Stolen Ancient Goblet from Jiroft Found in Yazd

Tehran, 29 April 2006 (CHN) -- A 5000-year-old stone goblet with the design of two lions, two scorpions, and four wolves carved on it which had been stolen by illegal smugglers from Jiroft was seized in the city of Bafgh in Yazd province by the police department. According to Fotouhi, the director of the Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization of Bafgh, the height of this goblet is between 20 to 24 centimeters and the lion heads on the two sides of it served as handles.
Experts believe that the discovery of this goblet and other stone artifacts can be used as a proof to Iran’s claim in international courts for the ownership of the articles which were smuggled across Iran’s borders to other countries and are currently being kept in some of the world museums.
Halil Rud historical site, located on the basin of Halil Rud River in Kerman province, once enjoyed a rich civilization. A large number of stone, clay and architectural remains have been discovered during the excavations in this historical site so far. The wide plundering of the historical and archeological relics by smugglers led to the loss of many valuable evidences. Most of these historical relics were taken outside the country illegally and are being kept in galleries outside Iran. Unfortunately, those who now possess these artifacts deny that they actually belong to Jiroft’s civilization and thus refuse to give them back to Iran. To bring these ancient relics back to the country, Iran has asked for an international court to redeem its stolen historical artifacts.
Plundering of Matot Abad cemetery by the smugglers which was an unbelievable disaster in the history of archeology attracted the attention of the public to this region for the first time. The discovered stone objects in Jiroft belonging to the first half of the third millennium BC point to the developed art of carving on stones at that time which was more developed than that of Mesopotamia.
Analytical studies on relics found in Jiroft in a research center in the United States indicate that the discovered materials in this region date back to the third millennium BC. Considering an inscription found earlier in the region, archeologists believe that the writing language of Jiroft is more ancient than that of Mesopotamia and that the script language was transferred to Mesopotamia from this region.