The dark greenish stone and bronze vessels had always been a mystery. Dating at least five millennia back, these chlorite, bronze and ceramic containers, vases and other decorative objects were covered in mythological scenes depicting snakes, eagles and scorpions. There were human bodies with bull heads and other anthropomorphic figures. They were found widely, in archeological digs from the Indus Valley in modern day Pakistan to the Persian Gulf and as far north as Gonur Depe, a site in Turkmenistan.
“The origin of these vessels was completely unknown,” says David Meier, an archaeologist with the University of Tehran.
Iranian police began to confiscate some of the items in 2001. These looted artifacts were believed to come from two mounds in the county of Jiroft in southern Iran, according to a publication by Iranian archaeologist Youssef Madjidzadeh.
But research in the two decades since by Madjidzadeh and others has helped to ...
