For the sixth time, the USA is returning a large number of clay tablets from the Achaemenid Empire era to Iran. The clay tablets, 1,100 in number, have been handed over to Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian in connection with the UN General Assembly in New York.
The clay tablets were found in the ruins of Persepolis, which was the capital of the Persian Achaemenid Empire from the sixth to the fourth century BC. The tablets reveal how the ancient society was organized and how the economy was managed.
The tablets contain records of "our ancestors' rituals and way of life", says Ali Darabi, Iran's Deputy Minister for Cultural Heritage, to the state-run Iranian news agency Irna.
The tablets were returned by the University of Chicago in the USA.
A large proportion of the tablets had previously been returned in three installments between 1948 and 2004. Additionally, more than 3,500 were sent to Iran in the autumn of 2023.
