Dubai announced this week that it had seized 128 ancient artifacts from a gang of men trying to smuggle them into the country, reports Agence France-Presse.

The antiquities, which come from around the Middle East, particularly Iraq, were confiscated in June aboard a ship that docked in Dubai Creek. Six Iranian men had hidden them in a compartment.

According to customs chief Ahmed Butti, initial examinations show that some of the pottery pieces, silver vessels, gold and silver coins, and jewelry date as far back as 3,000 B.C. Butti did not explain the delay in announcing the seizure, but said that experts from the British Museum would visit Dubai in January to examine the artifacts and determine their origins. They will then be returned to their rightful countries.