Jordan says that Israel has returned 620 Early Bronze Age pottery items taken in the 1960s by a US archaeologist for research at a Jerusalem-based institute.
     "Israel returned the items, including pots, plates and jars, in April. American archaeologist Paul W. Lapp borrowed them in the 1960s for study and research," acting director of Jordan's antiquities department, Fares Hmud, told the state-run Petra news agency. Hmud said the antiquities will be displayed at a museum in the Jordan Valley.
     Jordan has said it was still trying to recover books and manuscripts dating from the first century CE after they were smuggled to Israel several years ago. Jordan is also demanding the return of the Dead Sea Scrolls, also known as the Qumran Manuscripts, which contain some of the earliest biblical texts. The oldest documents date back to the third century BCE while the latest was written in 70 CE.
     Israel claimed the scrolls from a museum in East Jerusalem, then under Jordanian sovereignty, but which was occupied during the Six Day War in 1967.

Edited from Khaleej Times (26 September 2011), The Fiji Times (28 September 2011)