RIYADH, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Saudi Arabia announced on Thursday the discovery of archaeological pieces dating back to the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD in the southwest of the Kingdom.
The Saudi Heritage Commission said that the pieces were discovered at archaeological sites on Farasan Island located around 40 km away from Jazan city, according to the Saudi Press Agency.
The discoveries were made by a joint Saudi-French team in cooperation with the Univesity of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne.
The team unveiled rare pieces, including a Roman folded armor made of copper ingots, and another kind of armor known as "Lorica Ssquamata", which is the most frequently used during the Roman era between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD.
The discoveries also included an inscription of garnet for "Genos," a famous Roman figure in the history of the eastern Roman empire, as well as finding a head of a small stone statue.
The Saudi-French team paid reconnaissance and exploratory trips to Farasan Island in 2005 and identified locations with archaeological indicators, before the start of surveys on the island in 2011.
Previous explorations on the island conducted between 2011 and 2020 led to several architectural and archaeological discoveries which show that these sites date back to almost 1400 BC. ■
