Recently, officers from U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Philadelphia, while X-raying a shipment declared as metal decorative items, discovered 36 short swords and 50 arrowheads made of copper alloy.The cargo arrived last fall via express flight from the UAE and was destined for Florida. The items were seized for further investigation. An archaeologist specializing in the Middle East confirmed that these are authentic ancient artifacts dating from 1600–1000 BCE, originating from the southwestern coast of the Caspian Sea, near the Talysh Mountains in Iran. They were likely obtained through illegal excavations from ancient burials.The value of the smuggled cargo is estimated at hundreds of thousands of dollars.“U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers are committed to rescuing cultural artifacts from illegal international traffickers who plunder and exploit another country’s heritage for profit,” said Elliot N. Ortiz, Acting Director of the Philadelphia Port of Entry.Art crime expert Robert Wittman emphasized that such incidents highlight the scale of the global black market in stolen antiquities: “When you start stealing cultural heritage from other countries, those nations lose their history — and ultimately, the whole world loses it too.”