LOS ANGELES — Federal agents on Thursday returned two ancient stone artifacts to representatives of the Iraqi government at the country’s consulate in Los Angeles.
The artifacts — a fragment of a stone tablet inscribed with cuneiform characters and a hexagonal prism used to teach schoolchildren the cuneiform alphabet — are believed to be about 4,000 years old, authorities said.
The tablet fragment was purchased in an online auction, but U.S. Customs and Border Protection flagged the item because it lacked the documentation needed to import it, said Chad Fredrickson, a special agent from Homeland Security Investigations who handled the case.
