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LONDON, (CAIS) -- The police department of Jiroft succeeded in confiscating 41 metal relics belonging to the pre-historic and historic periods.

“The police department of Jiroft found 41 bronze, copper, and silver relics. The most ancient one is a Rhyton with the head of a humped cow belonging to some 3000 BCE,” said Nader Soleimani, archeologist from the Cultural Heritage and Tourism Department of Kerman province.

“The designs which can be seen on this dagger depict something like the crocodiles which still exist in south of Chabahar Port in Iran’s Sistan va Baluchestan province. The person who came up with this design must have seen this animal closely to be able to put down such accurate pattern,” added Soleimani. According to Soleimani, the bronze dagger belonging to the first millennium BCE.

A bronze axe and a copper plaque engraved with a humped cow, an ibex and palm tree are the other discovered relics. “Such designs had already been seen in other parts of Jiroft on artifacts made with soapstone,” said Soleimani.

Soleimani also announced the existence of a small bronze vessel belonging to the third millennium BCE with some geometrical designs, and also 24 antique coins belonging to different periods of Parthian and, Sasanid dynasties, as well as the early post-Sasanid, Seljuk, Ilkhanid, Safavid, and Qajar periods in this newly discovered collection.

Jiroft historical site is located in Kerman province on the basin of Halil Rud River. Jiroft is known to be one of the most historical sites of the world which enjoyed a rich civilization in the third millennium BCE. Over 100 historical sites have so far been identified along the bank of Halili-Rud River, extended for 400 kilometers.

Lack of enough control over this historical site and unawareness of the public about its importance turned Jiroft into a paradise for illegal diggers, plundering a large number of ancient relics in this site. What happened in Jiroft is today known as one of the most tragic events in world archeology. It was only after all these illegal excavations that the archeologists rushed to this area to study one of the most prominent historical sites in Iran which revealed much about one of the most ancient civilizations of the world. Some archeologists believe that more findings on the earliest civilization that lived in Jiroft will be a turning point in their current understanding of the history of civilization.

“This threshold of history found in Jiroft is what is lost in the evolution course of the Mesopotamian civilization and is not that notable in that of Egypt. There are many objects dating to this time found in the Halil-Rud area, which can fill the gap in the formation and development course of the Jiroft civilization. Therefore, one can say that Jiroft is the capital of today’s world archeology because it allows the archeologists to modify the previous theories on how people lived during that time. The part of history that was hidden in the strata of Iran’s plateau is essential to rebuilding the base of world’s history,” these words were expressed by Jean Perrot, head of the French archaeological teams working in Iran from 1968 to 1978 and also attended the International Conference of Halil-Rud Civilization which was held in Jiroft from 1-3 February 2005.

Up until now, some 4000 historical relics which had been unearthed during illegal excavations in Jiroft have been identified and confiscated by the police department.

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