France onTuesday handed over to Pakistan nearly 450 ancient relics, some dating as farback as 4,000 BC, seized by French customs agents over a decade ago.
Customsagents at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport in 2006 intercepted a parcel fromPakistan containing 17 terracotta pots addressed to a museum in the city,claiming they were more than 100 years old.
But anexpert who examined them concluded they were artefacts dating back to thesecond or third millennium BC which had likely been stolen from burial sites inBaluchistan, a province in southwest Pakistan.
Following anextensive investigation which lasted almost a year and involved a raid on theParis gallery, investigators found a total of 445 items, some dating as farback as 4,000 BC, with an estimated value of 139,000 euros (USD 157,000).
Among theitems on display at the embassy to mark the handover were a series ofbeautifully-decorated pots, vases and jars, all painstakingly adorned withsmall, stylised motifs of animals, plants and trees.
There werealso about 100 tiny ceramic figurines, as well as plates, bowls and goblets,all of which had been illegally shipped out of Pakistan for sale to dealersabroad.
“Thisis very, very important for us,” said Abbas Sarwar Qureshi, head ofchancery at the Pakistani embassy where France’s top customs official attendeda formal handover ceremony.
“Someof the items are 6,000 years old from the Mehrgarh civilisation,” he toldAFP, referring to an era that predates the Indus Valley civilisation whichflourished around 3,000 BC before mysteriously disappearing.
AuroreDidier, head of France’s archaeological mission in the Indus basin, said theceramics came from illegally-excavated graveyards and were examples of twodifferent cultures: the Nal (3100-2700 BC), and the Kulli (2600-1900 BC).
“Forthis period, very few sites have been documented and archaeologists stoppedtheir work in Baluchistan in 2007 due to political issues in the area,”she told AFP.
Although notnew or unique, they provided valuable evidence of a period where most of theremaining graves had been destroyed.
“Forarchaeologists, it’s very important because it’s the only evidence of funerarymaterial from this period,” she said.
Qureshi saidthe 445 objects would be shipped back to Pakistan “within a fewweeks,” although it was not immediately clear where they would beexhibited.