Iran's Raisi returns from US with 3,500 Achaemenid antiques

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi returned to Tehran from the 78th Session of the UN General Assembly in New York on Thursday with over 3,500 historical clay tablets belonging to the ancient Persian Achaemenid Empire.

During a welcoming ceremony in Tehran, Raisi, surrounded by members of his cabinet, referred to the artefacts 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 returned to Iran much earlier.

The Iranian president praised the efforts of the ministries involved in bringing the artefacts back to Iran.

Earlier, 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 rule of the Pahlavi dynasty.

The artefacts will be displayed at Tehran’s National Museum of Iran, which houses a wide array of archaeological collections and is one of the Iranian capital’s premier tourist destinations.

The Achaemenid Empire lasted from roughly 550-330 BCE, stretching at its zenith from Egypt to Afghanistan.

The Achaemenids at one point ruled over 44% of the world’s population, the highest figure for any empire in history.

It produced a thriving culture, as well as historically famous emperors such as its founder Cyrus the Great and Xerxes I, who was infamously depicted in the controversial graphic novel and movie 300.  

Its eventual downfall came when it was conquered by the armies of Alexander the Great.

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 Empire.

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

The tablets depict different aspects of the social, cultural and political conditions of the vast empire.