[CPProt.net] Burial for Pakistan's fake mummy

[MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)]

Burial for Pakistan's fake mummy 
August 6, 2005
By Aamer Ahmed Khan 
BBC News, Karachi  


A "mummy" that duped archaeologists and nearly sparked a diplomatic row
between Pakistan and Iran is finally being laid to rest. 
Discovered in a wooden sarcophagus in October 2000, the mummy was thought to
be Persian and date to about 600BC. 

Iran laid claim to the sarcophagus and Pakistani provinces squabbled over it
until tests showed the "mummy" was a fake only a few decades old. 

A charity has now agreed to perform the last rites and bury the body. 

"No one is interested in it anymore," Rizwan Edhi, a spokesman for the Edhi
Foundation told the BBC news website. 

Mr Edhi said the charity had taken the decision to bury the fake mummy
because it could no longer afford to keep it. 

"It has cost us hundreds of thousands of rupees over the past three years
just to keep it in our mortuary," Mr Edhi said. 

He said the burial would take place after the local elections scheduled for
this month and next. 

Videotape 

While the mummy was not as old as thought, it has managed to rustle up an
interesting history in the five years since it was discovered. 


 No one is interested in it anymore 
Rizwan Edhi, 
Edhi Foundation  

Karachi police stumbled upon a video of the mummy in the course of a murder
investigation into a man called Ali Akbar. 

On being quizzed about the video, Ali Akbar told police the mummy was with a
Baloch tribesman in Quetta - the capital of Pakistan's south-western
Balochistan province, neighbouring Afghanistan. 

Police raided the house of the tribesman, recovered the mummy and brought it
to Karachi. 

They then contacted Pakistan's most experienced archaeologist, Professor
Ahmed Hasan Dani. 

Prof Dani said the cuneiform script on the gold plate indicated the mummy's
Persian roots. It may have been the daughter of ancient Persian King Xerxes,
he said. 

The Iranian Cultural Heritage Organisation immediately laid claim to the
artefact - declaring it a part of Iran's royal heritage. 

It threatened to mobilise Interpol to recover the mummy. 

The Taleban regime in Afghanistan also said it was interested in finding out
if the mummy had been found in Afghanistan. 

Meanwhile, the Balochistan government accused Sindh province of stealing its
archaeological treasures and demanded the mummy be returned to Quetta. 

It was left to Archaeology magazine to suggest it was a fake that had been
for sale on the black market for several months. 

Its "owners", the magazine said, had been offered $1.1m by a Western
collector. But the sale fell through because the asking price was closer to
$11m. 

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/4749861.stm