Al-Sarira
  • Home
  • Saudi Arabia
  • UAE
  • Bahrain
  • Yemen
  • Qatar
  • Afghanistan
  • Iran
  • Iraq
  • Syria
  • Lebanon
  • Palestine
  • Israel
No Result
View All Result
Al-Sarira
  • Home
  • Saudi Arabia
  • UAE
  • Bahrain
  • Yemen
  • Qatar
  • Afghanistan
  • Iran
  • Iraq
  • Syria
  • Lebanon
  • Palestine
  • Israel
No Result
View All Result
Al-Sarira
No Result
View All Result

Gilgamesh Tablet Back Home after a Long Journey; Iraq Fights Cultural Colonialism

Nayib AbrahambyNayib Abraham
December 12, 2021
in Culture, Iraq
0
Gilgamesh Tablet Back Home after a Long Journey; Iraq Fights Cultural Colonialism

Tablet of Gilgamesh is retrieved to Iraq after thirty years. Photo: Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

Iraq succeed in retrieving the Tablet of Gilgamesh from the United States after three decades. Unknown smugglers, potentially with state affiliations, removed the Tablet from Iraq Museum to take it to a museum in Washington.

Iraq officially received a small tablet with a 3,500-year age, featuring a section of Gilgamesh, an old religious mythological poem. The traditional treasure was plundered from the county more than thirty years ago.

The Tablet is worth more than $1.7 million and is one of the oldest remaining pieces of literary artifacts.  Besides its literary value, the Gilgamesh tablet is also a renown religious writing. It was first in the 19th century when the thousands-year-old tablet was discovered in the wreckage of Assyrian King Assur Banipal’s library.

Observers believe that the tablet went through a 30-year exile during the 1991 Gulf War. It was in Iraqi national museum when unknown groups stole and smuggled out the tablet. Authorities assume that smugglers traded the Dream tablet into the US 14 years later. Hobby Lobby, then, purchased and displayed it in the company’s “Museum of the Bible” in the capital.

Two years ago, federal authorities from Homeland Security Investigation confiscated the Gilgamesh product from the Hobby Lobby. The confiscation received approval in the current year by a judicial court in New York.

Iraq’s foreign minister introduced three antiquities that it retrieved from the United States and the UK. The Gilgamesh tablet was one among the three antique products that Iraq succeeded in recovering ownership. A Sumerian tablet and Sumerian ram’s head were the two others.

The Tablet of Gilgamesh is one of the oldest literary and religious artefacts with an age exceeding three thousand years. Cultural critics blast the western powers for looting the East off its cultural and traditional treasures for their unilateral interests. 

Tablet of Gilgamesh; One Among Many

Iraqi Minister of Culture and Antiquities described the Tablet of Gilgamesh in a press conference as having immense value. He said that the Tablet is one of the earliest literary works in the world’s history. “The message sent to all those who smuggle our antiquities and have sold them at international auctions: ultimately, the fate of such operations is restitution,” Hassan Nazim further explained.

The effort to retrieve the priceless objects has been the pinnacle of long years of coordination with the United States on the one side and Iraq on the other. 

Baghdad has rescued 18 thousand antiquities in 2021, almost all from the United States in the middle of current year. Iraqi Prime Minister returned most items in his flight back from a visit there. Al-Kadhemi visited Washington five months ago where he talked with US President on multiple issues.

20 years ago, the Tablet was in the United Kingdom as observer said. In 2003, a US art trader purchased it from a person in the British capital. He then sent it to the United States without disclosing its actual essence to customs. American antique dealers purchase the invaluable artefact for $50,000 four years later using a fake document of authenticity.

The Gilgamesh Tablet registered a new price in 2014 where Hobby Lobby paid $1.67 million to the owners. The Green family are devout Evangelicals who wished to showcase the Tablet as a religious artifact at their Bible Museum. Three years later, a museum director grew suspicious about its authenticity, believing that the paperwork was lacking.

The traces of UK and US in most traditional and cultural smugglings signals the necessity to investigate the roots. Colonialism continues in its cultural and societal forms decades after the end of conventional British domination.

Tags: ColonialismCulture ColonialismGilgameshGilgamesh TabletIraq

Related Posts

Blood Wedding in Iraq; Blaze Hall Claims 113 Lives
Society

Blood Wedding in Iraq; Blaze Hall Claims 113 Lives

September 27, 2023

Local authorities and rescue services said that the blaze that tore through a wedding party in Iraqi Nineveh region resulted in...

After Twenty Years; Why US Shirks Responsibility for Iraq Prison Scandal?
Politics

After Twenty Years; Why US Shirks Responsibility for Iraq Prison Scandal?

September 26, 2023

After over twenty years, Washington has not offered reparations or money to Iraqi sufferers of its military's mistreatment and brutality. Human...

The Story of an Unforgettable Robbery; How US, UAE and Israel Plundered Iraq's National Heritage?
Politics

The Story of an Unforgettable Robbery; How US, UAE and Israel Plundered Iraq’s National Heritage?

September 13, 2023

During the US invasion of Iraq back in 2003, thousands of valuable ancient Iraqi artifacts were stolen and smuggled out...

Iraq History Plundered after US Invasion; the Jewish Archive [Part II]
Culture

Iraq History Plundered after US Invasion; the Jewish Archive [Part II]

September 12, 2023

The ancient technique for engraved identification known as clay bullae was sent to Hobby Lobby in a shipment in September...

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

POPULAR POSTS

  • Israel Minister Arrives in Saudi Arabia; Is Tel Aviv-Riyadh Normalization Deal Close Now?

    Israel Minister Arrives in Saudi Arabia; Is Tel Aviv-Riyadh Normalization Deal Close Now?

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Nasser Ishtayeh: The Palestinian Photographer Who’s Been Shot 11 Times by Israeli Forces

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Blood Wedding in Iraq; Blaze Hall Claims 113 Lives

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Iggy Azalea Sparks Outrage in Saudi Arabia for ‘Blasphemous’ Song

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Despite Peace Talks with Neighbors, Saudi Arabi is Still Among the Biggest Military Spenders

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Next Post
Bennett in Abu Dhabi; Israel and UAE Expand Ties Despite Deep Rifts

Bennett in Abu Dhabi; Israel and UAE Expand Ties Despite Deep Rifts

al-sarira
Contact Us
About Us

© Copyright 2021 - All rights reserved

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Saudi Arabia
  • UAE
  • Bahrain
  • Yemen
  • Qatar
  • Afghanistan
  • Iran
  • Iraq
  • Syria
  • Lebanon
  • Palestine
  • Israel

© 2023 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.