TEHRAN — Fossils which were long gone and kept in the U.S. were unveiled in the Department of Environment (DoE) on Saturday.

On the occasion of the retrieval of the fossils an official at the DoE told a press conference about the legal process of taking back the fossils.

In an almost 40-year legal battle against the U.S. the precious fossils were reclaimed and brought back to Iran on February 3, Daryoush Karimi said.

The fossils, which had been found in the city of Maragheh, northwestern East Azarbaijan Province, had been sent to the U.S. before the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran and kept at Harvard University for some research purposes, Karimi explained.

After the Islamic Revolution and the takeover of the American embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979, both countries relations went sour and things got messed up, he remarked.

Following the Algiers Accords all legal cases between Iran and the U.S. must have been referred to the International Court of Justice in The Hague “but since at that time Iran was involved in war with Iraq most cases which came to the court were military ones,” he stated.

Therefore, some 1300 fossils in different shapes and sizes varying from one centimeter such as a chipped tooth to 10 cenermeters like a knee bone were being kept in the U.S. despite Iran’s will, he regretted.

The case was adjourned, he noted, until last year when a hearing was held in the Iranian calendar month of Aban (October 24-November 21) in International Court of Justice in The Hague.

He went on to say that “at long last the judges concluded that the fossils belong to Iran.”

The long suit which started in 1983 was ultimately settled as the U.S. agreed to return the fossils with the results of the researches at its expense, he explained.

After a fairly time-consuming process of obtaining visa, a team of Iranian experts were sent to the U.S. to authenticate the fossils, he added.

To be on the safe side an article is added to the agreement signed between Iran and the U.S. says in case the U.S. have kept any of the fossils they will be legally bound to pay a fine, Karimi said.

He added that the dispute was resolved on good terms.

Asghar Mobaraki, director of the Natural Museum and Genetics Bank of the DoE, also explained that “30 articles and two 700-800 pages reports are published on the Iranian fossils and a good data bank which all are collected by the American researchers are now available to us.”

The fossils are a great help for getting to know the climate and biodiversity of the country seven to eight million years ago, Mobaraki said.

A small number of the fossils will be showcased, he said.

The fossils are the conclusive proof of the antiquity of the city of Maragheh which is almost seven million years old, he added.

Furthermore, Zahra Ourak, the head of the archeology office of the DoE clarified that the fossils belong to mammals such as horses, elephants, rhinoceroses, and giraffes including their jaws, teeth and skulls.

“80 percent of the fossils most commonly belong to the Hipparion which is an extinct genus of horse,” she said.

She also remarked that in addition to the 1350 fossils a mass of fossils which is yet to be extracted is returned to Iran.

It is believed that it belongs to a complete animal, most probably a Feliformia (cat-like carnivorans), she added.

MQ/PA