Morocco has recovered nearly 25,500 rare archaeological items, mainly prehistoric and paleontological, seized by French Customs in 2005 and 2006.
These archaeological objects were handed over to the Moroccan Consul General in Marseilles, Said Bakhkhar, by the Deputy Interregional Director of Customs and Indirect Taxes of the Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur (PACA) region during a ceremony held at the Museum of Civilizations of Europe and the Mediterranean (MuCEM) in Marseilles.
A total of 24,459 fossil and archaeological objects, trilobites, teeth, skulls and jaws of animals, arrowheads and carved tools and rock carvings, from pre-Saharan and Anti-Atlas sites, dating back 500,000 million years and the Paleolithic and Neolithic period (6,130,000 years /- 6,000 years), will return to Morocco.
Among this priceless treasure, it is worth mentioning rock engravings, some of which date from the Neolithic, a crocodile skull still partly in its gangue, an exceptional piece especially since very many fakes are put on sale, as well as fish and reptile teeth dated for the most part from the Eocene, the second period of the Paleogene and the second of the Cenozoic era (56-33 million years).
These archaeological items had been intercepted during three consecutive seizures carried out by the customs of Arles and Perpignan between November 2005 and November 2006.
HA/lb/abj/APA