Iraq: artifacts

Iraq vests archaeological material in the state. Antiquities are state property; export prohibited; UNSCR 661 (1990) bars trade in material removed since then. The governing law is Antiquities Law No. 59 of 1936; Antiquities and Heritage Law No. 55 of 2002; the date Stratum treats as decisive is 1936 (the year of enactment — the exact commencement has not been checked, so the conservative reading is used). An object documented outside Iraq before that date is sold with the document cited; one documented only later is sold with a warning that Iraq could regard the export as unlawful, and the ownership history stated in full; one with no provenance at all is not listed.

The United States restricts import of Iraq archaeological material of 100000 BCE – 1900 CE and archaeological and ethnological material removed from Iraq since UNSCR 661 (6 August 1990), coins included under the CPIA (CBP Dec. 08-17, restricted since 1990). Entry needs the export certificate or proof the object left Iraq before 1990. Domestic resale of material already lawfully in the US is not restricted by this, but the paper is what a buyer will ask for.

US courts have applied foreign patrimony laws through the National Stolen Property Act (United States v. McClain, 1977; United States v. Schultz, 2003): an object exported after a clear vesting law can be stolen property in the United States even when no US import restriction existed at the time. The date of the earliest document that places an object outside Iraq is therefore the single most valuable fact on its record.

Sources

Cite this article

Stratum Study. "Iraq: artifacts" (Law & ethics). Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-20. https://stratum.black/study/law/archaeology-iraq. Accessed 2026-09-21.

BibTeX · CSL-JSON

@misc{stratum-archaeology-iraq,
  title        = {Iraq: artifacts},
  author       = {{Stratum Study}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://stratum.black/study/law/archaeology-iraq}},
  year         = {2026},
  note         = {Law & ethics article, Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-20; sources: stratum. Accessed 2026-09-21.}
}

Citations carry the pack version and the article's as-of date so they resolve to the same text later. The facts themselves belong to the sources listed below; cite those for the science.

Referenced by

Sources