Lebanon’s Ministry of Culture on Sunday, February 6, handed over 337 ancient artifacts to Iraq, local reports have said.
They were formally returned by Lebanon’s Minister of Culture Mohammed Murtada to Iraq’s ambassador to Lebanon during a ceremony held at the National Museum of Beirut.
The minister, speaking on the occasion, characterized these artifacts as “witnesses to the childhood of human history.”
He also highlighted the bilateral ties between Lebanon and Iraq.
The artifacts had been on display in a Lebanese museum for several years, said the reports.
The items are said to have included clay tablets and pieces of pottery.
They had been stored most recently at the private Nabu Museum in northern Lebanon.
The report gave no further details about the artifacts’ provenance.
Many of Iraq’s antiquities were looted during the country’s decades of war and instability
Quite a bit of this has happened since the 2003 invasion of the country led by the United States.
At least six shipments of antiquities and documents have been returned to Iraq’s museum since 2016.