Some of the artefacts confiscated may be up to one million years old
French customs officials say they have seized more than 650 ancient artefacts smuggled from Mali in one of the largest such finds at a Paris airport.
Described as an "archaeological treasure", the objects were thought to be on their way to private US buyers.
Experts say most of the items are from the Neolithic period, but some may be up to one million years old.
The artefacts are thought to have been taken from archaeological sites on the edge of the Sahara desert.
The 669 items - 601 stones and 68 bracelets - were confiscated on 19 January at Charles de Gaulle airport and included axe heads, flintstones and stone rings.
Most of the artefacts date from a few thousand years BC. But others are from the Acheulean period, between one million years and 200,000 years old, and from the Middle Stone Age (200,000 years BC to 20,000 years BC).
The artefacts were shipped in nine parcels from the Malian capital, Bamako, which the accompanying paperwork described as handcrafted objects.
Customs officials look out for artefacts being exported from specific countries such as Mali which may be smuggled, a customs spokeswoman told the BBC News website.
If they have a doubt, they then seize the objects and have them assessed by experts to establish their age - in this case an expert from the Department of Prehistory at the Natural History Museum in Paris, she said.
Growing traffic
This type of traffic was unheard of a few years ago, an airport customs official told the AFP news agency.
"Since 2004 we have observed regular traffic in this kind of contraband. There is a big market and we are pretty sure that these items, which had been neatly sorted and were of very high quality, had been pre-sold," Eric Cailheton said.
French customs officials made two similarly large finds of archaeological items from Niger in March 2004 and December 2005.
The 2005 haul included more than 5,000 stone arrowheads and 90 carved stone artefacts, dating back 5,000 years.
The items were found in the baggage of a passenger who arrived on a flight from Niger's capital, Niamey.
Mali Culture
French report 1995:
Protection du patrimoine culturel de l?humanit? :
les douaniers de Fr?jorques saisissent
pr?s de mille objets arch?ologiques et ethnographiques maliens
Le 8 novembre 2005, les agents des douanes, charg?s des op?rations de d?douanement de l?a?roport
de Montpellier-M?diterran?e ? Fr?jorques (H?rault), ont d?couvert, dans le fret commercial, un tr?s
important lot de pi?ces arch?ologiques et artisanales originaires du Mali. Ce sont au total
953 pi?ces qui ont ?t? saisies sur la base de la Convention Internationale de l?Unesco, sign?e en 1970,
qui vise ? prot?ger le patrimoine culturel des pays signataires.
Le 4 novembre, deux personnes de nationalit? marocaine se sont pr?sent?es au service des douanes
pour effectuer les op?rations de d?douanement sur un chargement de 240 kg ? d?effets personnels ?
ayant effectu? un trajet Bamako-Montpellier. Etonn?s par la nature du chargement, qui semblait ?tre
constitu? d?objets arch?ologiques, les agents des douanes ont interrog? les importateurs, qui ont
d?clar? qu?il s?agissait de copies r?alis?es par des artisans maliens et destin?es ? ?tre offertes.
Les douaniers ont alors d?cid? de faire appel ? plusieurs experts universitaires en arch?ologie de la
r?gion, qui ont confirm? qu?une grande partie des marchandises est authentique, d?un int?r?t historique
certain et provient vraisemblablement de collectes illicites effectu?es dans plusieurs r?gions du Mali :
- une premier lot comporte des objets arch?ologiques repr?sentant plusieurs p?riodes depuis le
pal?olithique inf?rieur jusqu?aux environs du XVI?me si?cle de notre ?re : des bifaces, des pointes de
fl?ches, des haches polies, des pilons en gr?s. Le chargement comportait ?galement de tr?s
nombreuses perles en roches diverses ou en coquillages marins enfil?es r?cemment pour constituer
artificiellement des colliers destin?s ? la vente. Ils ont vraisemblablement ?t? pill?s sur des sites
arch?ologiques de ? la Boucle du Niger ? ;
- un second lot, class? par les experts comme appartenant au ? patrimoine ethnographique malien ?,
est compos? d?objets dont la datation s??chelonne sur une p?riode allant du premier mill?naire aux
XIX?me. Il comprend de nombreux bracelets en bronze et cuivre, plusieurs poteries, des pendentifs en
forme de clochettes et une paire de chevilli?res en bronze. S?agissant de ce dernier objet, les experts
ont soulign? son caract?re exceptionnel et sa qualit? remarquable. Ils l?attribuent ? la production
bronzi?re du premier mill?naire.
Seuls 162 objets de ce chargement ?taient de simples objets artisanaux sans valeur historique.
