Ishtartv.com- thearmenianreport.com

11 June, 2026

A rare artifact dating back nearly 4,000 years has been donated to the Matenadaran in Yerevan, adding a significant piece of ancient Near Eastern history to Armenia’s renowned repository of manuscripts and historical treasures.

Prince Dani Badawi, a representative of the Badawi royal dynasty, and Grammy Award-winning singer Mohombi visited the Matenadaran accompanied by Armenia’s Ambassador to the United States, Narek Mkrtchyan.

During the visit, Prince Badawi presented the Matenadaran with an Akkadian contract inscribed on a clay tablet dating from approximately 1750–1712 BC.

The donation is particularly notable because Akkadian was one of the earliest major written languages of human civilization. Used across ancient Mesopotamia—often referred to as the cradle of civilization—Akkadian was written in cuneiform script on clay tablets and served as the language of government, commerce, diplomacy, and law for centuries.

Contracts such as the one donated to the Matenadaran were commonly used to record legal agreements, property transactions, trade deals, loans, and other aspects of daily life. Historians rely on these tablets to better understand the economic, social, and political systems of some of the world’s earliest urban societies.

Dating to the late Old Babylonian period, the newly donated tablet is roughly contemporary with the era that followed the reign of the famous Babylonian king Hammurabi, whose legal code remains one of the most influential documents of the ancient world. While the specific contents of the contract have not yet been made public, the artifact offers a tangible connection to a civilization that flourished nearly four millennia ago.

During their visit, Prince Badawi and Mohombi also toured the Matenadaran Museum and the institution’s Restoration Department, where specialists preserve and restore manuscripts and historical documents for future generations.