A small clay tablet dating back 3,500 years and bearing a portion of the Epic of Gilgamesh, that was looted from an Iraqi museum 30 years ago and recently recovered from the United States, has been formally returned to Iraq.
The $1.7m cuneiform tablet, known as the Gilgamesh Dream Tablet, is one of the world’s oldest surviving works of literature and one of the oldest religious texts. It was found in 1853 as part of a 12-tablet collection in the rubble of the library of Assyrian King Assur Banipal.
The tablet was looted from an Iraqi museum during the 1991 Gulf War. Officials believed it was illegally imported into the United States in 2003, then sold to the owners of craft store chain Hobby Lobby and eventually put on display in its Museum of the Bible in Washington.
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