[CPProt.net] (no subject)

[MSN and CPProt list (Ton Cremers)]

Marine's Iraq keepsakes are looted relics

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

PHILADELPHIA -- A Marine who brought home souvenirs from Iraq has turned
them over to authorities after learning they were looted from an
archaeological site.

The Marine paid a vendor a few hundred dollars for eight cylindrical stone
seals and when he returned home he had them examined by a university
archaeologist, said authorities who did not identify the serviceman.

The seals, about 5,000 years old, had been looted from an archaeological
site near Babylon and are valued at $2,000 to $5,000 each. Such seals were
used as signature stamps on clay tablets.

"There are many of these, but they're all a piece of their history," said
Assistant U.S. Attorney Bob Goldman, a member of a federal art theft task
force.

U.S. soldiers are allowed to have souvenirs and trinkets, but are not
supposed to bring back antiquities, Goldman said.

"As soon as he realized (their worth), he felt bad about it. He reached
out," Goldman said of the Marine.

Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations, Samir Sumaida'ie, plans to loan the
seals to the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and
Anthropology, which has provided training for the federal task force.

---

On the Net:

Museum of Archaeology: http://www.museum.upenn.edu/