TEHRAN – Iranian police have recently arrested two armed illegal excavators and antique smugglers in Andika, southwestern Khuzestan province, CHTN reported on Friday.

The accused people were traced and finally arrested after police received reports from cultural heritage aficionados about their misdeeds, said Ramin Maknavi, a senior police official in charge of protecting cultural heritage.

A metal detector, some excavation tools, and a pistol have been seized from the culprits who were surrendered to the judicial system for further investigation, the official added.

Khuzestan is home to three UNESCO World Heritage sites of Susa, Tchogha Zanbil, and Shushtar Historical Hydraulic System yet it is a region of raw beauty where its visitors could spend weeks exploring. The province is also a cradle for handicrafts and arts whose crafters inherited from their preceding generations.

Lying at the head of the Persian Gulf and bordering Iraq on the west, Khuzestan was settled about 6000 BC by a people with affinities to the Sumerians, who came from the Zagros Mountains region. Urban centers appeared there nearly contemporaneously with the first cities in Mesopotamia in the 4th millennium. Khuzestan, according to Encyclopedia Britannica, came to constitute the heart of the Elamite kingdom, with Susa as its capital.

ABU/MG