Iraq’s Stolen Antiquities Return Home

Sabah Arar Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

You then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? — Romans 2:21

Some of the historical items robbed from the Iraqi people by the owners of Hobby Lobby and Cornell University have finally been returned. Among the stolen items were cuneiform tablets which originated in Irisagrig, a 4,000 year old city somewhere in modern Iraq whose present location is known only by looters. Many of these artifacts are records of palace life, including the cost and storage of goods as diverse as cloth and dog food. Some bear incantations to Mesopotamian gods An, Enlil, and Enki, while a few others are bilingual, being written in both Babylonian and Emesal (a language once spoken exclusively by women).

Many of the stolen goods have yet to be returned, including a 3,500 year old clay tablet known as the “Gilgamesh Dream Tablet”. The Dream Tablet relates one of the dreams of the hero and was of interest to the “Museum” of the Bible as it mentioned a great flood, similar to the one found in the Bible’s Genesis.

Hobby Lobby received a fine of $3,000,000 USD and was required to return all of the thousands of artifacts it had secured through smuggling.