TEHRAN –The Iranian police have recently discovered five historical clay relics in a small village in the northwestern province of Zanjan, a senior police official in charge of protecting cultural heritage has said.

Estimated to date back to the 1st millennium BC, the relics were discovered after police had received reports from cultural heritage aficionados, Nasser Habibian explained on Monday.

Zanjan is one of the cities founded by Sassanid King Ardashir I (180-242 CE). The province makes a base for wider explorations with the architectural wonder of Soltaniyeh, the subterranean delights of the Katale-Khor caves, colorful mountains, and the UNESCO-registered Takht-e Soleiman ruins nearby.

The first well-documented evidence of human habitation on the Iranian plateau is found from deposits from several excavated cave and rock-shelter sites in the Zagros Mountains, which dates back to Middle Paleolithic or Mousterian times (c. 100,000 BC).

ABU/