Terra:
The United States will return to Iran more than 1,000 clay tablets dating back to the Achaemenid era, state media reported, in the sixth such delivery.
The official Iranian news agency IRNA reported on the fifth night of the exhibition that the panels, 1,100 in all, were returned to President Masoud Pezeshkian, who participated in the UN General Assembly meetings in New York.
Ruins of Persepolis, the capital of the Persian Achaemenid Empire, which ruled southern Iran between the 6th and 4th centuries BC, have been unearthed, and the Tebuis returning to their homeland reflect on how ancient society was organized and its economy managed.
Ali Darabi, deputy minister of cultural heritage, was quoted by the Islamic Republic of Iran News Agency as saying that the tbuinhas constitute records of “two rituals and the way of life of our ancestors.”
It was reassigned to the University of Chicago's Institute for the Study of Ancient, West Asian, and North African Cultures, formerly known as the Oriental Institute.
A large portion of the panels were returned in three batches between 1948 and 2004, before the remainder was withheld through legal action until 2018.
More than 3,500 Foram tablets were repatriated in September 2023.
The Iranian news agency ISNA quoted Darabi as saying: “The American side is committed to returning or resting.”
(Except this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
