The U.S. returned a 3,500-year-old Mesopotamian cuneiform clay tablet to Iraq in a ceremony in Washington, D.C. on September 23, 2021. /CFP

The Gilgamesh Tablet, also known as the “Gilgamesh Dream Tablet,” featuring sections of a Sumerian poem from the "epic of Gilgamesh," is considered to be the oldest religious text in the world. /CFP

It was believed to be looted from a museum in Iraq in 1991, and was illegally imported into the U.S. in 2007. In 2014, craft retail chain Hobby Lobby, which collects biblical artifacts, bought the item for $1.67 million and displayed it at the Washington Museum of the Bible. In 2019, the U.S. Department of Justice seized the artifact. /CFP

UNESCO said the repatriation of the tablet "symbolises the wider international mobilisation, both by countries and organisations such as UNESCO, to prevent and tackle the illicit trade in ancient artefacts." /CFP