TEHRAN- Iranian police have recently arrested seven illegal diggers in Savadkuh county of the northern Mazandaran province.  

The suspects were traced and finally detained after police received reports from cultural heritage aficionados about their misdeeds, said Mohammadreza Kordan, a senior police official in charge of protecting cultural heritage, CHTN reported on Sunday.

"Some excavation tools have been seized from the culprits, who were handed over to the judicial system for further investigation," the official added.

An early civilization flourished at the beginning of the first millennium BC in Mazandaran (Tabarestan). 

Soaked in a vibrant history, Mazandaran (also known as Tabarestan) was a cradle of civilization since the beginning of the first millennium BC. According to Britannica Encyclopedia, it was almost overrun in about 720 CE by the Arab raiders.

Its insecure eastern and southeastern borders were crossed by Mongol invaders in the 13th and 14th centuries. Cossacks attacked the region in 1668 but were repulsed. It was ceded to the Russian Empire by a treaty in 1723, but the Russians were never secure in their occupation. The area was restored to Iran under the Qajar dynasty. The northern section of the region consists of a lowland alongside the Caspian and an upland along the northern slopes of the Alborz Mountains.

ABU/AFM