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By:
Luke
Harding
Her
name is Ruduamna, she is around 2,600 years
old, and she is soon to be the star exhibit in
Pakistan's crumbling, little-visited national
museum. But the mummified corpse of the
20-year-old Persian princess is now the
subject of a row between Iran and Pakistan as
to which country is her true owner.
The
Iranians claim Ruduamna is a member of Iran's
ancient royal family and should be returned as
soon as possible. They also insist she is not
a princess but a prince.
Pakistani
experts say the mummy's origins are not clear
and are carrying out tests to try to resolve
the mystery. An initial scan has revealed that
the mummy has no teeth and suffered 'severe
trauma' to her spine, which probably killed
her. Pakistani detectives recovered the
ancient mummy in October when they raided a
house in Quetta and arrested a local tribal
chieftain, Sardar Wali Reeki. They had earlier
received a tip-off that he owned several
valuable antiques. Reeki confessed he had
tried to sell the mummy on the international
black market for $50 million, but had only
been offered $1.1 million. He said the mummy
had been found 'some years ago' in Kharan, in
Pakistan's Balochistan province, after an
earthquake.
The
princess, swathed in decaying muslin, was
lying in an ornate wooden sarcophagus. Her
hands were crossed over a gold plate on her
chest, decorated with royal symbols, and she
had a gold crown on her head. The coffin had
inscriptions in Makhi cuneiform, a language
prevalent in Persia in 600BC. The inscriptions
read: 'I am the daughter of Xerxes, the great
King. I am Ruduamna.'
Iran
said the mummy had been stolen from Iran and
asked for Interpol's help in getting it back.
But Pakistan's Foreign Minister Abdus Sattar
said Pakistani officials were investigating
the mummy's provenance.
Meanwhile,
Pakistani officials have approached British
experts from Manchester Museum's Egyptology
department for advice on how best to display
the mummy.
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