Looted Gilgamesh tablet returns to Iraq in formal ceremony

BAGHDAD (AP) — A small clay tablet dating back 3,500 years and bearing a portion of the Epic of Gilgamesh that was looted from an Iraqi museum during the 1991 Gulf War has returned to Iraq. It was handed over at a ceremony Tuesday in the presence of UNESCO officials. It’s one of the world’s oldest surviving works of literature and one of the oldest religious texts. Officials believe it was illegally imported into the United States in 2003, then sold to Hobby Lobby and eventually put on display in its Museum of the Bible in Washington. A federal judge in New York approved the forfeiture of the tablet in July this year.