Dark Provenance / Antiquities / Mesopotamia / Timeline

Mesopotamia — timeline

Dated events specific to this cluster. Cross-cluster events — the founding of the long-running African wax-print textile operation (1846), the Benin Bronzes (1897), Bamiyan (2001), the Egyptian Revolution (2011) — appear in their respective cluster pages.

Date	Event
Early 20th century	Thelema’s founding; Western occult interest in Mesopotamian magical systems documented from this period. The Typhonian tradition is later codified mid-20th century, explicitly incorporating Sumerian and Babylonian elements.
1995–2000	The future US Vice President serves as CEO of Halliburton.
Dec 2002 / Jan 2003	American Council for Cultural Policy and other antiquities experts ask the Pentagon and the UK government to protect the Iraq Museum. No promises made.
March 2003	US-led invasion of Iraq, premised on three discredited intelligence claims: Curveball, aluminum tubes, Niger yellowcake.
April 9, 2003	Last curators and staff leave the Iraq Museum.
April 10–12, 2003	Three separate looting incidents at the Iraq Museum by three distinct groups: (1) public galleries, (2) above-ground storage, (3) underground storage with master keys.
April 12, 2003	Museum staff return and fend off further looters.
April 16, 2003	US forces deploy around the museum.
April 21, 2003	The US Marine Colonel who would later found the Manhattan DA’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit initiates the official investigation.
2003	Three members of the US President’s Advisory Committee on Cultural Property resign in protest — the chairman and two State Department cultural advisers.
2003 onward	Systematic stripping of southern Iraqi archaeological sites — Ur, Nippur, Umma, Isin, Uruk. Trafficking routes through Jordan, UAE, Europe → private collections + US institutions.
2004	The Geneva principal of Phoenix Ancient Art convicted in Egypt for antiquities smuggling.
Jan 2005	Of 40 pieces stolen from the Iraq Museum public galleries, 13 recovered as of this date.
July 25, 2006	Statue of King Entemena of Lagash returned to Iraq via ICE — recovery in the US assisted by the NYC principal of Phoenix Ancient Art.
2010	Hobby Lobby pays ~$1.6 m for Iraqi objects. Cultural-property law expert warns Hobby Lobby in writing that the artifacts are almost certainly looted. Hobby Lobby proceeds.
2010–2013	The head of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri Project at Oxford sells stolen papyri fragments to Hobby Lobby in seven private transactions totalling $7,095,100.
2011	A Green Collection representative is shown fragments by the Oxford papyrologist.
~2012 onward	ISIS / ISIL takes over the looting operation in Iraq. Material continues flowing through the same UAE / European pipeline.
2017	Hobby Lobby DOJ settlement: $3 m civil forfeiture + 5,548 artifacts forfeited (mostly cuneiform tablets and clay bullae).
November 2019	Egypt Exploration Society discovers 120 pieces missing from the Oxyrhynchus collection.
April 2020	The Oxford papyrologist arrested by Thames Valley Police. Oxford suspends him.
June 2021	Museum of the Bible sues the Oxford papyrologist for £5 million.
2022	ICIJ “Hidden Treasures” investigation names an India-focused antiquities trafficker and references a Cambodia-focused looting principal. Distinct cases.
March 11, 2024	Default judgment of $7,000,000 + interest + fees against the Oxford papyrologist. He never appeared in court, never named an attorney. Refunded $10,000 as of this date.
2025	BBC radio investigation locates the Oxford papyrologist at a house on the outskirts of Oxford. He refuses to speak.