Persian Antiquities Found By Hungarian Police Date to 900 BC

Persian Antiquities Found By Hungarian Police Worth Over 200M HUF.

Bronze artifacts, including a helmet, small bells and horse tack, were likely from the grave of a high-ranking military officer from Urartu.

Hungarian police say a haul of antiquities found in a truck last year are worth around 700,000 euros.

According to reports, the antiques are thought to be Persian, Sumerian, Assyrian and from other origins dated as early as 900 B.C.

According to AP, bronze artifacts, including a helmet, small bells and horse tack, were likely from the grave of a high-ranking military officer from Urartu, also called the Kingdom of Van, corresponding mostly to parts of modern Armenia and Turkey.

The 115 objects, also including 14 Roman gold coins, similar to those pictured above, and some high-quality forgeries, were found during a routine search on September 29 of a truck going to Lithuania. None of the recovered objects was found to be from a museum or private collection.

Experts said that such a large assortment of objects had never been recovered before from an Urartu grave and speculated that other artifacts also taken from the grave, such as the officer’s weapons and shields, may have been sold separately by the finders.

Police have recommended that the 50-year-old Turkish driver, who said a man in Istanbul paid him 300 euros to take the objects to Poland, be charged with receiving stolen goods.

The artifacts are being kept at the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest.