its historical artifacts
looted for decades, including since the invasion by the
US in 2003, and the
rise of Daesh 10 years later.
"Today, Iraq has restored 331 cuneiform
tablets," the director of the Iraqi council of antiquities and heritage,
Laith Majid Hussein, told reporters.
The tablets date back to different eras, he
added, ranging from the Akkadian empire starting in 2,400 BC, to the third
Sumerian dynasty of Ur and through to the ancient Babylonian empire, ending in
1,594 BC.
The kingdom of Ur, founded more than 4,500
years ago, was one of the first centers of civilization.
Built on the banks of the Euphrates river,
it was the site of the first examples of writing in cuneiform script.
Hussein thanked Lebanon for their
cooperation, as well as the director of the Nabu Museum for having
"facilitated the restoration".
On Sunday, an official Iraqi delegation
received the artifacts in a ceremony at the National Museum of
Beirut.
The Nabu museum, named after the
Mesopotamian god of wisdom and writing, opened its doors in 2018 with a
collection of antiquities — some more than 3,000 years old — originating in
Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, and Yemen.
The returned pieces came from private
collections, most notably that of Jawad Adra, husband of former Lebanese defense
minister
Zeina Akar.
His private collection includes some 2,000
pieces, according to the museum catalog.
Iraq has recovered more than 18,000 artifacts
in one year, the vast majority of them from the US.
In December, the Iraqi authorities held a
ceremony to celebrate the return of the prized Gilgamesh tablet, dating back
more than 3,500 years.
Read more Region and World
.jpg)
.jpg)
