Amman - Jordanian police have foiled an attempt to sell a nearly 1 700-year-old naturally preserved mummy on the black market, the Jordan Times newspaper said on Sunday.
The paper, quoting police Brigadier Abdullah Hamadneh, said police in Balqa governate arranged a sting operation after they were tipped that several people were trying to sell mummies.
A police officer, posing as a potential buyer, met the suspects and agreed to pay 30 000 dinars (about R304 000) for the body. Police arrested the suspects at Baqaa Palestinian refugee camp when they turned up to make the exchange, the daily said.
The body, a male in his 40s, was excavated near the Dead Sea. It had not decomposed because of the high salinity of the soil in the area, the paper said.
The Jordan Times said primary tests by the department of antiquities showed that the man was likely to have lived between the third and fifth centuries after christ. - Reuters