Iran’s Raisi returns from US with 3,500 artifacts of Achaemenid Empire

By Syed Zafar Mehdi

TEHRAN (AA) – Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who was in New York for the 78th session of the UN General Assembly, returned to Tehran on Thursday with more than 3,500 historical clay tablets.

Raisi said at the welcome ceremony, in the presence of senior members of his Cabinet, that he brought with him artifacts dating back to the Achaemenid Empire (550-330 BC), describing them as part of Iran's "rich cultural heritage."

He said the clay tablets had been in the US for the past 84 years, at the University of Chicago Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, and that they were supposed to be sent back to Iran much earlier.

Iran’s president lauded the efforts of the ministries of foreign affairs, and culture and tourism to have the artifacts back in Iran, and said more are still in the US that should be returned soon.

Earlier on Thursday, Iran’s Minister of Cultural Heritage and Tourism Ezatollah Zarghami in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, stated that he was at the airport to welcome Raisi and 3,500 artifacts.

“Continuous follow-ups produced results and finally 9 boxes, each weighing 75 kg, containing a valuable collection of the cultural and civilizational heritage of the country, were returned from the US,” he wrote.

Earlier, Iranian government spokesman Ali Bahadori Jahromi told reporters about the return of the clay tablets from the Achaemenid period.

“The president will bring souvenirs of Iran's culture, civilization, and history tonight when he returns from his trip to the US,” he said, referring to the tablets that were taken out during the Pahlavi rule.

The artifacts will be displayed at Tehran’s National Museum of Iran, which houses a wide array of archaeological collections and is among the prime tourist attractions in the Iranian capital.

In the 1930s, archaeologists from the University of Chicago discovered over 20,000 clay tablets while excavating in Persepolis, which served as the ceremonial capital of the Persian Achaemenid Empire.

The tablets, according to historians, were taken to the US but were supposed to be returned to Iran.

Over the years, successive Iranian governments pursued the matter with US authorities, and finally, in Feb. 2018, the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of Iran.

In September 2019, the first consignment of 1,783 tablets was delivered to Iran. Consultations between the two sides continued for the return of the remaining tablets.

In July last year, Iran’s Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Tourism announced that the remaining artifacts would be returned soon, adding that the US sanctions did not apply to them.

The tablets represent the economic, social, and religious conditions during the Achaemenid Empire (550-330 BC), the ancient empire founded by Cyrus the Great in the 6th century BC.