More than 2,000 artefacts, including about 100 that were looted and found abroad, were unveiled Tuesday (March 19th) in a museum in Iraq’s Basra province, AFP reported.

On Tuesday, between 2,000 and 2,500 pieces went on display in the Basra Museum, said Qahtan al-Obeid, head of archaeology and heritage in the province.

"They date from 6000 BC to 1500 AD," he said, referring to the Assyrian, Babylonian and Sumerian periods.

Obeid said about 100 artefacts, most of which came from Jordan and the US, were given back to Iraq to be displayed in the museum.

During its occupation of nearly a third of Iraq between 2014 and 2017, the "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS) posted videos of its fighters destroying statues and heritage sites.

But experts say they mostly destroyed pieces too large to smuggle and sell off, and kept the smaller pieces, several of which are already resurfacing on the black market.

The US says it has repatriated more than 3,000 stolen artefacts to Iraq since 2005, including many seized in conflict zones in the Middle East.