US officials on Wednesday (May 2nd) returned to Iraq 3,800 ancient artifacts that had been smuggled into the US and shipped to a nationwide arts and crafts retailer, AFP reported.

The items include cuneiform tablets, cylinder seals, and clay bullae. Many of the tablets come from the ancient city of Irisagrig and date back to 2100-1600 BCE, officials said.

Packages of cuneiform tablets were initially intercepted by customs agents and falsely labeled as tile samples for retailer Hobby Lobby.

The company last year agreed to forfeit thousands of ancient Iraqi artifacts and pay $3 million to settle a civil suit brought by the US government, attributing its purchase of the illegally imported items to naivete.

US Attorney Richard Donoghue said Wednesday that US officials "are proud to have played a role in removing these pieces of Iraq's history from the black market of illegally obtained antiquities and restoring them to the Iraqi people".

These pieces "are very important to us and they should be returned home", said Iraq's ambassador to the US, Fareed Yasseen.

The ceremony, which took place in Washington, was the first US repatriation of cultural property to Iraq since 2015.