TEHRAN –An earthenware jug, estimated to date back to 5,000 years before the Bronze Age, has recently been confiscated from a smuggler in the western province of Lorestan, a senior police official has announced.

The prehistoric object was seized with the judicial coordination after days of police surveillance, ISNA quoted Mohammad Mahdian-Nasab as saying on Monday.

The culprit was detained and surrendered to the judicial system for further investigation, he noted.

Lorestan, which is a region of raw beauty, was inhabited by Iranian Indo-European peoples, including the Medes, c. 1000 BC. Cimmerians and Scythians intermittently ruled the region from about 700 to 625 BC. The Luristan Bronzes noted for their eclectic array of Assyrian, Babylonian, and Iranian artistic motifs, date from this turbulent period. 

Lorestan was incorporated into the growing Achaemenid Empire in about 540 BC and successively was part of the Seleucid, Parthian, and Sasanid dynasties.

ABU/AFM