Iraq: displays 2,800-year-old stone tablet returned by Italy
Iraq: displays 2,800-year-old stone tablet returned by Italy
Iraq: displays 2,800-year-old stone tablet returned by Italy
Italian authorities handed over the ancient tablet to Iraq after more than four decades.
A 2,800-year-old stone tablet has gone on display in Iraq after being returned by Italy following nearly four decades.
The artefact is inscribed with complete cuneiform text - a system of writing on clay in an ancient Babylonian alphabet.
Italian authorities handed it over to Iraq's President Abdul Latif Rashid in the city of Bologna last week.
It is not clear how the tablet was found - or how it made its way to Italy where it was seized by police in the 1980s.
Iraqi Culture Minister Ahmed Badrani said that it might have been found during archaeological excavations of the Mosul dam, which was built around that time.