Letters reveal forgotten role of Baghdad antiquities dealers in early 20th-century Kish excavations

Between 1880 and 1912, no official excavations took place at Kish. Yet museums from London and Paris to New York were somehow acquiring brand-new tablets from the legendary old city. As it turns out, local Iraqis had been excavating the site years before the "official" excavations at Kish resumed. But while the official excavations are remembered and celebrated, the local Iraqis have been erased from their own history.

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