UP to 284 jars plundered from a shipwreck off the coast of Sihanoukville, Cambodia are ancient pottery dating between the 15th and 17th centuries.
According to reports in the Khmer Times, this was confirmed by the Ministry of Culture.
The jars were allegedly found and removed by a Vietnamese fisherman from the ship, but was not reported to the authorities at the time.
A police investigation later led to a raid on the Vietnamese national's home on Sept 27 where the jars were found and seized.
An investigation of the jars conducted by the Ministry of Culture and Department of Culture and Fine Arts from the Preah Sihanouk Province confirmed the jars were ancient artefacts.
Director of the Culture and Fine Arts Department of Preah Sihanouk province Buth Bupha said the inspection was conducted on Sept 29 by a team from the Ministry in collaboration with local authorities.
"After evaluation, the team concluded that the 284 jars were ancient relics dating back to between the 15th and 17th centuries," he said.
He said the culture department has kept the jars, with the aim of conducting further testing to learn more about them.
The Vietnamese national, identified as Le Van Huon, 42, allegedly extracted jars from the Ream Sea area between Takev island and Russey island and stored them at his home in Sihanoukville.
According to Provincial military police commander Brigadier General Heng Bunty, the jars were handed over to the Provincial Department of Culture to be kept as a national heritage.
He also confirmed that the suspect has been temporarily detained by the authorities while the case is ongoing.
A Preah Sihanouk province administration notice said the fisherman was arrested on Sunday after authorities determined that he was illegally keeping the 284 jars at his home.
It said that the man is an expert diver and had been spotted in the area of an underwater shipwreck in the Gulf of Thailand, off the coastal city of Sihanoukville, believed to be where the jars were retrieved.
Bupha added that in 2015, several hundred pieces of similar pottery were collected from a sunken Chinese ship off nearby Koh Kong island.
History professor Vong Sotheara said he could not say where the jars were made, or where they were on transit too.
However, he did say that the dating of the jars confirms that there was commercial activity in the area during that period of time.