Lebanese museum returns antiquities to Iraq

BAGHDAD: More than 300 ancient cuneiform writing tablets were returned to Iraq on Monday from a private Lebanese museum, as part of Baghdad’s widespread efforts to restore antiquities looted during years of war.

Sealed wooden boxes transported the 331 tablets bearing ancient cuneiform script from the Nabu Museum in northern Lebanon to Baghdad, an AFP journalist said. Iraq has seen its historical artifacts looted for decades, including since the invasion by the United States in 2003, and the rise of the Islamic State militant group 10 years later.

"Today, Iraq has restored 331 cuneiform tablets," the director of the Iraqi council of antiquities and heritage, Laith Majid Hussein, told reporters. The tablets date back to different eras, he added, ranging from the Akkadian empire starting in 2,400 BC, to the third Sumerian dynasty of Ur and through to the ancient Babylonian empire, ending in 1,594 BC.