The British Museum handed over 156 ancient inscribed tablets to Iraq’s government on Thursday - the largest UK handover of looted Iraqi artefacts.
A number are more than 4,000 years old, coming from the early Sumerian era, and are mainly economic documents but also letters, legal and school and mathematical texts.
Some carry cylinder seal impressions and some are still enclosed in their clay envelopes.
Many are believed to have come from the ancient city of Irisagrig, situated on the Tigris River in southern Iraq.
“This city was unknown until tablets referring to it surfaced on the art market in 2003 when the site – like many others in southern Iraq – must have been heavily looted in the immediate aftermath of the American-led invasion of Iraq and the overthrow of the Saddam-led government,” the British Museum said.
The Mesopotamian texts were written on clay and stopped on entry into the UK in February 2011 because of an incorrect declaration. Subsequently they were seized by government fraud investigators in June 2013 at a freight forwarder near Heathrow Airport.
‘The British Museum is absolutely committed to the fight against illicit trade and damage to cultural heritage. This is an issue which concerns us all,” said Hartwig Fischer, director of the museum.
“The protection of Iraqi heritage is the responsibility of the international society which we hope to continue for future generations,” said Iraq’s ambassador to the UK, Dr Saleh Altamimi.
Earlier this year UK authorities handed back a Babylonian cuneiform stone worth hundreds of thousands of pounds back to Iraq after its seizure in 2012.
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GAC GS8 Specs
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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The Brutalist
Director: Brady Corbet
Stars: Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn
Rating: 3.5/5
Company Profile
Name: JustClean
Based: Kuwait with offices in other GCC countries
Launch year: 2016
Number of employees: 130
Sector: online laundry service
Funding: $12.9m from Kuwait-based Faith Capital Holding
Terror attacks in Paris, November 13, 2015
- At 9.16pm, three suicide attackers killed one person outside the Atade de France during a foootball match between France and Germany
- At 9.25pm, three attackers opened fire on restaurants and cafes over 20 minutes, killing 39 people
- Shortly after 9.40pm, three other attackers launched a three-hour raid on the Bataclan, in which 1,500 people had gathered to watch a rock concert. In total, 90 people were killed
- Salah Abdeslam, the only survivor of the terrorists, did not directly participate in the attacks, thought to be due to a technical glitch in his suicide vest
- He fled to Belgium and was involved in attacks on Brussels in March 2016. He is serving a life sentence in France
Profile
Company: Justmop.com
Date started: December 2015
Founders: Kerem Kuyucu and Cagatay Ozcan
Sector: Technology and home services
Based: Jumeirah Lake Towers, Dubai
Size: 55 employees and 100,000 cleaning requests a month
Funding: The company’s investors include Collective Spark, Faith Capital Holding, Oak Capital, VentureFriends, and 500 Startups.
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About RuPay
A homegrown card payment scheme launched by the National Payments Corporation of India and backed by the Reserve Bank of India, the country’s central bank
RuPay process payments between banks and merchants for purchases made with credit or debit cards
It has grown rapidly in India and competes with global payment network firms like MasterCard and Visa.
In India, it can be used at ATMs, for online payments and variations of the card can be used to pay for bus, metro charges, road toll payments
The name blends two words rupee and payment
Some advantages of the network include lower processing fees and transaction costs
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Uefa Champions League, last-16, second leg (first-leg scores in brackets):
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if you go
The flights
Flydubai flies to Podgorica or nearby Tivat via Sarajevo from Dh2,155 return including taxes. Turkish Airlines flies from Abu Dhabi and Dubai to Podgorica via Istanbul; alternatively, fly with Flydubai from Dubai to Belgrade and take a short flight with Montenegro Air to Podgorica. Etihad flies from Abu Dhabi to Podgorica via Belgrade. Flights cost from about Dh3,000 return including taxes. There are buses from Podgorica to Plav.
The tour
While you can apply for a permit for the route yourself, it’s best to travel with an agency that will arrange it for you. These include Zbulo in Albania (www.zbulo.org) or Zalaz in Montenegro (www.zalaz.me).
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Transmission: eight-speed auto
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Jetour T1 specs
Engine: 2-litre turbocharged
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Groom and Two Brides
Director: Elie Semaan
Starring: Abdullah Boushehri, Laila Abdallah, Lulwa Almulla
Rating: 3/5