The Islamic Republic is claiming that it owns the 2,500-year-old remains recently found in the western desert of Egypt.
The bones of an estimated 50 people were recently found in Egypt, report a pair of Italian archaeologists, who say the dead were part of the 50,000-man army of Persian King Cambyses that allegedly disappeared into thin air in 525 BCE while marching across the desert to suppress a rebellion.
But Egypt says the Italians had no license to explore in Egypt and that 50 skeletons don’t prove anything about a 50,000-man army.
Ahmad Khoshnevis, head of Iran’s Cultural Heritage Organization, seems to believe the Italian story, however.
He told the Iranian Labor News Agency Saturday, “According to international conventions, the artifacts belong to Iran and should be returned to this country. But Iran is ready to buy them if Egypt demands it.”
There is no such international convention as Khoshnevis asserts.