Iraq Unveils Ancient Stone Tablet Returned by Italy

President Abdul Latif Rashid (C) vows to 'work to recover all the archaeological pieces of Iraqi history from abroad' - AFP
President Abdul Latif Rashid (C) vows to 'work to recover all the archaeological pieces of Iraqi history from abroad' - AFP
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Iraq Unveils Ancient Stone Tablet Returned by Italy

President Abdul Latif Rashid (C) vows to 'work to recover all the archaeological pieces of Iraqi history from abroad' - AFP
President Abdul Latif Rashid (C) vows to 'work to recover all the archaeological pieces of Iraqi history from abroad' - AFP

Iraq unveiled on Sunday a 2,800-year-old stone tablet returned by Italy, as the war-ravaged country works to recover from abroad antiquities looted from its territory.

The tablet -- whose text is written in cuneiform, the Babylonian alphabet -- bears the insignia of Shalmaneser III, the Assyrian king who ruled the region of Nimrod, in present-day northern Iraq, from 858 to 823 BC, AFP reported.

The circumstances surrounding the tablet's arrival in Italy remain unclear, but the Italian authorities handed it over to Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid during a visit to Bologna over the past week.

"I would like to thank the Italian officials for their efforts and cooperation in bringing back this piece," Rashid said during a ceremony Sunday at a Baghdad presidential palace to hand the artefact over to the national museum.

The tablet had arrived in the 1980s in Italy, where it was seized by police, said Laith Majid Hussein, director of Baghdad's council of antiquities and heritage.

Iraqi Culture Minister Ahmed Fakak al-Badrani said the circumstances behind its discovery were unclear.

"Perhaps (it was found) during archaeological excavations or during work on the Mosul dam," Iraq's biggest built in the 1980s, he said.

He underlined the importance of the piece, "whose cuneiform text is complete".

Modern Iraq's territory is the cradle of the Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian and Assyrian civilizations, to which humanity owes writing and the first cities.

The country's antiquities have been the target of looting that increased in the chaos following the US-led invasion of 2003.

"We will continue to work to recover all the archaeological pieces of Iraqi history from abroad," said the Iraqi president.

"We want to make the national Iraq Museum one of the best museums in the world, and we will work to do so."

In May, New York prosecutor Alvin Bragg announced the return of two ancient sculptures to Iraq: a limestone Mesopotamian elephant and an alabaster Sumerian bull from the old city of Uruk.

The figurines, stolen during the Gulf War, were smuggled into New York in the late 1990s, according to the prosecutor's office.

The bull was part of the private collection of Shelby White, a billionaire philanthropist and Met trustee.



King Charles Wears Kilt in Tartan Named after Him in New Photo

This handout photograph released by Buckingham Palace on January 25, 2025, shows Britain's King Charles III, posing for a photograph in the library at Balmoral, Scotland in Autumn 2024. (Photo by Millie Pilkington / Buckingham Palace / AFP)
This handout photograph released by Buckingham Palace on January 25, 2025, shows Britain's King Charles III, posing for a photograph in the library at Balmoral, Scotland in Autumn 2024. (Photo by Millie Pilkington / Buckingham Palace / AFP)
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King Charles Wears Kilt in Tartan Named after Him in New Photo

This handout photograph released by Buckingham Palace on January 25, 2025, shows Britain's King Charles III, posing for a photograph in the library at Balmoral, Scotland in Autumn 2024. (Photo by Millie Pilkington / Buckingham Palace / AFP)
This handout photograph released by Buckingham Palace on January 25, 2025, shows Britain's King Charles III, posing for a photograph in the library at Balmoral, Scotland in Autumn 2024. (Photo by Millie Pilkington / Buckingham Palace / AFP)

Buckingham Palace published a new photograph of King Charles wearing a kilt made of a tartan named in his honor to mark the birthday of Scotland’s national poet Robert Burns on Saturday.

Burn’s Night is an annual celebration of the poet, who was born in 1759 and died in 1796.

In the photograph, taken last autumn, the 76-year-old king appears standing in the library at Balmoral Castle, the royal family's summer retreat in the Scottish Highlands.

The monarch is seen wearing a kilt in the King Charles III tartan, which was designed by the Scottish Tartans Authority in May 2023, and a tie in matching colors.

The palace revealed in February 2024 that Charles, who became king in 2022, had been diagnosed with an unspecified form of cancer detected in tests after a corrective procedure for an enlarged prostate.

His treatment has been progressing well and would continue this year, a palace source said late last year.