What must be done to counteract the illegal trafficking of antiquities?

29 July 2018

Since 2003, there has been an explosion in the illegal trafficking of antiquities originating from Iraq. Thousands of objects, including cuneiform tablets, have been illegally exported from the country to be sold overseas. Among the buyers is the chain of American arts and crafts stores called Hobby Lobby. Founded in 1972 in Oklahoma City by David Green, the chain now belongs to the evangelist Steve Green, who owns more than 800 stores scattered across the country. Since 2009, this collector has acquired close to 40,000 artefacts and has provided funding for the Museum of the Bible which opened its doors in Washington D.C. in November 2017. He also serves as chairman of the museum’s board. In 2010, Hobby Lobby acquired, for 1.6 million dollars, a batch of 5,500 antiquities, including cuneiform tablets, inscribed clay bullae and cylinder seals originating from Iraq; these objects were exported to the United States under false descriptions in 2011. In 2017, the Eastern District Court of New York ordered the company to return the antiquities and imposed a fine of three million dollars. On 2 May of this year, during an official ceremony, 3,800 of these objects were handed over to Fareed Yasseen, the Ambassador of Iraq to the United States, and will be delivered to the National Museum of Iraq in Bagdad.

Prior to this, the American authorities had asked the Assyriologist Eckart Frahm, a professor at Yale University, to draw up a hasty inventory of the cuneiform texts that constituted the aforementioned batch. The tablets, many of which are in a poor state of preservation, mostly date from the second half of the third millennium and the first half of the second millennium BCE. They consist of a collection of incantations addressed to the gods An, Enlil and Enki, some scholarly tablets including lists of cuneiform signs, and numerous administrative and legal texts dating from the Third Dynasty of Ur (twenty-first century BCE). Among the latter, many hundreds originate from Irisagrig, a town whose location unfortunately remains unknown as the site has never undergone official excavations. However, some revealing clues in the texts make it possible to position it on the banks of the Tigris River, in all likelihood in the vicinity of ancient Nippur. These texts enable us to reconstruct the economic activity of a Sumerian town. One notes, for example, missions to inspect a canal or the ‘Royal Road’, rations issued to palace weavers, and food deliveries for the palace’s dogs. Already back in 2003, some 167 cuneiform tablets originating from Irisagrig were confiscated by Jordanian customs agents, whilst others have turned up on eBay and in various auctions. Today, more than a thousand tablets originating from this site have been inventoried, but we know nothing about their archaeological context, namely the place of their discovery, the buildings and rooms in which they were preserved, the way in which they were arranged, etc.

Assyriologists do not agree on the policy to adopt vis-à-vis these stolen antiquities. Some colleagues are of the opinion that publicity promotes their value and raises the indirect risk of stoking the illegal trade in antiquities; for others, their inestimable historical content cannot be ignored. In an effort to try to find answers to these questions, on 18 July Assyriologists and archaeologists of the ancient Near East voted, during the General Assembly of the International Association for Assyriology, on a text aimed at defining ethical behaviour for researchers working in the region. In fact, our research work is greatly complicated by the fact that we work in countries at war or countries that have not signed up to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The said text makes various recommendations, such as scientific cooperation with colleagues in the countries concerned, education, and the safeguarding and restoration of cultural heritage, but it leaves it to each individual researcher to carry out their own analysis of the situation, and to reflect on ethical issues. Thus, as regards the stance to adopt when dealing with objects originating from the illicit trade in antiquities, the text recommends educating dealers about stolen heritage and to work to favour the repatriation of such objects to their country of origin. The text does not take a position either for or against as regards publicising these objects – there is no right or single answer – but instead respects the decision of each individual:

Let us hope that adoption of the text will make it possible to reduce tension among the international scientific community and enable Assyriologists and archaeologists of the ancient Near East to work together on research projects and the dissemination of knowledge to the wider community!