A collection of eight ancient artifacts was confiscated by British police in 2003, after the dealer failed to provide paperwork as to their provenance. After spending 15 years in storage, police turned them over to the British Museum in 2018, and researchers there were able to identify the place the objects originated. The collection includes an inscribed polished river stone, an inscribed gypsum mace-head, a marble bull pendant, two stamp seals, and three clay cones with Sumerian cuneiform inscriptions. All of the objects date from 2200 BC–3000 BC. It was the three cones that, when translated, identified the temple they came from and the Sumerian king who ordered the construction. In an incredible coincidence, the British Museum actually had an archaeologist training a team of Iraqi archaeologists on-site at Tello (ancient Girsu). An investigation at the temple of Eninnu revealed not only the wall the cones came from, but the actual holes in the wall that they were looted from. The British Museum will be returning the artifacts to Iraq with the hopes that they can be studied.
Off-site Links:
- https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-45132517
- https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/09/looted-iraqi-antiquities-return-home-after-uk-experts-crack-cold-case
- https://www.dawn.com/news/1426119
