Spain Hands Over Iraq’s Stolen Cuneiform Tablets
July 31, 2012 Filled under Iraq Daily News

ERBIL, (AKnews) – Iraq has received nine cuneiform tablets from Spain that were stolen during the chaos that followed the fall of the former regime.

The Iraqi Foreign Ministry said in a statement that its ambassador in Spain Ziad Khaled and his associates received at the headquarters of the National Archaeological Museum of Spain nine cuneiform tablets that were stolen in illegal digging for archaeological sites in southern Iraq after 2003.

The ministry added that the delivery of the artifacts was completed in the presence of a number of officials of the Spanish ministries of foreign affairs and culture.

Through its missions at home and abroad Iraq returned nearly 115,000 pieces while a lot of them are still missing.

Last January German authorities handed over about 40 stolen archaeological pieces to Iraq that date back to various historical periods.