BASRA: A 3,500-year-old tablet recounting the Epic of Gilgamesh that once sat in Washington's Museum of the Bible could be returned to Iraq, formerly known as Mesopotamia, after a judge verified its seizure on Tuesday (Wednesday in Manila).

The rare fragment, which recounts a dream sequence from the epic in Akkadian cuneiform script, is one of many ancient artifacts from Iraq and the Middle East collected by David Green, the billionaire owner of the Hobby Lobby chain.

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