TEHRAN–Iranian authorities have recently seized a haul of Parthian relics from smugglers in the Siahkal county of Gilan province.

“A total of 594 objects including stone, metal and copper coins, gold plates and metal objects as well as two metal detectors were discovered from a smuggler’s home,” a local police commander said on Monday.

According to cultural heritage experts, the objects date from the Parthian era, the commander said.

Two individuals aged 30 and 38 were detained in this regard and surrendered to the judicial system for further investigation, he added.

The Parthian Empire (247 BC–224 CE), also known as the Arsacid Empire, was a major Iranian political and cultural power in ancient Iran. The Parthians largely adopted the art, architecture, religious beliefs, and royal insignia of their culturally heterogeneous empire, which encompassed Persian, Hellenistic, and regional cultures. At its height, the Parthian Empire stretched from the northern reaches of the Euphrates, in what is now central-eastern Turkey, to eastern Iran.

Parthian wealth obtained through lucrative trade networks resulted in substantial patronage of the arts, in particular, relief sculpture, statuary (large and small scale), architectural sculpture, metalwork, jewelry, and ceramics; coins with images of Parthian rulers form another important category of objects.

Establishing a primary residence at Ctesiphon, on the Tigris River in southern Mesopotamia, Parthian kings ruled for nearly half a millennium and influenced politics from Asia Minor to northern India, until they were overthrown by Sasanian armies from southwest Iran in the early third century CE.

AM