Between 1850-1900, Western archaeologists dug up more than
400,000 clay tablets in West Asia. This loot was carried back to
the British Museum, Louvre France, Imperial Museum in Berlin,
University Of Pennsylvania. Latter day digs and finds were
retained in Iraq, Turkey and Egypt. In the last 100 years, of
the more than 400,000 clay tablets excavated, less than a 70,000
have been deciphered between the four institutions. Less than
one fifth have been published so far. The vandalism of
Napoleonic army in Egypt and the pilferage of cultural artifacts
has been well documented. The Rosetta Stone, the Dendera Zodiac,
Cleopatra’s Needle were among the booty from Egypt that the
disastrous campaign of Napoleon yielded. Edward Said described
the Anglo-French loot from Egypt, as “that great collective
appropriation of one culture by another” Extreme competitive
behaviour in business, economic activity, trade, colonization,
did not stop Germany (repository of the Akhmim Kodex) and
Britain (Bruce Codex and Askew Codex) to