Dozens of ancient artifacts stolen by a former U.S. Army helicopter pilot were returned to the Egyptian government on Wednesday during a ceremony in Manhattan. Officials said the items, including several small urns on display at the ceremony, came from the Ma'adi archaeological site outside Cairo and date to 3,600 B.C. or earlier.

A U.S. Army helicopter pilot once stationed in Cairo will face charges of selling dozens of stolen Egyptian antiquities to a Texas art dealer, federal prosecutors said on Wednesday. According to the complaint, Johnson was stationed in Cairo in September 2002, when 370 pre-dynastic artifacts were stolen from the Ma'adi Museum near Cairo. The Ma'adi antiquities, which date to 3000 B.C. and earlier, had been excavated from an archeological site in Egypt during the 1920s to 1930s.