PARIS, FRANCE—Reuters reports that the government of France has handed over more than 400 artifacts, including terracotta busts, vases, urns, and goblets, to officials at Pakistan's embassy in Paris. French customs officers seized the objects at Roissy Charles de Gaulle Airport in 2006 and 2007. Scholars at France’s National Center for Scientific Research identified the artifacts, which have been dated to the second and third millennium B.C., and are believed to have been looted from cemeteries in Pakistan’s Indus Valley. “We believe, today, that a part of Pakistan’s heritage is coming back to its homeland,” said Muhammad Amjad Aziz Qazi, the embassy’s deputy head of mission and charge d’affaires. For more, go to “Burials and Reburials in Ancient Pakistan.”
France Repatriates Artifacts to Pakistan
News July 3, 2019
Recommended Articles
Digs & Discoveries September/October 2024
Gallic Steeds

Digs & Discoveries November/December 2022
Before and After

Features March/April 2022
Exploring Notre Dame's Hidden Past
The devastating 2019 fire is providing an unprecedented look at the secrets of the great cathedral


-
Features May/June 2019
Bringing Back Moche Badminton
How reviving an ancient ritual game gave an archaeologist new insight into the lives of ancient Peruvians
(Courtesy Christopher Donnan, Illustration by Donna McClelland) -
Features May/June 2019
Inside King Tut’s Tomb
A decade of research offers a new look at the burial of Egypt’s most famous pharaoh
(Courtesy Factum Arte) -
Letter from the Dead Sea May/June 2019
Life in a Busy Oasis
Natural resources from land and sea sustained a thriving Jewish community for more than a millennium
(Duby Tal/Albatross/Alamy Stock Photo) -
Artifacts May/June 2019
Ancestral Pueblo Tattoo Needle
(Robert Hubner/Washington State University)