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500 researchers call for return of Persepolis tablets

TEHRAN - More than 5,00 researchers and archeologists from leading international universities have so far signed a letter to the US President Barack Obama, protesting to the auction of Persepolis (Takht-e Jamshid) tablets. Commenting on the news, head of Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization’s Research Center, Mehdi Mousavi said on Monday that the auction of the tablets by Chicago University is a source of concern for all archeologists and Iranologists and research centers around the world, reported IRNA.
For the same reason, Europe’s Association of Iranologists has written a letter to Obama, protesting to the illegal move by the university and calling for preventing the auction of the tablets, he said. He added that the letter is currently accessible at the association’s website www.shop.isiao.it/SIE/petition.php for being signed by the protesters.
Signatories include archeology and history professors from Harvard, Chicago, Pennsylvania, Sydney, Cambridge, Oxford, Tehran, Vienna, Bologna, Naples, Rome, Hamburg, Liverpool, Toronto, London, Sorbonne, Columbia, Edinburgh and Michigan universities.
Mousavi also said that the tablets were given on loan to Chicago University 70 years ago to be studied by the entity and then returned.
Unfortunately, some of the objects are still kept at the university, he complained.
The spontaneous move by the scientists from around the world is a promising act in line with returning the tablets to Iran, he noted.
Persepolis (Takht-e Jamshid) was the official capital of the Persian Empire during the Achaemenid dynasty. Persepolis is situated 70 km northeast of Shiraz, Fars province.



Original Article: http://www.ettelaat.com/index2.asp?code=endisplay&fname=/ettelaat/etbupload/data/2009/02/02-03/2.htm&title=500 researchers call for return of Persepolis tablets