British museum returns Babylon treasure looted from Iraq after US invasion

The British Museum is returning a huge haul of Babylon treasure to Iraq after it was looted from the country when the US invaded in 2003.

The impressive collection of 156 inscribed tablets ended up there after they were seized on a shipment heading to Britain.

They feature cuneiform text, which was one of the earliest systems of writing.

Some carry cylinder seal impressions and are still enclosed in their clay envelopes.

The items are mostly dated from between 2100BC and 1800BC, originating from the third Ur or Old Babylonian dynasties.

Babylon, situated around 59 miles southwest of modern day Baghdad, was once the largest city in the world in the ancient Mesopatomia region.

While the city has many unfavourable references in the Bible, it was a thriving hub of culture.

Custom officials impounded the items on a freight at Heathrow Airport in 2013 when they were headed to the UK from the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The smugglers told authorities the shipment was only worth a few hundred pounds, but in reality they would have fetched tens of thousands of pounds.

Experts believe looters might have ‘hit the jackpot’ when digging at the site of an ancient city in southern Iraq.

It is believed they then smuggled the loot out of Iraq through the UAE.

The British Museum will hand the tablets back to the Iraq National Museum.

Hartwig Fischer, Director of the British Museum, said: ‘We are absolutely committed to the fight against illicit trade and damage to cultural heritage.

‘This is an issue which concerns us all. I am delighted that we are able to assist in the return of these important objects to Iraq.’

More than 15,000 items were looted from Iraq’s National Museum, in Baghdad, following the US invasion, of which some 8,000 have been returned.

All such artefacts which are intercepted by police are handed to the British Museum for examination.

The British Museum displays extremely valuable looted treasures.

This includes the 2,200-year-old Rosetta Stone tablet from ancient Egypt, a written decree which dates back to 196 BC and has been a key to deciphering Egyptian texts.

The museum also keeps the Elgin Marbles which were stripped from the Parthenon temple on the world-famous Acropolis site in Athens, Greece, under the orders of the 7th Earl of Elgin in 1801.

These stunning marble sculptures were created at the height of Ancient Greece’s power between 447-438 BC.

The Parthenon was dedicated to the goddess Athena.