TEHRAN – Iranian police have recently confiscated a clay jug, estimated to date back to some 4,900 years ago, from an antique smuggler in Tehran, IRNA reported. 

The culprit, who was detained and handed over to judiciary officials for further investigation, claimed that he found the relic in one of the western cities of the country and wanted to sell it in Tehran, the report added.

The ancient jug, which is submitted to the province’s cultural heritage department, is being studied by the cultural heritage experts.

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).

ABU/MG