The Hobby Lobby smuggling scandal started in 2009 when representatives of the Hobby Lobby chain of craft stores received a large number of clay bullae and tablets originating in the ancient Near East.
One of the ancient clay tablets bought by Hobby Lobby shows cuneiform script.
United States versus Approximately 450 Ancient Cuneiform Tablets is a court filing from July 2017.
The Gilgamesh Dream Tablet
The Gilgamesh Dream Tablet is from Iraq in the Middle Babylonian Period, First Sealand Dynasty, 1732-1460 BCE. It is on display at the Iraq Museum, Baghdad, after being recovered from the Museum of the Bible of Hobby Lobby, Washington DC.
Bulla (seal)
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A bulla is an inscribed clay, soft metal, bitumen, or wax token used in commercial and legal documentation as a form of authentication and for tamper-proofing whatever is attached to it.
Hobby Lobby smuggling scandal
…The Hobby Lobby smuggling scandal started in 2009 when representatives of the Hobby Lobby chain of craft stores received a large number of clay bullae and tablets originating in the ancient Near East. The artifacts were intended for the Museum of the Bible, funded by the Evangelical Christian Green…
A bulla (or clay envelope) and its contents on display at the Louvre. Uruk period (4000–3100 BC).
Two clay bullae, one complete and sealed, the other broken with tokens visible, Uruk period. Oriental Institute Museum, Chicago.
Clay accounting tokens used inside of a bulla
Babylonian clay tablet YBC 7289 with annotations. The diagonal displays an approximation of the square root of 2 in four sexagesimal figures, 1 24 51 10, which is good to about six decimal digits. 1 + 24/60 + 51/602 + 10/603 = 1.41421296... The tablet also gives an example where one side of the square is 30, and the resulting diagonal is 42 25 35 or 42.4263888...