[13/May/2008]
SANA'A, May 13 (Saba) – The security forces have seized an ancient manuscript along with priceless copper artifacts, that date back hundreds of years, at the Yasleh checkpoint on the road to Sana'a from the eastern and southern provinces of Yemen.

The state-run 26sep.net quoted security sources as saying  the manuscript piece is a book contains poems of one of the ancient Yemeni poets called Abdullah Bin Alwan from the city of Zabeed. The seized items included five copper plates and a thurible.

The Yemeni authorities arrested a French man, who woks for an oil company in the country, with 32 priceless artifacts for resale outside Yemen. These antiquities included a bronze statue and ancient currencies.

The French man was freed on bail and the antiquities were sent to the Archaeology College in the Sana'a University for analysis. The initial analysis showed that the seized artifacts with the man were fake except one and for this reason they have been re-examined.

Recently most of the Yemeni archaeological sites have suffered from looting and blundering operations and in response the authorities began to tighten security measures at the sites.

Yemen has many artifacts and most ancient antiquities predating the Sheba kingdom; however, the measures to protect its ancient antiquities wealth are falling short.
FR