Police arrest seven excavators, antique smugglers in northern Iran

February 22, 2021 - 21:30

TEHRAN – On Sunday evening, Iranian police arrested seven illegal excavators and antique smugglers while digging for historical objects on the outskirts of a tourist village in northern Mazandaran province.

The accused people were traced and finally arrested in Chamestan district of Nur county after the authorities received reports from cultural heritage aficionados about their lawbreaking, IRNA reported.  

Some excavation tools and equipment have been seized from the culprits who were surrendered to the judicial system for further investigation, the report said

Soaked in a vibrant history, Mazandaran (also known as Tabarestan) was a cradle of civilization since the beginning of the first millennium BC. According to Britannica Encyclopedia, it was almost overrun in about 720 CE by the Arab raiders. Its insecure eastern and southeastern borders were crossed by Mongol invaders in the 13th and 14th centuries. Cossacks attacked the region in 1668 but were repulsed.

Tabarestan was ceded to the Russian Empire by a treaty in 1723, but the Russians were never secure in their occupation. The area was restored to Iran under the Qajar dynasty. The northern section of the region consists of a lowland alongside the Caspian and an upland along the northern slopes of the Alborz Mountains.

AFM/

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