24 Sep Ancient cuneiform clay tablet : A significant feature of Mesopotamian Culture (GS Paper I art and Culture )
Context: Ancient cuneiform clay tablets are a significant feature of sumerian culture which had evolved during 3500 Bc in the regions of Iraq . This tablet is part of a section of a Sumerian poem from the Epic of Gilgamesh. This is the world’s oldest known script and it is the evidence of world’s oldest known literature of the Sumerian culture. Hobby Lobby, a store of united state is now going to return it to Iraq’s museum
What is Hobby Lobby
Hobby Lobby is a company in America which owns a chain of craft and art stores. Its Head office is in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States. It’s CEO CEO is David Green (3 Aug 1972–). It was founded by David Green
Cuneiform Clay Tablet
Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic script that had been used during Mesopotamian /sumerian culture (3500 BC). It is the world’s oldest script which is deciphered . Although Indus people also were aware of the script but those script could not be deciphered . Script is a type of design which is plotted on the surface to express the language to write several languages of the Ancient Near East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era.
A clay tablet of 3,500-year-old origin from Iraq (Oldest Mesopotamia) was discovered in the ruins of the library of Iraq . This tablet might be related to an ancient Mesopotamian king, then looted from an Iraqi museum 30 years ago. Recently it was decided to return it back to Iraq.
The cuneiform clay tablet was discovered in 1853 as part of a 12-tablet collection during the excavation of Mesopotamian culture and then it was illegally imported into the United States in 2003. A company of America Hobby Lobby purchased it
Later on when archaeologists investigated this tablet, they came to know that it was the Gilgamesh Dream tablet and might be related with Sumerian poems from the Epic of Gilgamesh. As claimed by western archaeologist that It was one of the world’s oldest works on literature and it is the world’s oldest religious text. But it is not correct. We should not ignore the literature of Indus people.
In a decision of the local Civil court of New York on Thursday at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian with officials from Iraq, it was verdicted to return this antiquity to Iraq
Farreed Yasseen, the Iraqi ambassador to the United States, was fighting for it for a long time and since this antiquity is related to ancient culture of Iraq and looted by foreigners , it definitely impacts the emotions of Iraqi people .
Infact , Iraqi culture has been the witness of one of the world’s oldest cultures and to preserve the cultural heritage of Iraq is the moral duty of UNESCO and other international agencies.This is thought from across the world. “Artifacts are still being stolen, they are being smuggled out.” Therefore this is the big movement for the Iraq to get his antiquity back
By Dr Anshul Bajpai
24nd september 2021 current Affairs Download
Plutus IAS Current Affair Team Member
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