A retrieved ancient artifact is displayed at the headquarters of the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Baghdad, Iraq, Dec. 7. 2021. (Xinhua/Khalil Dawood)
Iraq retrieved some ancient artifacts, including a 3,500-year-old clay tablet known as Gilgamesh's Dream which was smuggled away 30 years ago.
BAGHDAD, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- Iraq on Tuesday retrieved some ancient artifacts, including a 3,500-year-old clay tablet known as Gilgamesh's Dream which was smuggled away 30 years ago.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said, in a joint press conference with Minister of Culture, Tourism, and Antiquities Hassan Nadhem, that the artifacts were recovered from the United States and Britain.
The recovered 3,500-year-old clay tablet, which is part of the epic of the Akkadian king Gilgamesh. The approximately 6-by-5-inch tablet is known to be one of the world's oldest works of literature. The cuneiform tablet was stolen from Iraq in 1991 during the Gulf War.
During a ceremony held at the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hussein said so far Iraq has recovered "17,916 antiquities from the United States, Britain, Italy, Japan, and the Netherlands, with joint efforts of the Ministry of Culture, Iraqi embassies, and UNESCO."
Iraq has accomplished the largest antiquities recovery operations over the past four months, according to Nadhem.
The retrieved Gilgamesh's Dream tablet is displayed at the headquarters of the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Baghdad, Iraq, Dec. 7. 2021. (Xinhua/Khalil Dawood)
Late in July, Iraq announced the recovery of some 17,000 looted artifacts from the United States, including tablets dating back to 4,500 years ago and bearing cuneiform inscriptions documenting the trade exchanges during the Sumerian civilization.
According to the official statistics, about 15,000 pieces of cultural relics from the Stone Age, the Babylonian, Assyrian, and Islamic periods were stolen or destroyed by looters after Saddam Hussein's regime was toppled by U.S.-led troops in 2003.
The Mosul Museum and the ancient cities of Hatra and Nimrud were destroyed and large numbers of antiquities smuggled after the Islamic State militants took control of large territories in northern and western Iraq in 2014.
More than 10,000 sites in Iraq are officially recognized as archaeological sites, but most of them are not safeguarded and many still being looted. ■
