TEHRAN – An Iranian man has recently donated a massive clay urn, which is estimated to date 3000 years, to a cultural heritage department in northwest Iran.

A citizen donated a 3,000-year-old urn to the cultural heritage department of Oshnavieh,” CHTN quoted Ronak Tasa who presides over the department, as saying on Saturday.

“The donor had found the urn accidentally some 50 years ago, while digging under his house to lay a foundation… and he has kept the object ever since,” the official explained.

“Our investigations show that urn dates back to the first millennium BC,” she added.

The urn, along with 30 other donated objects are currently being kept at the cultural heritage department…. And they will be transferred and showcased in a museum to be built in Oshnavieh, the official said.

Resting on a layer cake of civilizations that have come and gone for millennia, Oshnavieh is teeming with ancient hills, tomb chambers, archaeological sites, and bas-relief carvings. According to many, it’s a paradise for archaeologists.

It is also home to five bas-relief carvings, originally belonging to the Kingdom of Urartu (860 BC – 590 BC). The Urartu kingdom rose to power in the mid-9th century BC, but it went into gradual decline and was eventually conquered by the Iranian Medes in the early 6th century BC. The Urartians were succeeded in the area in the 6th century BC by the Armenians.

AFM/