TEHRAN – Iranian authorities have recently discovered a haul of relics from the home of a suspect in the Kan district of Tehran province.

“The relics are estimated to date from various eras, including the Neolithic period (New Stone Age), first millennium BC, and the Islamic era,” a police commander in charge of protecting cultural heritage said on Sunday.

Following receiving reports from cultural heritage enthusiasts, police forces recovered 233 items, including necklaces, rings, coins, statues, etc. from the house of a smuggler in Kan, the commander said.

According to the available data, the first well-documented evidence of human habitation on the Iranian Plateau was found in several excavated cave and rock shelters, located mainly in the Zagros Mountains of western Iran, dating to the Middle Palaeolithic or Mousterian period (c. 100,000 BC).

AM