Cornell Cuneiform Tablets
Object or Group Name
Case Summary
Many scholars objected to the arrangement, suspecting the tablets had been looted in Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War, which unleashed a wave of plunder in the archaeologically rich expanse of southern Iraq between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
Many of the 10,000 tablets dated from the 4th millennium BC. Among them were tablets known as the Garsana archive, the private records of a 21st century BC Sumerian princess in the city of Garsana that has made scholars rethink the role of women in the ancient kingdom of Ur. The administrative records show that the princess, Simat-Ishtaran, ruled the estate after her husband died.
The source of the Garsana tablets was the subject of a 2001 investigation by the Department of Homeland Security. Buying and possessing antiquities illegally removed from countries such as Iraq, which claim them as government property, is a violation of U.S. law.
Investigators also looked into potential violations of the Trading With the Enemy Act (1917), which at the time barred doing business with Iraq, and also highlighted possible tax fraud resulting from their donation to Cornell - according to a statement released under the Freedom of Information Act. Rosen had valued 1,679 tablets at less than USD $50,000 when they were imported, but received a USD $900,000 tax deduction when they were given to Cornell in 2000, the records show.
Ultimately, investigators could not determine precisely when or where the tablets had been found, and no criminal charges were filed in the case. Scholars have since narrowed down the location of Garsana to southern Iraq, but the site still has not been scientifically excavated.
In 2013, Cornell announced it would return the 10,000 cuneiform tablets after Iraq, which had requested their repatriation in 2012. The Iraqi government and the U.S. attorney's office in Binghamton, N.Y. brokered the transfer.
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Object Type
Culture
Private Collector
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Receiving Country
Sources
Cornell to Return 10,000 Ancient Tablets to Iraq.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-cm-iraq-tablets-cornell-university-20131103-story.html#page=1
Cornell Tablets Freedom of Information Act Results
https://www.scribd.com/document/181155582/rosen-donation-foia-records-pdf#fullscreen&from_embed
The Rosen Connection: Cornell Will Return 10000 Cuneiform Tablets to Iraq
https://chasingaphrodite.com/2013/11/03/the-rosen-connection-cornell-will-return-10000-cuneiform-tablets-to-iraq/
Molina M., (2010), 'On the Location of Irisaĝrig'
From the 21st Century B.C. to the 21st Century A.D. Proceedings of the International Conference on Neo-Sumerian Studies (22-24 July 2010), Madrid.
Molina M., (2020), 'The Looting of Ur III Tablets After the Gulf Wars'
W. Sommerfield (ed.), Dealing With Antiquity: Past, Present & Future: Proceedings of the 63rd Recontre Assyriologique Internationale (24-28 July 2020), Marburg, p. 323-352.
Transfer of Republic of Iraq Cuneiform Tablets
https://statements.cornell.edu/2021/20210804-cuneiform-tablets.cfm