In March 2000, Amanollah Riggi of New Jersey sent Oscar Muscarella from New York’s Metropolitan Museum 4 Polaroid photographs of what appeared to be a mummy, together with a translation of a cuneiform inscription that could be seen on the mummy’s gold breastplate. The translation, prepared by a ‘cuneiform expert at a major American university’, identified the mummy as the daughter of the fifth-century BC Achaemenid Persian King Xerxes. Riggi claimed to be acting on behalf of a Pakistani acquaintance, and said that the mummy was available for purchase.
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| The Persian Mummy |
The mummy itself was subjected to an exhaustive investigation led by Asma Ibrahim, the curator of the National Museum of Pakistan. The embalmed body was lying on a reed mat with a stone cover, and had been placed inside a carved wooden sarcophagus. But as the investigation progressed, doubts about the authenticity of the mummy began to accumulate. Although the sarcophagus was carved with royal symbols, closer examination revealed lead pencil marks that had been made to guide the carving.
In an 11-page report, he said: "After detailed studies, it is quite evident that this object is modern and a fake. A cut on the body over the region of the stomach looked like a wound. Dislocation or damage of the lower vertebrae could be the cause of death." The jaw of the woman is also believed to be broken. It was thought that the mummy was Iranian. Even top archaeologist Dr Ahmed Hasan Dani was deceived. He said that since Iran did not have mummies, this particular mummy must have started its journey from Egypt and probably came to Iran from there. However, Dr Ibrahim said that it was a fake.
They ran x-rays and ultrasounds on her to find out that she was not a grown woman as the princess, daughter of King Xerxes, was expected to be around 21 years of age at least. Her bone structure was not that developed either and proved to be of someone around the age of 16. Further investigations showed physical injuries where her spinal column had been broken into two. She had not died a natural death. On removing her casing they also found blond hair, which had turned golden and grey because of ageing chemicals. She was not ancient at all; she was someone who had died in 1996.
Meanwhile, the mystery of Princess of Persia "mummy" has been shifted from museum to morgue. In the process, she has had to suffer the humiliation of being demoted from "princess" to "object" in the words of museum officials and her real identity remain unsolved.
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