The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) celebrates today, Thursday, "a victory shown in the battle against illegal trafficking in cultural property" with the return of the "Gilgamesh" to its native home, Iraq, and the board contains inscriptions of texts from the Gilgamesh epic written in the Sumerian language and is fromThe oldest literary and religious texts in the world.
The archaeological piece was looted from an Iraqi museum in the wake of the turmoil in the country in the early nineties of the last century, and offered in 2007 for sale in fraudulent methods before the US Department of Justice seized it in 2019, according to UNESCO, according to UNESCO..
The plate was so dirt that it could not have been read at first;But when cleaning, experts realized that he describes part of the famous Gilgamesh epic that tells the adventures of one of the powerful kings of Mesopotamia in his endeavor to eternity.
An American art dealer bought this archaeological piece in 2003 from a family residing in London and shipped to the United States, without declaring to American customs about the nature of this shipment..After the tablet arrived in the United States, the merchant sold it in 2007 to other merchants for 50 thousand dollars, using a forged establishment certificate.
And in 2014 I bought this plate -at a price of 1.$ 67 million- Green family, which owns the Hobby Lobby store, with the intention of displaying it at the Bible Museum in Washington.
But in 2017, a museum's secretary expressed concern about the source of the board, after it was found that the documents that were presented during his purchase were not complete..
In September 2019, the police confiscated this archaeological piece, until the federal judge had believed last July to confiscate it.
A statement of the Ministry of Justice quoted the public prosecutor - Jacquen Kasolis - responsible for this case as saying that the decision issued two months ago "represents an important step towards the return of this global literary masterpiece to its original homeland.".
The American judiciary ordered - in July 2017 - the Hobby Lobby company to return to Iraq thousands of artifacts dating back to the Mesopotamia era, which were exported to the United States illegally, within the archaeological treasures that include - especially - poolsOther and old seals.
Gilgamesh epic
Critics and researchers in the field of legends considered that the epic represents a popular text, as it was circulating on the occasions and holidays during which the rituals were held, where the events and texts of its chapters appear on the bench, streets and squares.
Thus, her popularity gained her approach to the concerns of the nationals in "Uruk" or "Al -Warka" (the city in which Gilgamesh lived and his famous epic wrote)And it became part of the bookstore and documents at the time, along with other signs, according to a previous report by Al -Jazeera Net.
This epic - which is considered one of the oldest literary works of mankind - is still a fertile appointment for writers, researchers and writers alike, as it is one of the most epics of the literature of the ancient civilization of Mesopotamia Kholouda, and its history dates back to the eraFrom that period, after the texts of the religious pyramids.
The "Gilgamesh" epic begins with 5 Sumerian poems from Belgamesh (the Sumerian word for Glogamsh), the king of Al -Warka, and the sources confirm that it has become a reference for an epic poem collected in the Akkadian language.The oldest remaining version of that combined epic bears the name (the old Babylonian) and dates back to the 18th century BC.
Only a few clay panels remain from that poem.A person named "Sin Legi and Nini" was able to collect a copy of the epic dating back to the 13-10 BC and bearing the name "He who saw the abyss", or with contemporary words "who sees the unseen".
About two -thirds of this version with 12 clay panels was retrieved.I discovered some of the best copies immediately in the ruins of the Royal Assyria Banipal Library (Mosul City) from the seventh century BC.
And the blogger made the epic in the form of sections, and he wanted to appear its dramatic action apparent to make it a popular text;The first section was from Gilgamesh and Incido, and the last of a wild man created by the gods (according to what they claim) to put an end to the tyranny of Gilgamesh on the people.
The epic in Alsumaria was written and translated into Al -Akkadiya before the discovery of the letters of the Arabic language, and it tells in its remarkable suggestion of global features that are not limited to a specific place, people or land, but rather the geographical borders with a global projection through what it tells of the city of "Uruk" and its people governed by a king -A third of it is a god and the other third is a human being- He is Gilgamesh, the son of the god.
The treasures of Iraq lost
Nada Shabout, a professor in the history of art and the coordinator of the contemporary Arab and Islamic cultural studies initiative at the University of North Texas, explained in an article in the Washington Post newspaper, that this tablet is one of more than 17 thousand artifacts and treasures that Iraq began to recoverfrom the United States.
Shabout commented that this is joyful news, as they worked to document and pursue the missing Iraqi heritage.However, this rare incident should not block the fact that Iraq was and still is subject to looting and theft without punishment.
She added that more than 18 years have passed since the invasion of Iraq, and the country is still in a state of chaos, and many of its cultural heritage are still missing, noting that this loss is exhausted, and that many Iraqi youth are far away - because of this loss - from their history and their collective memoriesAnd their national identities, and they cannot reach them, and she asked: How can these young people form their future?
Shabout continued to say that Iraq "is often called the cradle of civilization, its rich history, which dates back to the first days of humanity, because its soil is filled with historical evidence in the form of archaeological sites, many of which were not excavated, which offered its safety to a continuous threat, and I was damaged by the invading machinesMilitary, and in the hands of thieves who work publicly ".
She said that since 2003, the ancient works stolen from Iraqi museums or archaeological sites have appeared, and they were circulated in different parts of the world.And from time to time, there is news about stolen works, but rather the 4400 -year -old stone statue of the Sumerian king Antimina from Lachch, who was recovered in 2006 and returned to Iraq in 2010.
However, the writer adds that most of the looted things were not found or unable to be returned, and the Iraqis were deprived of the heritage of their ancient country, and things also disappeared from the glorious times of Iraq, but they were often overlooked, and they also disappeared.
Shabout explains that this loss has traces in the present of Iraq, which started in the twentieth century when its modern state was established, partially expresses himself through his art, and that Iraqi artists succeeded"Distinguished Iraqi icon", and they helped imagine a new national identity.