THE ASOR BLOG: Ask a Near Eastern Professional: How the Sumerians Got to Peru (Alex Joffe). The short answer is that they didn't — or at least this artifact does not prove that they did, because it is a fake. But the long answer is quite interesting, so read it all. It would be exciting to find evidence of contact between the ancient Near East and the Americas in antiquity, but it doesn't seem very likely, and so far no convincing evidence has surfaced. Related post here with links.
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