Mexico recovers stolen antiquities: 23-06-2008
More than 900 stolen antiquities have been returned to Mexico after being seized by US customs over the course of seven years.
The haul, 929 items in total, includes rare and valuable wooden spears, arrowheads, hunting bows and fibre sandals and textiles plundered from the caves of Pueblo Indians and other cultures in the Coahuila state.
"The significance is that many come from the cultures of the north, the first hunter-gatherer groups," said Alfonso de Maria y Campos, the director of Mexico's National Anthropology Institute.
"There are very few examples of those because they are objects made from organic materials that disintegrate over time."
Over the last five years, more than 19,000 antiquities have been returned to Mexico from around the world.
Many of the items were likely on their way to museums and private collections in the US and Europe until being seized by foreign customs.
Most of the caves in the area are un-explored by archaeologists and are remote and often vulnerable to looters looking to take advantage of a thriving antiquities market.
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