The antiquities represent a cultural and scientific heritage that represents the identity of civilizations for peoples. Iraq is one of the countries that is most distinguished by the abundance and diversity of archaeological sites in it and the different ancient historical eras to which it dates back, as it is a basic source for writing ancient cultural, social and economic history. Given the importance of antiquities in society, laws were enacted that regulate matters related to the possession of antiquities, their preservation and the prevention of tampering with them, as they represent a wealth for the nation. Interest in them and their protection is not limited to general provisions, but rather countries have gone to special legislation to protect them. The methods of committing antiquities crimes have developed in innovative and diverse ways, considering them a type of emerging crimes. The emerging criminal phenomena have become a security concern not only for the countries of the developed world, but also at the national and regional levels for Arab countries, because most of these criminal phenomena are not local in nature, but are by nature cross-border between countries. Therefore, it is an international phenomenon that requires a great deal of cooperation at the regional and international levels to confront it. Criminal law has become interested in provisions related to antiquities and heritage, which was an echo and response to the development of science. Antiquities and heritage, despite the many studies that dealt with the subject of antiquities and heritage
Hussein et al. (Sun,) studied this question.