ISLAMABAD – France on Tuesday handed over to Pakistan nearly 450 ancientrelics, some dating as far back as 4,000 BC, seized by French customsagents over a decade ago.
Customs agents at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport in 2006 intercepted aparcel from Pakistan containing 17 terracotta pots addressed to a museum inthe city, claiming they were more than 100 years old.
But an expert who examined them concluded they were artefacts dating backto the second or third millennium BC which had likely been stolen fromburial sites in Balochistan.
Following an extensive investigation which lasted almost a year andinvolved a raid on the Paris gallery, investigators found a total of 445items, some dating as far back as 4,000 BC, with an estimated value of139,000 euros [$157,000].
Among the items on display at the embassy to mark the handover were aseries of beautifully-decorated pots, vases and jars, all painstakinglyadorned with small, stylised motifs of animals, plants and trees.
There were also about 100 tiny ceramic figurines, as well as plates, bowlsand goblets, all of which had been illegally shipped out of Pakistan forsale to dealers abroad.
“This is very, very important for us,” said Abbas Sarwar Qureshi, head ofthe chancery at the Pakistani embassy where France’s top customs officialattended a formal handover ceremony.
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“Some of the items are 6,000 years old from the Mehrgarh civilisation,” hetold *AFP*, referring to an era that predates the Indus Valley civilisationwhich flourished around 3,000 BC before mysteriously disappearing.
Aurore Didier, head of France’s archaeological mission in the Indus basin,said the ceramics came from illegally-excavated graveyards and wereexamples of two different cultures: the Nal (3100-2700 BC), and the Kulli(2600-1900 BC).
“For this period, very few sites have been documented and archaeologistsstopped their work in Baluchistan in 2007 due to political issues in thearea,” she told *AFP*.
Although not new or unique, they provided valuable evidence of a periodwhere most of the remaining graves had been destroyed. “For archaeologists,it’s very important because it’s the only evidence of funerary materialfrom this period,” she said.
Qureshi said the 445 objects would be shipped back to Pakistan “within afew weeks,” although it was not immediately clear where they would beexhibited. -APP/AFP
