The clay tablet contains fragments of the Epic of Gilgamesh, considered one of the oldest literary works of mankind and tells of the adventures of a powerful king of Mesopotamia in search of immortality. It is believed to have been stolen from a museum in Iraq in 1991 during the Gulf War.
An American art dealer bought the cuneiform in 2003 from a family in Jordan who settled in London, although it was “illegible because of elements inlaid on the surface,” according to court documents.
The trader then sent the packaged shipment to the United States without specifying its nature to customs and sold it to antique dealers in 2007 for $ 50,000 with a fake certificate of origin.
The clay tile was eventually sold in 2014 for $ 1.67 million to the owners of the Hobby Lobby chain, the Green family, known for their Christian activity, who want to exhibit it at their Bible Museum in Washington.
In 2017, a curator at the museum expressed concern about the origin of the cuneiform, considering the documents provided at the time of purchase to be incomplete. Police seized him in September 2019.
The return of the precious cuneiform is “a great victory over those who are crippling the legacy” and allows “the Iraqi people to renew a page in their history,” according to a press release issued by Audrey Azoule, UNESCO‘s director-general, who will attend the ceremony. Washington on his surrender to Iraqi authorities.
In July, 17,000 archeological finds, most of them about 4,000 years old, were returned to Iraq from the United States. Most of them date from the Sumerian period – one of the oldest civilizations in Mesopotamia.
Iraqi antiquities have been looted for decades.
“Theft and illicit trafficking of ancient artifacts continues to be a major source of funding for terrorist groups and other organized crime organizations,” said a statement from the Paris-based United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
Meanwhile, they unraveled the secret of an ancient Babylonian clay tablet
Plimpton 322 is an amazing mathematical work, a testament to undeniable genius, “said researcher Daniel Mansfield.
Australian scientists claim to have solved the mystery of a 3,700-year-old Babylonian clay tablet, defining it as the world’s oldest and most accurate trigonometric table, DPA reported.
Specialists from the University of New South Wales have deciphered the signs on the plaque, which puzzled experts since its discovery in the early 20th century in southern Iraq.
Scientists have concluded that the tile was used by ancient copyists of mathematical manuscripts to calculate how to construct palaces, temples and canals, according to a statement from the university team.
Known as Plimpton 322, the four-column, 15-row cuneiform tablet was discovered by archaeologist, scientist, diplomat and antiques dealer Edgar Banks, who inspired the Indiana Jones character.
“Plimpton 322 has puzzled mathematicians for more than 70 years after it became clear that the tile contained a special model of numbers known as the Pythagorean triplets. the numbers on the tile.
The present study shows that Plimpton 322 describes the shapes of right triangles based on innovative trigonometry.
The tile is an amazing mathematical work, testifying to an undeniable genius, “said Daniel Mansfield of the research team.
Illustration: The clay tablet contains fragments from the Epic of Gilgamesh, considered one of the oldest literary works of mankind (Photo: United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York)
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