Stone Age Statues Were Taken To Britain For Restoration In 1990 – Never Returned Home To Jordan

Conny Waters - AncientPages.com - Britain has still not returned thirty Stone Age statues that were taken for restoration in 1990.

According to Daifallah Hdeithat, the head of the Mesha Centre for Studies and Human Rights in Jordan, the statues were supposed to be returned to Jordan within two years.

"The terms of the restoration agreement provided for Jordan to pay $300,000 to Britain for this to be done. This was paid," explained Hdeithat, adding that the British Museum was to be given two statues as part of the deal, reports Middle East Monitor.

These monuments date back to the Stone Age and were discovered in 1982 in the Ain Ghazal area in Amman, said Hdeithat. "They are symbols of how advanced society was in the area at that time."

The statues along with two of the oldest temples in the world date back more than 8,000 years and all of these figurines are created in clay containing limestone powder mixed with lime plaster.

Almost none had both head and body; there were either bodiless heads or headless bodies. They are among the most ancient monumental artifacts ever found. Their size is varying from small, between 2 and 3 feet in height to almost life-sized figures.

'Ain Ghazal - a large village of farmers, herders, and hunters - is considered to be established around 7250 BC and later abandoned around 5000 BC.
Archaeologists discovered evidence of multiroomed houses made of stone with timber roof beams, plastered walls, floors, and courtyards.

Left: D. Nordeck/Smithsonian Institution; Right: Photo credits: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Smithsonian Institution

They also excavated cooking hearths with food remains, stone tools, stone and clay figurines, and graves.

In the Neolithic Near East, Ain Ghazal was one of the largest “cities in the region.

The Centre official described the Jordanian government's efforts to have the statues returned as "timid" and out of date. "The artifacts may become the property of the British government in the coming days unless there is a national effort to put pressure on the Jordanian government to take real steps to reclaim the statues."

Hdeithat accused the Jordanian government of "neglecting" such antiquities. "Especially those which were smuggled overseas." He referred to the Mesha Stele in the Louvre Museum in Paris, as well as another Stone Age statue.

Since 2016, there is also another case of an important and widely known artifact that has been overseeing by Jordan but this artifact has never been returned home from France.

The artifact was discovered in 1868 about 20 miles east of the Dead Sea. Image: Bible History 

It is the Mesha Stele, one of the most valuable Biblical artifacts. It was accidentally discovered among the ruins of Dhiban (Biblical "Dibon," capital of Moab), 20 miles east of the Dead Sea, by a German missionary F. A. Klein in 1868 when Jordan was under the Ottoman rule and moved to Jaffa.

Subsequently, the Mesha Stele was transported to France and is currently on display at the Louvre museum. It has been stored there for 150 years, and Jordan has demanded its return.

Earlier, The Jordan Times, wrote that in October 2014, the French Embassy in Amman informed the Mesha Centre for Studies and Human Rights that it sent the Louvre Museum the request to retrieve the Mesha Stele artifact. 

Since then, no updates have emerged on the request. 

Written by Conny Waters - AncientPages.com Staff Writer