TEHRAN – Iranian police have recently confiscated some 1,000 coins, reportedly dating back to three thousand years ago, from two antique smugglers in Miandorud, northern Mazandaran province.

The police traced the smugglers following reports by local people and finally stopped them in a stolen car that resulted in the discovery of a clay jug and some 1,000 coins, IRNA reported on Saturday.

The culprits were detained and handed over to judiciary officials for further investigation, and the objects were submitted to the local cultural heritage department, the report added.

The first well-documented evidence of human habitation on the Iranian plateau is found from deposits from several excavated cave and rock-shelter sites in the Zagros Mountains, which dates back to Middle Paleolithic or Mousterian times (c. 100,000 BC).

AFM/MG