Culture Ministry announces numbers of recovered artifacts over the past three years

INA-  BAGHDAD

The Ministry of Culture announced, on Thursday, the number of artifacts recovered during the past three years, while noting that there is government coordination to limit the random excavations of archaeological sites.

The ministry's official spokesman, Ahmed Al-Alawi, told the Iraqi News Agency (INA) that “There are great efforts to restore antiquities, two years ago, 17,338 archaeological pieces were restored from the United States and a number of countries, as well as a the first clay tablet on which the first poetic epic of Gilgamesh was written in creation 3500 BC."

He pointed out, "a month and a half ago, within the large recovery file, 6,000 archaeological pieces from England that were borrowed to the British Museum 100 years ago were returned by the presidential plane of the President of the Republic, the president was accompanied by the Minister of Culture, Tourism and Antiquities Ahmed Al-Badrani and was officially deposited in the Iraqi Museum."

He pointed out that "terrorism played a heinous role in sabotaging some archaeological areas by stealing many artifacts, especially from the city of Mosul, which contains important archaeological treasures.”

He explained, "The ministry continuously appeals to the people in the areas near the archaeological sites to report suspicious cases harmful to Iraq's heritage."

He pointed out that "the efforts made today by the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Antiquities is an exceptional effort to preserve the Iraqi archaeological identity, for this purpose the Ministry is making continuous efforts through monitoring, follow-up and participation in meetings on this subject and its work is based on international procedures and legislation in criminalizing trafficking in antiquities."