PHILADELPHIA — February 28, 2026 — U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers in Philadelphia recently intercepted a shipment containing nearly 4,000-year-old artifacts from the Bronze Age, preventing them from entering the U.S. illegally.
On February 18, CBP officers seized 36 copper-alloy short swords and 50 copper-alloy arrowheads that had been unlawfully imported from the United Arab Emirates. The shipment, which arrived on an express delivery flight on October 16, was destined for an address in Jacksonville, Florida. It was originally declared as “metal decoration articles,” but x-ray screening revealed sword-like objects inside.
Suspecting the items were cultural artifacts, CBP detained the shipment and contacted the National Targeting Center’s Antiquities Unit. Archaeologists from a local Philadelphia university verified the items as originating from the Talish Mountains region near the Caspian Sea in Iran, dating to the later 2nd millennium BCE, approximately 1600–1000 BCE. Investigators believe the artifacts may have been looted from burial sites…