Saudi historical artifacts repatriated from US
1,127 recently repatriated items were handed over by two US citizens
More than 1,100 artifacts and relics have been repatriated from the US to Saudi Arabia in coordination with the Saudi foreign ministry, the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage (SCTH) has said.
The historical items had been taken out of Saudi Arabia by US citizens who lived in the kingdom in the 1960s. They were returned to the Kingdom voluntarily by their relatives, Nayef Al Qannour, the director-general of archiving and protecting antiquities at SCTH, said.
He added that the 1,127 recently repatriated items were handed over by two US citizens. In the first case, the SCTH received 247 items and in the second 880.
20000Returned
Abdul Aziz Al Dayel, head of the retreived relics department, said experts from SCTH sorted out, took pictures and documented the items ahead of recording them in the commission’s national relics register.
Outstanding items will be showcased at the National Museum of Saudi Arabia, he added.
The SCTH said it had stepped up efforts to retreive national treasures from both in the kingdom and abroad.
“The Commission is keen on promoting awareness about the importance of the Saudi heritage and the need to preserve it as an important component of the culture and civilisation of the Kingdom. We are also keen on honouring those who return artefacts, whether they are in Saudi Arabia or abroad, and on offering rewards to collaborators who report archaeological sites or help restitute relics.”
How did they end up outside Saudi?
To date, more than 53,000 pieces have been retrieved from within the Kingdom and from across the world since the campaign was launched in 2011.
More than 33,000 artifacts were repatriated from abroad and 20,000 returned by Saudi citizens to the SCTH.
Al Qannour last year said that “some artifacts found their way outside Saudi Arabia through foreign travelers who took them to other countries.”
“One of the most famous artifacts is the Tayma Stone, which was discovered by Charles Huber and later displayed at the Louvre Museum in Paris,” he said, quoted by Arab News.
In other cases, employees of foreign companies, especially those who work in the oil industry and visited parts of Saudi Arabia to study their geology and natural manifestations, collected the artifacts they found and took them to museums in their home countries.
A third category comprises robbers of archaeological sites who dig for archaeological treasures for fast financial gains.
“By doing so, they are destroying important archaeological evidence found in these sites, be it on land or in the sea,” he said.
In 2012, the SCTH honoured seven Americans who returned artifacts despite their sentimental and lucrative values.
"When I was a child, I used to go camping with my family out of the urban area,” Barbara Denis Martin, one of the honourees, told SCTH.
Wide range
“There a wide range of thousand-year pottery spread in the desert. We used to spend hours exploring and managed to find many artefacts that emerged due to wind erosion. We could gather a collection of 60-70 pottery and glass pieces, some intact and others shriveled."
"We were aware of their archaeological value, but they wouldn't be given much appreciation by nationals back then, so we kept them at our homes. Years later, we went back to America and took them to boastfully show them in our America-based houses," said Barbara who was born in Saudi Arabia and lived there until the age of 20, considering the kingdom her second homeland.
Louis Wolfram, speaking about her story with Saudi artefacts, said: "I was accustomed to collect pottery items from the Kingdom's prairies, where I used to go to on excursions when I was a child. One day I went with my family to Jubeil on a trip, and I found there a green pottery piece that was half sunk in sands, so I dug it out, and then removed more sand layers in the same location to find a two-handled ceramic pot. We took both pieces with us home and kept them in care for years."
Lucile Lynn said she used to spend hours with her two daughters out of Aramco’s employees’ residential area. They were hiking around freely, when they found several historical artefacts.