ANTIQUITIES DEALERS IN BAGHDAD AND CUNEIFORM TABLETS FROM KISH IN THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY

When Kish began to be excavated by the French archaeologist Henri de Genouillac in 1912, cuneiform tablets from Tell Uhaimir had already been in circulation on the antiquities market since 1910. Offers made by dealers in Baghdad and Paris in this period indicate that the site was being explored by local teams even before then. In an attempt to rebuild a timeline of the appearance of Kish artefacts on the antiquities market in the early 20th century, this article delves into the correspondence of the antiquities dealer Ibrahim Elias Gejou. It follows his offers of Kish tablets through letters currently held in three institutions, the British Museum, the Yale Babylonian Collection, and the Louvre Museum. The story of these artefacts’ dispersal between 1909 and 1935 highlights an understudied facet of explorations at Kish, and places the independent archaeological work of Iraqis at the heart of this site’s modern history.