Gilgamesh tablet: US to hand back 3,600-year-old artefact to Iraq
The US will formally hand back a stone tablet of great historical importance to Iraq this week. It shows part of the Sumerian poem The Epic of Gilgamesh and at 3,600 years old, is one of the world鈥檚 oldest known texts.
It was looted from a museum in Iraq in 1991 and ended up entering America, and finding its way into a private Christian museum.
Stephanie Dalley, a Fellow of the Oriental Institute in Oxford, explains the historical significance of the tablet.
"It covers a part of the Gilgamesh epic that we don't know very well and it's absolutely wonderful that it will go back to Iraq where it really does belong. "
Photo: An engraving of one of the Epic of Gilgamesh tablets Credit: Getty Images
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