A Sumerian Tablet Stolen From Iraq Will Be Delivered To Baghdad Soon

Dubai / NINA /- The British Museum announced its assistance to the British police in identifying a 4,000-year-old Sumerian tablet stolen from Iraq, revealing that it will soon be handed over to the Baghdad authorities. The tablet was offered for sale in an online auction in May 2019, as an Akkadian tablet from Central Asia, but the doubts of its origin raised suspicions from the British police, who sought the help of the London museum to determine the identity and origin of the piece. The tablet carved into limestone, representing a person wearing a traditional Sumerian skirt, is in fact part of a votive wall panel, dated 2400 BC. The museum said in a statement that "such panels are very rare, and there are only about 50 of them today," expressing their satisfaction at this "exciting and important" discovery, noting that all similar pieces were found in the sites of important Sumerian cities in Iraq and Syria. The researchers explained that the distinctive style of the panel is one of the prevailing patterns in southern Iraq, considering that the effects of the fire on it confirm that it came from the "Tal Lawh" site, the site of the Sumerian city of Girsu, such as pieces with traces of fire found at the same site. The museum confirmed that "this piece was taken from Iraq illegally," noting that this site was subjected to widespread looting at the end of the 19th century, and in the two Gulf wars and the Iraq war in 2003. The museum expressed its pleasure "in helping to return this important piece to Iraq," noting that it will be displayed on its walls with the approval of the Iraqi authorities, pending return to it. The Iraqi ambassador to Britain, Muhammad Jaafar al-Sadr, praised the "wonderful cooperation" between the museum and the concerned authorities in Baghdad, noting that "other pieces will be returned in the near future." Since 2009, the museum has helped return more than 2,300 stolen artifacts, including those handed over to Iraq, according to its statement./ End