TEHRAN – Iranian police have recently confiscated some ancient relics from the house of a suspect in the city of Amol, which is situated in the northern Mazandaran province.

The police investigation resulted in the seizure of 28 objects, of which 17 ones have been estimated to date from the Iron Age, a police commander in charge of cultural heritage protection said on Monday.

Moreover, a metal detector was found at the house of the suspect who has been surrendered to the Judicial system for further investigation and trial, Mohammadreza Kordan said.

An early Iranian civilization flourished at the beginning of the first millennium BC in the Mazandaran region. It was overrun in about 720 CE by the Arab general Yezid ibn Mohallab and was the last part of Iran to be converted to Islam.

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.

AFM