TEHRAN –A centuries-old earthenware urn has recently been discovered in Mobarakeh county, central Isfahan province, Mobarakeh’s tourism chief has announced.

The historical relic, which is estimated to date back to the Sassanid-era (224–651), was unearthed during an illegal excavation, Valiollah Rahbari said on Wednesday.

Iranian police arrested the illegal diggers and confiscated the urn they had dug up after being tipped off by cultural heritage aficionados, the official added.

The historical object has been moved to the county’s cultural heritage department and is set to be restored and strengthened as soon as possible, he explained.

He also noted that the culprits were surrendered to the judicial system for further investigation and trial.

The Sassanid era is of very high importance in the history of Iran. Experts believe during the Sassanid era the art and architecture of the nation experienced a general renaissance. In that era, crafts such as metalwork and gem-engraving grew highly sophisticated, as scholarship was encouraged by the state; many works from both the East and West were translated into Pahlavi, the official language of the Sassanians.

The Sassanid archaeological landscape also represents a highly efficient system of land use and strategic utilization of natural topography in the creation of the earliest cultural centers of the Sassanid civilization.

In 2018, UNESCO added an ensemble of Sassanian historical cities in southern Iran -- titled “Sassanid Archaeological Landscape of Fars Region”-- to its World Heritage list. The ensemble is comprised of eight archaeological sites situated in three geographical parts of Firuzabad, Bishapur, and Sarvestan. It reflects the optimized utilization of natural topography and bears witness to the influence of Achaemenid and Parthian cultural traditions and of Roman art, which later had a significant impact on the architecture and artistic styles of the Islamic era.

ABU/AFM