Return of Achaemenid Tablets to Iran After 80 Years

After more than 80 years, the remaining Achaemenid tablets that were sent to the United States for study will finally be returned to Iran. According to ISNA, Mohammad Hassan Talebian, the Deputy for Cultural Heritage at the Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization, stated that the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago is ready to hand over the Achaemenid tablets to Iran, and they have even requested a meeting with Iran regarding the packaging of these tablets. The Achaemenid tablets include over 30,000 tablets that were sent to the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago by ship in 1935, arriving there in 1937. It was initially planned that expert studies and examinations on these tablets would be conducted within three years and then returned to Iran. After the translation and publication of several of these tablets by American experts, some were returned to Iran in three phases during the years 1948, 1971, and 2004. However, the process of returning them was halted due to a legal issue related to a terrorist attack in Jerusalem, in which Iran was implicated. According to ISNA, Iran participated in several court sessions on this matter and proved that the tablets do not have commercial value and are cultural and scholarly artifacts that cannot be seized. Now, after overcoming this legal hurdle, the remaining Achaemenid tablets are set to be returned to Iran. According to Fars News Agency, these inscriptions are valuable as they demonstrate that Persepolis and Pasargadae were not built by slaves and through coercion, like the Pyramids of Egypt, but rather by skilled and free workers who were paid for their labor and enjoyed benefits such as leave and bonuses. Even citizens from other lands working at Persepolis received rights and benefits. Reza Moradi Ghiasabadi, a researcher and writer in archaeology, explains that while studies have been conducted on these tablets, he believes that exploitation of humans was common in all parts of the world during ancient times. These inscriptions, some of which have previously returned to Iran and are now kept in the Persepolis Museum, show that a precise accounting system was in place during the Achaemenid period 2,500 years ago, with all payments made based on written financial documents, and concepts like guarantors and guarantees were also common at that time. According to Abdolmajid Arfaei, a researcher and specialist in ancient languages, studying the Achaemenid tablets allows one to delve into the Achaemenid society during the era of Darius, providing much information about the labor community and financial and economic issues of that time. As Arfaei stated, by examining these Achaemenid tablets, one can trace the paths of 600 cities from that period in Iran and explore them, while it may also be possible to find the exact ancient route from Persepolis to Susa in these inscriptions.