<< News >> The fate of Iranian tablets remains uncertain
Submitted by coldrum on Sunday, 04 February 2007 Page Views: 1772
Other ArchaeologyCountry: Iran The fate of ancient Iranian tablets housed at the Oriental Institute remains unknown after a federal judge declined to rule immediately at a court hearing contesting their ownership.The Persepolis Fortification tablets, which are on loan to the University from the government of Iran, were to be confiscated and auctioned off to compensate the families of five American victims of a 1997 Hamas bombing at the Ben Yehuda shopping mall in Jerusalem.
The families of the victims won a $251 million ruling against the Iranian government in 2003 after a U.S. federal court found that the country had directly funded Hamas. The Iranian government refused to pay the judgment, prompting the families to sue for ownership of Iranian holdings in the U.S.
The Iranian government appealed the decision, and so far, both the American government and the University have supported continued Iranian ownership.
“The University supports Iran in its claim for ownership, as we know the materials are on loan,” said William Harms, the Oriental Institute’s press contact.
According to Iranian media, however, the government in Tehran has not been pleased with the University’s response to the situation. An article last week in the Tehran Times reported that the government believes the University has “not shown goodwill” in its stewardship of the tablets, which were originally loaned in 1937.
An Oriental Institute expedition originally excavated the clay tablets in 1933 from ancient Persepolis, the 2,500-year-old capital of the Achaemenid Persian Empire.
“When the tablets were handed over to the University, it had agreed to send the artifacts back after several years, but the University has still not fulfilled the agreement after 70 years,” said Ali-Mohammad Tarafdari, the secretary of the government’s People’s Committee for the Return of Cultural and Historical Property, in the Tehran Times article.
Gil Stein, director of the Oriental Institute, estimates that the museum has already returned more than two-thirds of the tablets to Iran. The Institute retains approximately 8,000 tablets and 11,000 poorly preserved fragments that are still awaiting analysis. “I’m not sure why [Iran] took that approach. We have acted in good will throughout,” Harms said of the statement.
A court order has mandated that the tablets cannot be removed from the Institute until their ownership status is resolved. Researchers worried about their potential loss are moving quickly to study them.
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