Thank you for posting this.
Wow. Thanks for bringing this to light.
The Jewish community in Iraq dates back to the Babylonian exile. While many Jews returned to their country, as outlined in the book of Nehemiah in the Old Testament, some remained in Babylon. In fact, the Babylonian Talmud is considered authoritative among Jews to this day. The antiquity of the items found would be extremely interesting to Biblical scholars. There is the Center for the Study of New Testament manuscripts in Plano, Texas, that I am sure would be interested in what might be found there.
Not surprised (1) because Baghdad - at the height of Babylonian capitivty and even after - had some of the top Jewish writers and thinkers, and later had some very well known Jewish writers for hundreds of years, and (2) of course Saddam wanted to steal and suppress that Jewish history, because selling himself to his subjects included selling himself as a “good Muslim”.