PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Customs and Border Protection officers in Philadelphia got a crash course in ancient history after finding swords and arrowheads that date to the Bronze Age.
According to Customs and Border Protection, 36 copper-alloy short swords and 50 copper-alloy arrowheads arrived on an express delivery flight on Oct. 16, 2025.
Air Cargo shipped the items from the United Arab Emirates. Their destination was an address in Jacksonville, Florida.
Customs and Border Protection officers x-rayed the shipment and detected sword-like objects before opening it.
“Our officers, who generally do this every day, are now touching a piece of ancient history,” said CBP spokesperson Steve Sapp. “We ended up seizing them because the importer did not have an import or an export permit from Iran, which is where these items were sourced from.”
He said the shipment was manifested as metal decoration articles.
CBP officers then contacted the National Targeting Center's Antiquities Unit, which received help from an archaeologist connected with a local Philadelphia university.
They said it took four months to determine that the antiquities dated to the late 2nd millennium BCE, between 1600 and 1000 BCE.
The artifacts originate from an area along the southwestern Caspian Sea, by the lush Talish Mountains region of Iran.
“[Archaeologists] also suggested that they were illicitly derived from burial grounds, which means people were pilfering them from plundering burial grounds,” Sapp said.
CBP officers said they will safeguard the antiquities until a proper home is found.