Illustrative: Ancient artifacts, smuggled into the U.S. in violation of federal law and shipped to Hobby Lobby stores, are shown at an event returning the artifacts to Iraq May 2, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Win McNamee/Getty Images/AFP) WASHINGTON — 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 after a judge verified its seizure Tuesday. 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.