The Gilgamesh tablet finally returns to Mesopotamia

Shafaq News/ Iraq recovered the Gilgamesh tablet and the ancient Sumerian sheep, which were stolen along with thousands of valuable antiquities.

The Gilgamesh tablet is a 3,500-year-old clay tablet containing inscriptions in the Sumerian language for parts of the Epic of Gilgamesh.

 It was stolen from Iraq in 1991 and traded in international auctions. In 2007, it was introduced to the American art market.

 In 2019, it was confiscated by the US Department of Justice and placed in the Museum of the Bible in Washington.

 The Minister of Culture, Tourism, and Antiquities, Hassan Nadhim, said there is great cooperation to return the stolen artifacts, noting that the Antiquities and Heritage Authority is working hard in cooperation with other institutions.

Yesterday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs revealed that Iraq will recover a very valuable artifact.

 The spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ahmed Al-Sahaf, said in a statement that the tablet of Gilgamesh will arrive in Baghdad tomorrow.

He noted that the recovery diplomacy helped return more than 17,500 artifacts this year.

 Gilgamesh is a historical king of the Sumerian state of Uruk, and the hero of the Epic of Gilgamesh, written in the late second millennium BC.