In October 2000, a mummified 2,600 year-old princess discovered by Pakistani resident
Ali Aqbar was put on the black market with a price tag of $11 million.
The Persian Princess had allegedly surfaced in a region close to Iran following an Earthquake.
The mummy was sent to Karachi National museum where it underwent vigorous analysis.
Experts from around the world gathered to discover the origins of this once in a life
time discovery.
Following a wave of publicity and meticulous investigation, the mummy was proved to be
not only an archaeological forgery, but possibly also the victim of a murder.
The Persian Princess was in fact the body of a 24-year-old woman who had been alive
and kicking 24 hours prior to her mummification.
In today’s episode of the Infographics show, we ask – Was the Persian Princess Mummy
actually a case of Murder?
Pakistani authorities were, in October 2000, alerted to watch a video tape made by Karachi
resident Ali Aqbar who had a mummy for sale on the black market for a cool $11 million.
The mummy had supposedly been found after an earthquake by his Iranian friend, and they’d
decided to sell the mummy and split the proceeds.
Aqbar Ali eventually led the police to where the mummy was held in storage in a region
bordering Iran and Afghanistan.
Police raided the property, seized the mummy, and brought it to Karachi National Museum
where officials inspected it.
Encased in its gilded wooden coffin set in a stone sarcophagus, the object looked authentic.
On the mummy’s head sat a gold crown embossed with seven cypress trees.
Gold trinkets were also laid in the coffin suggesting that the mummy was of royal or
noble blood.
It had been wrapped in Egyptian style, and ancient Persian inscriptions were written
on the sarcophagus.
On its breastplate proclaimed, “I am the daughter of the great King Xerxes.
Mazereka protect me.
I am Rhodugune, I am.”
All indications suggested that the mummified remains were 2,600 years old and belonged
to a Persian princess.
Both Aqbar and his Iranian accomplice were accused of violating the country’s Antiquities
Act, while experts from around the world gathered in a bid to try and claim ownership of the
mummy.
Curators were at first convinced that they had come across a once in a lifetime archaeological
find.
No remains of the Persian Royal family had ever been discovered, and mummified royalty
were not generally found in Iran.
Diplomatic tensions rose as both Iran and Pakistan sought to establish ownership of
the mummy.
The event was televised and written about in both academic and media circles.
A detailed examination by experts included CT scans, chemical testing, carbon dating,
and expert analysis of the written script.
A cut on the stomach of the body looked like a wound and dislocation or damage to the lower
vertebrae was possibly the cause of death.
The jaw of the woman had also been broken.
A hieroglyphics inscription across the chest of the woman read, “I am the King of this
Land,” alerting expert suspicion.
Also the wooden coffin was not as old as her body, and the mask was only about a hundred
years old – which was relatively recent considering the presumed age of the mummy.
Although the sarcophagus was carved with royal symbols, closer inspection revealed lead pencil
marks that had been made to guide the carving.
CT scans showed the mummy belonged to an adult woman no older than 24 and 4 foot 7 inches
in height.
All her internal organs had been removed (counter to the Egyptian method) and her stomach cavity
was filled with a powdery substance.
Chemical analysis suggested her body and hair had been bleached, and her abdomen had been
stuffed with modern drying agents such as sodium chloride and bicarbonate of soda.
Carbon dating revealed that the woman had died in 1996, four years prior to her discovery
as the ancient Persian princess mummy.
Asma Ibrahim, the curator of the National Museum in Karachi concluded that the object
was a fake.
Investigators believed the fraudsters took a fresh corpse from grave robbers in a burial
area between Pakistan and Iran.
They would have then removed the internal organs and dried out the body for a period
of months.
The intricate forgery would have taken several months and a team of scholars to execute.
A person with knowledge of anatomy and embalming techniques, a stone carver, a cabinet maker,
a goldsmith, and someone with a rudimentary knowledge of the ancient languages had to
have been involved in the fraud.
Also a facility to conduct the mummification and house all the chemicals would have been
required.
The act of mummification would have had to have occurred 24 hours after the woman’s
death, leading to the possibility of the Persian Princess being a modern day victim of murder.
In light of the museum’s evidence, the Pakistani police opened a murder investigation and interrogated
the middlemen involved with the original black market sale.
The woman, however, was never identified and the matter remains a cold case.
It will probably remain so, unless somebody with evidence steps forward and sheds some
light onto the curious case of the Persian Princess Mummy.
So what do you think?
Was the Persian Princess Mummy an elaborate hoax orchestrated for financial gain?
Or were more sinister criminal factors at play?
Enter your comments below and join in the discussion.
Also, be sure to watch our other video called Where could the Ark of the Covenant be?
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